This page walks you through a first sort, from an unsorted folder to a clean tree. Allow a few minutes; nothing is written to disk until the last step.
The column on the left of the window follows the steps of this page: Collection, Selection (Filters, then Languages and 1G1R), Output, then Results. The buttons at the bottom (Simulate (Dry-Run), Start Sorting...) stay available from each of them.
System Volume Information,
Thumbs.db...) are skipped; so are the folders that cannot
be read and the links to a folder, which the log reports.The destination may be neither the source itself, nor a parent of the source, nor (with a recursive scan) a folder inside the source. RomSieve refuses these combinations to protect your files.
A DAT file is the official catalog of a collection (TOSEC, No-Intro or Redump), with the name and the checksums of each ROM. With a DAT, RomSieve identifies your files by their checksum, whatever their name, and can tell you which ROMs are missing. Without a DAT, it relies on the file names alone.
In the Collection step, DAT catalogue frame, click Browse... next to File. A summary appears below the field (name, version, number of ROMs), and the badge next to Convention, in the same frame, shows the detected convention.
See Naming conventions and DAT files for details.
In the Output step:
_01 suffix, skip, or overwrite.{publisher}/{year}/{title}/ (TOSEC default) or
{country}/{title}/ (Presets menu, Country /
Title (No-Intro, Redump)). The preview, at the bottom of the
Directory tree frame, shows where a few files of the source
would go.See Destination and transfers.
See Filters and Languages, regions and 1G1R.
Click Simulate (Dry-Run). The window switches to the Results step: RomSieve analyzes the source and fills the Simulation Preview table with one row per file: its title, its status and the path where it would be written. Nothing is written to disk.
The banner above the table counts the files by status; click a chip to show only those rows:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Kept (Valid) | Will be written to the destination. |
| Excluded | Removed by a filter or by 1G1R; the reason is shown. Left untouched in the source. |
| Non-conforming (Unmatched) | Name not understood, or file absent from the DAT. Will go to
_unmatched/ in the destination. |
| Duplicates | Same file found twice. Left untouched in the source. |
Check a few rows, go back to the settings (Change the settings, or a step of the column on the left) to change a setting if needed, and simulate again: a second simulation of the same source highlights what changed. See The simulation table.
Once the simulation is over, Start Sorting is put forward and a sentence sums up what the sort will do, for example "Copy 11 files + 1 non-conforming (14.61 MB) to D:\Retro\Amiga\Sorted". Changing a setting hides this summary until the next simulation.
Click Start Sorting. RomSieve asks for a confirmation summarizing the source, the destination and the mode. If the destination is not empty, RomSieve adds the files to it when Add to a non-empty destination is checked; otherwise it offers to purge it first. The purged content is set aside, not deleted: see Safety, purge and undo. To sort only a few games, check them or filter the table and use Sort the Checked Games Shown, in the menu of the arrow next to Start Sorting: see Sorting part of the simulation.
While the sort runs, a progress bar, the number of files processed and the remaining time are shown above the buttons, and every operation is written to the Operation Log tab of the Results step, shown when the sort starts. The Simulate (Dry-Run) button becomes Stop: it interrupts the sort cleanly, the file being written is removed and the source is never touched.
Undo Last Sort reverses the last real sort: moved files go back to their original place, copies, links and playlists are deleted, and purged content is put back. A file you modified after the sort is never deleted.