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Fill disc to maximum capacity


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About 10+ years ago, I remember using a freeware utility that would look at the amount of free space on the disc of your choice and then determine which files from a directory would best be used to completely fill up the remaining space on that disc. It would actually go so far as to copy (or move) files from the directory to that disc.

I'm not so interested in the copy/move function as much as I am in the program being able to produce a list of files that I can then manually copy to a DVD or CD. I use Nero to do this kind of copying, and the only way I can get even remotely close to filling up the disc is by trial and error: selecting a bunch of files, seeing if they fill up the disc, then adding/removing files until I get a combination that is somewhat close.

Does anyone here happen to have an AutoIt script that they've created that would do this? Or is this one that someone can create? I'm afraid if I sat down to this task, I'd end up writing a script that would take hours to generate a list. And I really have no clue as to how to accomplish it either.

If anyone can help out, I'd greatly appreciate it.

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Need more info.

Are you looking to test the capacity of optical media?

Are you expecting the script to copy existing files from your hard drive (insecure)?

Do you want to generate files to fill the requirement for a certain size?

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Need more info.

Are you looking to test the capacity of optical media?

Are you expecting the script to copy existing files from your hard drive (insecure)?

Do you want to generate files to fill the requirement for a certain size?

I think he means to select from a list of files to be burned so that as much capacity is used on each disc as possible. If there is enough data to take many discs, that might reduce the total number required?

:)

Valuater's AutoIt 1-2-3, Class... Is now in Session!For those who want somebody to write the script for them: RentACoder"Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced." -- Geek's corollary to Clarke's law
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PsaltyDS is correct. I just want to cut down on the amount of wasted space that comes from human interaction. If the script can copy the files to the CD or DVD, that'd be great. But I know it's not always easily done without going through another program first like Roxio or Nero or something similar. So, I'm willing to do all that part if the script can just create a list for me to go by. The script would just need to read the target drive to see how much space is available on the disc, because the disc may not always be completely empty.

Edited by Styler001
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PsaltyDS is correct. I just want to cut down on the amount of wasted space that comes from human interaction. If the script can copy the files to the CD or DVD, that'd be great. But I know it's not always easily done without going through another program first like Roxio or Nero or something similar. So, I'm willing to do all that part if the script can just create a list for me to go by. The script would just need to read the target drive to see how much space is available on the disc, because the disc may not always be completely empty.

I dont know how to do this with autoit, but the way to do it manually is to sort your files by size. Add your biggest file to the disk. Select the next largest file that will still fit, etc until you fill it up, or have no more files small enough to fit on the disk. So follow that logic with your script and you should be able to do it.

I would find the file size of all files in the directory. Sort the size and then just run a function that checks from highest to lowest and adds the file if it will fit.

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I used to use a freeware application several years ago that could sort files into certain selected media size perfectly in barely a second or two. I fail to remember it's name now. This application here called SizeMe looks similar and perhaps worth trying out.

:)

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I know it doesn't answer any questions about doing it with AutoIt, but I use a program called Ignition. CopyToDVD is required for either CD burning or making ISO images, but I use Ignition for the optimized file list, anyway (which is exportable to a text file).

So...perhaps AutoIt could be used in conjunction with Ignition and Nero to burn your discs efficiently.

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Thanks, GMK and MHz. Those both look promising. I don't know how you guys found them. I'd done all combinations of search phrases in Google I could think of, and all I could come up with was one program from 1994 for use with 1.44 and 2.88 meg floppies.

I'll give those two a try.

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I guess I could have made this an edit in my last post, but if anyone else is watching this thread, I wanted them to see that I had something new to contribute to it.

Using SizeMe and Ignition on the same directory full of more files than what would fit on a single CD, both programs came up with exactly the same results for filling the discs to as nearly full as possible. And they both look like they'll do the copying for your. So, the only question now is which one to use.

Thanks again for the input guys. At another site where I asked about some program like those two, I got reamed by one idiot because he couldn't find any programs like them, so therefore they didn't exist.

Maybe when I'm feeling smart someday I'll give the AutoIt option a go. My head hurts already just thinking about it. :)

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hiya

Not sure if you still interested in this issue....but there is a open source program i've been using for a while...its called "Burn to the Brim".

Website : http://bttb.sourceforge.net/overview.html

Allows you to select the folder as well as the medium you want to copy to, then allows you to move the folder to another location based on its results.

Can either create iso file or just move the files.

These folders are then ready to burn to discs with minimum wastage.

All the best!

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