How to remove empty folders from drives that doesn't keep any data?

[Ac3M]

I'm curious how to do this as my data is constantly being shifted between drives thanks to certain apps that update stuff, and I'm left with a crap-ton of empty folders that sometimes takes forever to move (Among these battalions of empty folders are some that still contains data) in some cases when there's something wrong with a drive whether it's glitching, bad connection or some file system error and it's at 100 % usage and to then have it copying/moving some 20k empty folders isn't smooth, especially if you're having issues with BSOD and such. Sometimes it freezes and doesn't move for minutes, sometimes even hours.

 

I'd like DrivePool to remove these if they're no longer in use - How do I make this happen?

Didn't find any topic (I looked) that matches this, so sorry if I've created a duplicate question.

[Shane]

It's come up a few times over the years. This post mentions reasons why DP might leave empty (and "empty") folders, while this post mentions a really neat trick with robocopy that can be used to clean them up if you decide you want them gone anyway - note that if you use it but you've got any empty folders you actually want to keep you'll have to exclude them somehow (e.g. via the /XD switch). Hope that helps.

[zzwindsor]

I've been using Czkawka. Select individual disks (not the pool) in "Folder to Search" and then run "Empty Directories" and delete them all.

My workflow has been:

- Run Drivepool balancing by space used

- Stop Drivepool service

- Run Czkawka Empty Directories

- Run SnapRaid Sync/Touch/Scrub

- Start Drivepool service

It's been working pretty well. You can also create a .bat to make it even easier.

[marquis6461]

I use Remove Empty Directories from this website https://www.jonasjohn.de/red.htm

You can use the simple method with the GUI.  I just select the PoolPart for each of the drives.  

Scan it and delete.  Since I only use the Main Drive letter I must assign a temporary Drive letter to each partition.

I use it because sometimes the directory has sensitive information in the label.  Once a month is good enough.

[Ac3M]

I've been busy with other things so sorry for the late reply.

I appreciate the replies with suggestions, but I think that perhaps the developers should, I dunno, do something about it?

It can literary take hours to remove an "empty" drive just because of this, and failing drives can be very time sensitive. I don't know if these empty folders would impede moving files, but if it does, it's horrible.

Seeing as how there are several options for various functions for the app itself, not to mention the plugins, I fail to see why there can't be something that cleans up empty folders just as well, setting or plugin.

I see this as a sort of cancer. If I plug in a set of new drives, DP goes to town to re-balance the pool, meaning it'll move stuff between old and new, and once again, as evident, leave empty folders behind...