Program to find and help delete LOTS of duplicate files

leafs580 · 07 Dec 2020

I have taken it upon myself to really organize my files after 15 years of music, video and picture collections. Over the years, I've backed up and had many hard drives and even did backups of stuff I forgot I even did. I now have put everything into one folder for my music. Now I have windows media player/ itunes with the same music title but maybe 5 different copies. Something i've been used to for a while but figured there's got to be a service out there that can help me with my catastrophe (willing to pay if the program works)

Any help is much appreciated!

Berton · 07 Dec 2020

Starting with the basics, a folder cannot contain 2 or more files of the exact same name and that applies to subfolders also.

For the purpose I have been using Easy Duplicate Finder for some time, does a good job BUT the list of what is found [looks like a database or spreadsheet] will look daunting. Most times there's at least two entries for the duplicates and including subfolders may give a larger amount of each item. Its Search can include subfolders so some choices have to be set as to include where to search. It's also possible to not search by name but by content.

leafs580 · 07 Dec 2020

I may have other folders that may contain the same file such as music. Except now some songs may have the same file name but with a “1” beside it. Guess I missed the prompt when it asked if I wanted to keep the duplicate files 🤷*♂️

Berton · 07 Dec 2020

For me having the same files but a slightly file name still could be found by not searching on file name but on content, it's a little slower as EDF looks into the files for that duplicated content.

leafs580 · 07 Dec 2020

I’ll give it a try tomorrow! Thank you!

leafs580 · 11 Dec 2020

The program worked like a charm! Thanks for the help!

Berton · 11 Dec 2020

You're welcome.