Far more duplicates than I'd imagined

chipwood · 12 Aug 2021

I thought to look for the duplicates on my system, using CCleaner's tool and expecting a moderate catch, but see attachment. Provided that all are absolutely identical is it safe to delete one of any pair. and how could those duplicates have come about?

21H1

Callender · 12 Aug 2021

Only worry about duplicates of files that you personally created or downloaded. System file duplicates are normal and should be left alone.

Paul Black · 12 Aug 2021

Hello @chipwood,

chipwood said:

I thought to look for the duplicates on my system, using CCleaner's tool and expecting a moderate catch, but see attachment. Provided that all are absolutely identical is it safe to delete one of any pair, and how could those duplicates have come about?

As stated above by @Callender, ONLY worry about user created Files.

There is NO benefit in Deleting System or Third-Party duplicate Files as this can cause the OS to become unresponsive or corrupted etc.

You could use something like Everything to find Files with the SAME name and extension, and then Delete them depending on the one[s] you want to keep.

If you have .TXT files, you could use something like Notepad++ to highlight the differences in the Files.

Regardless of what you do, I would STRONGLY suggest that you create a System Image or Backup your user Folders / Files FIRST, just in case.

I hope this helps.