What do you use to erase duplicated files ?

[bench988]

I have been true believer of backups, but, not organized. Now I have lots of floppy (even 5 1/4" disk), cd and even backup files in the harddisk. Right now I am thinking of getting an extra 200G drive to just for the backups. When I copy all these files to 200G drive, there for sure would have duplicated files. So, what software you people out there use to erase these duplicated files ? There is nothing in the store you can buy. On the web, there are hundreds of this kind of utilities, just do know which one is simple and reliable to use, and I do not like to give out credit card number to purchase this. Any idea is appreciated.

[filper]

If you copy all files into the same folder on the back up drive, windows will recognize files that are the same and ask if you wish to replace the existing files already in the folder or not.

[bench988]

Thank you for the quick reply. However, I have files in different folders and subfolders all over. It would be nice to have a program to search through the harddisk to locate them.

[waterug]

I have downloaded a number of utilities for various tasks and I have had no trouble giving out my credit card number. Check out CNet for reviews of various utilities to find the one that suits your situation and is the most popular. In many cases you can get a free trial period, usually fifteen days to a month and if you like it, buy it. If not, remove it from your computer and try another one. Online purchases are becoming more and more popular and if you have online banking, you can always check to see that the correct amount is deducted from your account. I have been making online purchases for years and have never had a problem. Also keep in mind many purchases are in U.S. denomination so you will pay a bit more than what is advertised.

[Proteosome]

What do you mean when you say duplicated files?

Are you referring to files you have backed up in the past that are scattered throughout your system?

[bench988]

Yes, and in addition, I have external drive, cd and floppy backups, files that accumulated for 15 plus years. Most of them probabley junks. I will go through them eventually, but, I need to cleanup all these identical files first.

[hugh]

Here are five programs to choose from.

[ctown6412]

mis posted

[e268]

If you do not want to spend any money, like me, just use the search function of windows explorer. It will find all the files with same name, and give you details like size, date, etc. so you can determine which one to delete.

[Proteosome]

Hah! I was going to suggest what E288 said but I was not sure if the search function could find duplicate files on its own or if it only found duplicates depending on what the search parameters were.

[e268]

Windows explorer will find all the files with certain file names or names with wildcard. You have to specify the drive, or folder.

[Jake]

Search for * and then sort the results by size. All the duplicates will be adjacent in the list making for easy deletion.

[57]

If you sort by name, they will also be adjacent. If you sort by size you can delete the larger ones and forget about the smaller ones.

HDD space is so cheap that you can simply ignore the duplicates because the time you spend looking for them will be "wasted" relative to the cost of a gigabyte.

When HDD space was expensive many years ago, I used to delete files. I haven't bothered deleting files in over 10 years simply because it's not worth it. I also have about 20 years worth of files. Remember that the older files typically only take up a few k.

[bench988]

Thanks Hugh.

e268, thanks for the advise. However, I just have too many of these files to use 'find' to do the task.

[bench988]

I have been real careful with files that I created and downloaded, may be too careful. Between office and home, I have backups for last 2 years, once a month from office to my harddrive of home computer without checking duplicates or the latest. Now I have a little bit of time, like to find a utility that can go through my harddrive, sort out all the duplicate file name and date, so I can delete and organize them. What would you recomend ?