File dates are unreliable...

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jeff
  • Start date Start date
J

Jeff

We store a ton of resumes on one of two machines linked
via router. Most are MS Word docs.

In many cases the Date Created and Date Modified
displayed in Windows Explorer is wrong. Often the Date
Created post-dates the Date Modified.

The incorrect dates also appear in the document
Properties.

One thing that seems to lead to bogus dates is when we
run a parsing engine against them to extract information
for our Applicant Tracking System. But this is not the
only case where we see incorrect dates.

My question is -- what causes bogus dates... and is there
a way to get the correct dates back?
 
The Date Created is the date that file was created on that file system. So,
if I create a file here today, and then copy it up to a server tomorrow, the
Date Created for that file on the server tomorrow will be tomorrow, and not
the date that I originally created the file here on my local file system.

Date Modified should be persisted, depending on what your parser does. The
only time this changes is if you actually save changes to a file to trigger
the creation of an updated date.

If you need to track exact creation dates and versions, the NTFS metadata
isn't going to provide you with exactly what you are looking for. You should
look for a document management system (I use SourceSafe, since I am a
developer) that can track the date originally created and each modification
thereafter.
 
Chris... thanks for you comments.

These docs (resumes) remain on the same machine. We don't
move them.... other than occasionally from one folder to
another.

In any event... I will see if I verify that the "Date
Modified" is a reliable sorce for the "Date Saved". But
in many cases I do reformat a resume after it is first
saved... so we're left without a reliable "Date Saved" in
this case.

Any other ideas on what the cause of the flakey dates
could be?

jeff
 
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