Please help Vista won't sort arrange files in the way i want

Mik77

And it's driving me mad.

Basically I have about 100 short video files from our safari holiday last year and want to arrange them in date order, to allow me to start editing them.

I've changed the list to 'details' and right clicked the columns for the options, however when I select date taken, Vista just makes the column blank, the only time it will put info into the column is date modified, or date added. This then just puts the files in the order they were transferred from the camcorder to the pc. (ie last week).

My old pc with xp arranged them in the way i want without any fuss. It seems Vista is trying to give too many options but for my basic knowledge is too much. There must be a way to arrange the files in the right order.

thanks for anyone who can help

aliEnRIK

Its looking like when you put the pics into Vista, it MODIFIED them in some way (probably dependant on the software used) and so theres nothing you can do without renaming them and sorting them out one by one

Mik77

I just dragged and dropped it straight over from the video camera, so the files have the exact same names as what the video camera named them. The thing is though for some reason the video camera started off sequentially, say, vid001, however after about 20 files, it then sticks a letter, say A into the next file, eg, vidA001, if I sort by name the files won't stay in the time order.

Its vista being awkward, (and me being thick I think), I can connect the camcorder, and locate the files from there, Vista keeps all the options, such as date taken etc. However like I say when they're transferred across, Vista doesn't pick up that data, and changes it to the date it was put onto Vista.

Mik77

I'm bumping this as I've tried deleting files and putting them back on from the camcorder and it's still the same!!

krysus

Can you not add more columns to Explorer to sort on?

I.e. right click the column headers, and select more fields to show - i.e. the ones with the data off the camcorder (e.g. recorded date)? Like you can do for MP3's to show title / artist / etc.?

Then sort on that column?

Mik77

I've tried this, adding various other columns such as date modified, date created etc, however it loses the data once it's transfered over from the video camera therefore loses the order inwhich they transfered over.

Rock_Bottom

I found that out too with Vista ... when they are in "list" order they sometimes sort themselves out alphabetically.

Mik77

it's really annoying, as i'm trying to make a video/slide show but i'm using clips from my mobile phone/camera and video camera. each has there own prefix before the file so sorting in alpha order doesnt work. this didnt pose a problem with xp so cant understand why vista would create the problem

SJames_3

Could always use an Explorer replacement. I've used xplorer2 (and 2xplorer as it was known) since I first started using XP, never quite got on with the XP Explorer, but I find the Vista Explorer exceptionally useless. :mad:

Rock_Bottom

Rename all the files you wish to use and in the order you wish to use them, drag and drop them into another folder ... again in the order you wish to use them - it may or may not work but worth a shot.

Mik77

I could but there's in excess of one hundred files, plus we now have our first child and have begun to take video footage of him.

It's important to me that the vid clips of him are in the right sequential order, and whilst I could name each and every file by a number/etc, the task would be time consuming and I also think unessesary given that i'm using a machine which is supposed to do this for me.

it's really frustrating that vista is losing the info when the files are transfered from camera to pc, it doesn't do this with image files, just video clips.