From Newsgroup: uk.d-i-y


Once upon a time (around 2009) I wrote a utility to convert data from Pocosystems Barca 2 email program from its native format to (I think)
Access.

It included a rather nifty process for mapping data from the old DB to the new, my first excursion in drag and drop. I have a use for that now and started to look for it, I'm a hoarder, never throw anything away. There
are 277,346 files on my D drive but a search for all the names I might
have used reveals zilch.

I dug out my DVD RAM discs, converted from those in a caddy to not in a
caddy by the simple expedient of breaking them out of the caddy. Wasn't
sure what would happen but stuck it in to a u13 LG USB3 DVD reader,
plugged into my Windows PC, bit of grinding and there was the contents
dated 2001!

Too early for the file I was looking for but testament to the DVD RAM
format and a cheapo DVD reader :-)
--
Jeff Gaines Dorset UK
Remember, the Flat Earth Society has members all around the globe.
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From Newsgroup: uk.d-i-y

On Sat, 8/30/2025 6:25 AM, Jeff Gaines wrote:

Once upon a time (around 2009) I wrote a utility to convert data from Pocosystems Barca 2 email program from its native format to (I think) Access.

It included a rather nifty process for mapping data from the old DB to the new, my first excursion in drag and drop. I have a use for that now and started to look for it, I'm a hoarder, never throw anything away. There are 277,346 files on my D drive but a search for all the names I might have used reveals zilch.

I dug out my DVD RAM discs, converted from those in a caddy to not in a caddy by the simple expedient of breaking them out of the caddy. Wasn't sure what would happen but stuck it in to a -u13 LG USB3 DVD reader, plugged into my Windows PC, bit of grinding and there was the contents dated 2001!

Too early for the file I was looking for but testament to the DVD RAM format and a cheapo DVD reader :-)

Needs a classifier that is better than a "this EXE is a PE32 and that EXE is PE32+".

There are utilities that can determine "percentage Delphi, percentage Watcom compiler"
and so on. Such a utility stands a better chance of identifying the item.

You can see a reference to such things, on virustotal.com entries.

I can start with a Xananews installer, and get the Virustotal page for it.

https://github.com/graemeg/xananews/releases # xananews_32bit_v1.21.zip

Name: XanaNews.exe
Size: 4073984 bytes (3978 KiB)
SHA256: BC4E157D7B4FDFD90DDFEFFA4AB417BB57E0566706BA404C1C9A0CCD726E2A25

https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/bc4e157d7b4fdfd90ddfeffa4ab417bb57e0566706ba404c1c9a0ccd726e2a25/details

TrID Inno Setup installer (42.4%) # The file is an installer, so naturally the fingerprint is conflicted
Windows Control Panel Item (generic) (22.7%)
Win32 EXE PECompact compressed (generic) (16.4%)
Windows screen saver (5.1%)
Win64 Executable (generic) (4.1%)

DetectItEasy PE32 Linker: Turbo Linker (2.25*,Delphi) [GUI32]
Compiler: Embarcadero Delphi (XE) [Enterprise] <=== the installer is not all Delphi,
but it still detected the "theme"

So then, "TrID" and "DetectItEasy" are examples of tools that could
classify all the executables in the collection.

*******

https://mark0.net/soft-trid-e.html

https://github.com/horsicq/DIE-engine/releases # DetectItEasy, scroll down for Windows portable for W7--W11
# Yes, you must use a modern browser.

I don't know the details for running a scan on a lot of
files, and you may want a way of limiting the number of items
they scan. If it takes 11 seconds each and 200,000 files, it could
take a while.

And the reason you're doing this, is to look for things that contain
compiler references you've used in the past for making home tools.

You could also look for telltale file extensions of the source files.
For example, Agent Ransack accepts REGEX during file searches (mythicsoftware.com , their free one).

\.c$ # all the C language source
cpp$ # The C++ source
jar$ # Java jar files

And so on. While Windows federated search has some extension search capability, it may not be enough.

Paul
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From Newsgroup: uk.d-i-y

On 30 Aug 2025 10:25:40 GMT, "Jeff Gaines" <jgnewsid@outlook.com>
wrote:

Once upon a time (around 2009) I wrote a utility to convert data from >Pocosystems Barca 2 email program from its native format to (I think) >Access.

It included a rather nifty process for mapping data from the old DB to the >new, my first excursion in drag and drop. I have a use for that now and >started to look for it, I'm a hoarder, never throw anything away. There
are 277,346 files on my D drive but a search for all the names I might
have used reveals zilch.

I dug out my DVD RAM discs, converted from those in a caddy to not in a >caddy by the simple expedient of breaking them out of the caddy. Wasn't
sure what would happen but stuck it in to a u13 LG USB3 DVD reader,
plugged into my Windows PC, bit of grinding and there was the contents
dated 2001!

Too early for the file I was looking for but testament to the DVD RAM
format and a cheapo DVD reader :-)

Simple, non-techie me, uses the free "Agent Ransack" to search for
files on all drives. It uses various text searches and also Regex.
Excuse me if I'm not understanding the question.
--

Mike
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From Newsgroup: uk.d-i-y

On 01/09/2025 in message <fqhabk133jfd2opqs5f7v98bvc0hs836o6@4ax.com> Mike Halmarack wrote:

Too early for the file I was looking for but testament to the DVD RAM >>format and a cheapo DVD reader :-)

Simple, non-techie me, uses the free "Agent Ransack" to search for
files on all drives. It uses various text searches and also Regex.
Excuse me if I'm not understanding the question.

No, that's spot on :-)

Now if I could only remember what I might have called the file 18 years ago!
--
Jeff Gaines Dorset UK
You can't tell which way the train went by looking at the tracks
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From Newsgroup: uk.d-i-y

On 01/09/2025 08:15, Mike Halmarack wrote:

On 30 Aug 2025 10:25:40 GMT, "Jeff Gaines" <jgnewsid@outlook.com>
wrote:

Once upon a time (around 2009) I wrote a utility to convert data from
Pocosystems Barca 2 email program from its native format to (I think)
Access.

It included a rather nifty process for mapping data from the old DB to the >> new, my first excursion in drag and drop. I have a use for that now and
started to look for it, I'm a hoarder, never throw anything away. There
are 277,346 files on my D drive but a search for all the names I might
have used reveals zilch.

I dug out my DVD RAM discs, converted from those in a caddy to not in a
caddy by the simple expedient of breaking them out of the caddy. Wasn't
sure what would happen but stuck it in to a -u13 LG USB3 DVD reader,
plugged into my Windows PC, bit of grinding and there was the contents
dated 2001!

Too early for the file I was looking for but testament to the DVD RAM
format and a cheapo DVD reader :-)

Simple, non-techie me, uses the free "Agent Ransack" to search for
files on all drives. It uses various text searches and also Regex.
Excuse me if I'm not understanding the question.

FINDSTR is in most Windows installs.

Run it from a command prompt. FINDSTR /? shows the parameters. You can
use it to find likely words/expressions in your program. You can do
recursive searches down the directories. I don't how well it works and
how fast it is as I use grep on Unix type OSes now. It saves having to
install anything.

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From Newsgroup: uk.d-i-y

On 01/09/2025 08:45, Jeff Gaines wrote:

On 01/09/2025 in message <fqhabk133jfd2opqs5f7v98bvc0hs836o6@4ax.com> Mike Halmarack wrote:

Too early for the file I was looking for but testament to the DVD RAM
format and a cheapo DVD reader :-)

Simple, non-techie me, uses the free "Agent Ransack" to search for
files on all drives. It uses various text searches and also Regex.
Excuse me if I'm not understanding the question.

No, that's spot on :-)

Now if I could only remember what I might have called the file 18 years ago!

If you're fairly sure that you haven't amended the file since, could you
not limit the search to all files created between say 2008 and 2010?
Once listed, copy them to a temporary folder and search through the
contents in turn for "Barca" and/or "Access". Even if they were *.exe
files, you /might/ have left a comment which included those words.
--
Jeff
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