I have accumulated, from my time using Windows a good quantity of held-over filesystem copies and archives of system and data drives. I am trying to distill them down to the usable parts while discarding everything that is likely to be valueless.
From watching a bunch of said files scroll by while copying, once again, from a holding drive to a work drive I think I've got a starter list of "good" and "useless" files started, but I was wondering if there is any authoritative kind of list of files (coming from a previously Windows environment) that should be discarded immediately as unuseful?
Winners: (I know this list would likely turn into a mess if any effort were made to make it comprehensive, so these aren't what I'm looking for, unless they would likely be surrounded by crap that might get them destroyed inadvertently) (edit: If the ONLY way is a super-comprehensive white-list-based method, so be it. I'd prefer if that weren't the case, but beggars can't be choosers… most of the time.)
*.tar.*, *.rar, *.zip
*.mp(e)g, *.avi, *.mkv, *.wmv, *.asf
Losers: (These are what I'm really looking for)
*.exe, *.bat, *.dll, *.com, *.lnk
I also know there will be exceptions. Like installer .exe files, used to install something in Wine. For purposes of this question, this concern isn't one. All the files in question are copies (of copies, possibly of even more copies), so the installers I really want to keep are somewhere nice, safe, and probably write-protected.
Best Answer
Probably the simplest way to weed out the trash would be by the created or last-modified date (you might need to experiment to determine which one's better) - just use the date the system was installed as a starting point.
According to Pareto principle that simple filter will probably get you 80% of the effect you are seeking.
(Of course, you may, or even should, combine this one with the black & white lists you have started to assemble.)