# Is there any way to take a 'Snapshot' of whats on my hard drive?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-to-take-a-snapshot-of-whats-on-my-hard-drive/234450
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 15, 2004, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-to-take-a-snapshot-of-whats-on-my-hard-drive/234450 "2004-03-15T16:29:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2004, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-to-take-a-snapshot-of-whats-on-my-hard-drive/234450/1 "2004-03-15T16:29:43Z")
I am wondering if there is anyway to take a snap-shot maybe a screen shot? of what is on my hard drive? I’m moving some computer’s around and I want to have a list to go by so I don’t forget to install anything that is already there? Thanks Techy Guru’s you guys and gals always give the best advice!
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### Author:  [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2004, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-to-take-a-snapshot-of-whats-on-my-hard-drive/234450/2 "2004-03-15T17:08:12Z")
Do you mean a file listing of all files on a hard drive?
If so, then at the c: prompt, type
dir /s \> filelist.txt
This will generate a complele file list of all files and directories and place the results in a text file called filelist.txt. Be forewarned that if you have a large hard drive and it’s pretty well filled, generating the filelist.txt file will take time. On a 60 GB hard drive that is half full, it took almost a minute and generated a 13 MB text file!
Or, you can go to the Control Panel and read all the Add/Removed programs listed. This is not a surefire method as some errant programs are not listed here when installed.
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### Author:  [@bashere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bashere)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2004, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-to-take-a-snapshot-of-whats-on-my-hard-drive/234450/3 "2004-03-15T17:18:11Z")
You might want to consider dropping the money to buy a migration utility. I would recommend Move Me by SpearIt software ( [http://www.spearit.com/about\_MoveMe.html](http://www.spearit.com/about_MoveMe.html))
in the interests of full disclosure, while I am in no way related to Spearit software, I did work with the author of the software about 6 years ago.
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### Author:  [@Daizy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daizy)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2004, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-to-take-a-snapshot-of-whats-on-my-hard-drive/234450/4 "2004-03-15T17:25:06Z")
Along with the excellent advice already given, if you do indeed just want a screen shot…
Open the page you want a picture of, click on PrtSc on your keyboard, then open Paint and go up to Edit…then paste. Save your file with the .jpg extension.
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### Author:  [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2004, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-to-take-a-snapshot-of-whats-on-my-hard-drive/234450/5 "2004-03-15T18:19:44Z")
To get a disk image, you could look at Ghost, now owned by Symantec. It will copy your hard drive to a (very large) file, then you can restore onto a new drive, ready to boot and run, with no re-installation needed. You do need to swap drives around.
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### Author:  [@the\_keek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_keek)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2004, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-to-take-a-snapshot-of-whats-on-my-hard-drive/234450/6 "2004-03-15T18:43:54Z")
There is also a download Belarc Advisor that will list everything on your hard. I used it awhile ago when I had to reformat. It was very helpful.
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### Author:  [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2004, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-to-take-a-snapshot-of-whats-on-my-hard-drive/234450/7 "2004-03-15T19:04:28Z")
This is precisely what digital cameras are for. I’d suggest a +4 macro lens and a ring light. You’ll have to remove the case from the hard drive to view the platters. A dremel tool will work, however if you don’t feel the need to finesse things, a bandsaw will do the job.
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### Author:  [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2004, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-to-take-a-snapshot-of-whats-on-my-hard-drive/234450/8 "2004-03-15T19:14:22Z")
Now whaty didn’t I think of that! my digi, and my dremel. Ok! I’m off! Thanks!
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### Author:  [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2004, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-to-take-a-snapshot-of-whats-on-my-hard-drive/234450/9 "2004-03-15T19:34:27Z")
If you’re looking for a good point and click “file explorer”-style program, I suggest a shareware app called WonDirPrint. Among its many features, you can select (for print output) only your pertinent directories; conversely, it allows you to omit certain directories, like C:\Windows, which could take up a ream of paper in itself.
It’s not perfect, but it’s served me well for quite some time. Importantly, the built-in help is relatively straightforward. Works on W95/98/ME, 2000 and XP.
The program is now out of production, but I’ve found you a link. Go [here](http://www.filelibrary.com/Contents/Windows/133/30.html) to get it. The ZIP file is pretty far down the page, so either Edit|Find… {wondirprint} or {1068}, which represents its archive number. (When you search on the page, please omit the curly brackets.)
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### Author:  [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2004, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-to-take-a-snapshot-of-whats-on-my-hard-drive/234450/10 "2004-03-15T22:14:41Z")
This is kind of off-the-wall, but if you really wanted to make an image of your ENTIRE hard disk drive, down to the individual sector level on the drive, including deleted files, I reccomend EnCase. It would actually copy the ENTIRE drive layout for you.
Web site here: [http://www.guidancesoftware.com/](http://www.guidancesoftware.com/)
Disclosure: No relationship to software maker.
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### Author:  [@galt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galt)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2004, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-way-to-take-a-snapshot-of-whats-on-my-hard-drive/234450/11 "2004-03-16T00:05:38Z")
I like the “dir /s \> filelist.txt” approach, but I don’t like the style of the output. In the interest of providing a simple solution using built-in tools, try “attrib /s \> filelist.txt”, which will give you output like this:
```auto
A C:\WINDOWS\Fonts\couri.ttf
A C:\WINDOWS\Fonts\CURLZ___.TTF
A SH C:\WINDOWS\Fonts\desktop.ini
H C:\WINDOWS\Fonts\dos737.fon
H C:\WINDOWS\Fonts\dosapp.fon
H C:\WINDOWS\Fonts\ega40737.fon
```
It has the extraneous attribute flags at the beginning of each line, but I like that each file listing has the full path, so it’s easier to scan through the list and find the directories you’re looking for.
It’s a shame “dir” doesn’t have an option for this style of output. If you look, I’m sure you can find a windows version of Gnu “ls” which would do this, but for quick and easy, attrib works fine.