batch resizing of jpegs

[Bob M]

I have almost 40,000 jpegs (in about 1500 folders) that I wish to resize.  In principle, I could use PM, but good though it is, I don't think it is really the right tool for this job.  I was thinking of using the Windows version of ImageMagick with the job being directed by a perl script.  Does anyone have any comments as to whether this approach is sensible or suggestions for a better approach?

thanks
Bob M

(I am running Windows xp with the jpegs residing on a network attached storage device.)

[rswinter]

Before I started using PM, I used PSE to do this type of thing.  There is a "Process Multiple Files", that will resize and save,  just need to give it a Directory to start with.

Is there a reason you don't think PM is the correct tool for this job?  While I've never done that many files, opening them in one (or a few if the directoies aren't contiguous) contact sheet and using the "Save As" has worked pretty well for me in the past. 

If your 1500 directories are not contiguous or hierarchical then I could see a problem...

-Stephen

[Bob M]

The issue is just the total number of jpegs (and in many cases their associated tifs, raws, and xmps), the total size of all of these files -- ~200GB, and the speed of my network attached storage.  I suspect that if tried to do it in one go using PM, my system would choke (but it might not be obvious for a while).  Certainly I could do it if I broke it down into small enough chunks.  But it seemed to me that the ImageMagick solution might be easier.  Once I set it up, it could just chew away; I suspect that the whole job would take several tens of hours.

Bob M