Automator or Applescript to Rename Subfolders and Files

Question

I have 200 Gigs of files that need to be moved from a Mac's internal drive onto an external non-mac formatted drive for storage (Buffalo TeraStation). Obviously there is an issue with illegal characters in some of my filenames and folder names. I was able to create a workflow in Automator to replace illegal characters in the Filenamnes and nested filenames with the characters of my choice however it did not work for the Sub Folder names. Does anyone know if this is possible in Automator? If not, is there someone out there who can write a script for such a process?
Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

Scott,
Here is an AppleScript which can be placed in an Automator "Run AppleScript" action to do what you are want.
Click on the link to move the script into Script Editor. Then select all, copy and paste into a "Run AppleScript" action in Automator. Make sure to completely replace all of the text in the action i.e., don't just replace the (* Your script goes here *).
The find and replace characters are found in the properties at the top of the script so they can be adjusted to what you need. I also have a routine that will replace multiple illegal characters with a single legal character if you need that type of flexibility.
This action should be proceeded by an action that will supply an alias such as "Get Specified Finder Items".
click here to open this script in your editor<pre style="font-family: 'Monaco', 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; overflow:auto; color: #222; background: #DDD; padding: 0.2em; font-size: 10px; width:400px">property theIllegalCharacter : "/"
property theReplacementCharacter : "_"
on run {input, parameters}
tell application "Finder"
set theFinderWindow to make new Finder window
set current view of theFinderWindow to column view
set target of theFinderWindow to item 1 of input
set theIllegallyNamedSubFolders to folders of entire contents of target of theFinderWindow whose name contains theIllegalCharacter
set theIllegallyNamedFiles to files of entire contents of target of theFinderWindow whose name contains theIllegalCharacter
repeat with thisFile in theIllegallyNamedFiles
set (name of thisFile) to my RemoveIllegalNamingCharacters(name of thisFile, theIllegalCharacter, theReplacementCharacter)
end repeat
repeat with thisFolder in theIllegallyNamedSubFolders
set (name of thisFolder) to my RemoveIllegalNamingCharacters(name of thisFolder, theIllegalCharacter, theReplacementCharacter)
end repeat
end tell
return input
end run
to RemoveIllegalNamingCharacters(theName, IllegalCharacter, ReplacementCharacter)
set theNewName to ""
set theCharacterCount to (length of theName)
repeat with i from 1 to (length of theName)
if (character i of theName) is equal to IllegalCharacter then
set theNewName to theNewName & ReplacementCharacter
else
set theNewName to theNewName & character i of theName
end if
end repeat
return theNewName
end RemoveIllegalNamingCharacters
</pre>
PowerBook 12"   Mac OS X (10.4.7)