Finding files matching certain criteria

Question

I'm cleaning out an old external hard drive and want to be able to find files matching certain conditions. How do I exclude files containing certain strings in there names? I've tried using !~ but it seems that it can only take one string. Also is there a way I can specify date ranges?

For example I want to see all files created in the last 6 months that do not contain "backup" or "recovery".

FWIW I can connect it to a Windows 7 or 8 computer.

Answer 1

There may be an easier way to do it (that I'm unaware of), but I'll throw in a tool that can search files taking into account based on the attributes you mentioned; you will simply create your filters using logical operators, built-in functions and so on. You can grab Everything Search Engine here: http://www.voidtools.com/. See the filtering options here: http://www.voidtools.com/support/everything/searching/.

It is compatible inclusively with Windows 8. Hope this helps.