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Duplicate files


Col B

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Hi Guys

 

I am new to the forum so hi to all. Could anyone please help.

 

I have installed Ccleaner in hope that it would find duplicate files on my c drive. I have incorporated information from 2 computers on to my C drive, we are talking thousands of possible duplicates mainly word docs and family photos etc.

 

I was hoping Ccleaner wold pick them up but no. Windows you have to say what files you are looking for,

 

Can anyone recommend software that will pick them up and easily viewable and deletable please

Best wishes

Col

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I think Aethec that the poster was asking for recommendations from other users based on the fact that they had used a particular software of that type.

 

I haven't had the need to use a duplicate file finder myself but have heard from others that great care is needed when doing it.

 

Support contact

https://support.ccleaner.com/s/contact-form?language=en_US&form=general

or

support@ccleaner.com

 

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Many many many duplicate files are stored within the Documents And Settings folder on the C drive. Even/especially programs you installed and uninstalled long ago. However, unless your name is Adrian Monk and you have OCD you need not worry about them or feel the need to delete them. They are miniscule. Accumulative files that you need to rid would be internet cache.

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  • 4 weeks later...
I haven't had the need to use a duplicate file finder myself but have heard from others that great care is needed when doing it.

Indeed, I tried a few a while back and some of what they wanted to remove as duplicates was extremely dangerous. I think the one I found was the best I tried was CloneSpy (though I uninstalled it as I subsequently had no use for it) but I would still suggest exercising extreme caution

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My suggestion is use an MD5 software like NirSoft HashMyFiles, as it will clearly show on screen when having the sorting show identical MD5's next to each other and is a much safer approach to deleting duplicates which should be done manually.

 

Screenshot Example (Click To Enlarge):

e6265d41423145.gif

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My suggestion is use an MD5 software like NirSoft HashMyFiles, as it will clearly show on screen when having the sorting show identical MD5's next to each other and is a much safer approach to deleting duplicates which should be done manually.

Andavari, how do you use this program to find duplicate files? What actually constitutes a duplicate and how will it show up? Exactly what has to match?

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Andavari, how do you use this program to find duplicate files? What actually constitutes a duplicate and how will it show up? Exactly what has to match?

My method is just a way to use a hashing program to do the figuring out automatically to take out some guess work instead of going by generic filenames which has a great potential of files not really being dups. Using MD5/SHA1 should take out any guessing.


  1. How to use:
  2. Start HashMyFiles.
  3. Click Options->Hash Types, now select MD5 and SHA1.
  4. In Options also enable: Mark Identical Hashes, Extract Version Information.
  5. Close HashMyFiles so it saves the configuration.
  6. Start HashMyFiles and scan a folder by clicking: File->Add Folder, and enable Add files in subfolders
  7. Depending on the amount of files you may or will be waiting a significant amount of time for it to produce the checksums. In that time it may seem like HashMyFiles has frozen but leave it alone until it displays the file checksums. I don't recommend adding your whole system partition though, as that would take forever, just work on a few folder locations at a time.
  8. After all files are listed either click the MD5 column, or SHA1 column and HashMyFiles will sort all of the checksums, and any dups will be listed together in the list.

 

 

What constitutes as a dup is a matching MD5/SHA1 checksum, using both is probably the best just to make sure it really is a dup, and it really has nothing to do with the filename although similar filenames are a good clue if something is a dup with a matching checksum, i.e.; SomeSong.mp3 and SomeSong(2).mp3.

 

Just like the screenshot in my other post above shows HashMyFiles color codes matching checksums, it even uses multiple colors, then you just double click on one of the dups to get the full file path, copy+paste that into a text document for later turning into a batch file for deletion, i.e.;

del "C:\Music\Some Artist 55\Some Song(2).mp3"

 

If you're unsure of something being a dup, you can always manually inspect the file, such as the example above which is an MP3 you'd just listen to it to determine it's really a dup. Of course my method would be slow to find out what's a dup, however it's the safest approach I can think of since a strong checksum like MD5 or even SHA1 is used.

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I decompiled an old VB3 app that found all duplicate files on your drive many moons ago but I've never found a reason to use it. ;)

Keith

 

Windows XP 2002 SP3

IE 7.0

 

Martin2k

 

Rorshach112 is the best

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  • 2 weeks later...
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Does anyone know if CRC is as reliable in hash analysis as MD5 and/or SHA1 when it comes to reviewing duplicates?

I don't know off hand, however with MD5 and SHA1 having longer hash strings I'd think they'd be more secure - just a guess though.

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I guess that makes sense. By the way, Antavari, have you had any experience with Karen's HASHER? (Check my earlier post in this thread.)

Just tried it out after seeing your other post a bit earlier.

 

It's nowhere near as easy as Nirsoft HashMyFiles when you want to see duplicates showed next to each other, but that's the one and only complaint I had about it.

 

As an everyday hash checker it's good, and has higher SHA values than any other freeware tool I've ever seen. :o

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  • 2 months later...
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There are some programmes for XP to find duplicate files. I wanted to delete music duplicate file I used the LINK AND PROGRAM NAME REMOVED for such aim. It helped me. This program is not only for the music, but for all files. And now it is more free place on my PC :)

 

 

This program is not free.

Edited by Andavari
Removed the program name and link, it was from a spammer

 

Support contact

https://support.ccleaner.com/s/contact-form?language=en_US&form=general

or

support@ccleaner.com

 

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  • 3 months later...

hi,

 

I downloaded and scanned my computer with Auslogics :angry: . It is free but not easy! First it found 6543 duplicate files occupying 9 MB, since I am totally new, I went through them all one by one, selected those that I wanted to delete............ It says that I need TO DELETE AN ENTIRE BLOCK. :( Of course, it is not what I want! Just one or two files in each block. So I scanned again this morning, now there are more than 7000 files occupying 1GB. Big blocks!!! It seems crazy.

 

I emailed them, but they didn't reply. Anyone could help me, please? I would be very grateful.

 

Thanks a lot.

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time and motion. would i worrie about 7k files taking up 9mb of space

 

No. I no this is not helping your question but it's my opinion.

No fate but what we make

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I have Auslogics Duplicate File Finder installed, but have never used it so I can't be a lot of help. However, if you're going after duplicate files, I would make you have the "Match Contents" box checked. I believe this is a MD5 checksum match rather than just the other options given (file name, date and time, etc.).

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my problem is: this is a new computer and I injected files from several sources, can't find anything, so I have to sort out this mess. First thing is to delete duplicate, triplicate and more....

 

1 GB and 7,000 files is nothing for you??? :o

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hi,

 

I downloaded and scanned my computer with Auslogics :angry: . It is free but not easy! First it found 6543 duplicate files occupying 9 MB, since I am totally new, I went through them all one by one, selected those that I wanted to delete............ It says that I need TO DELETE AN ENTIRE BLOCK. :( Of course, it is not what I want! Just one or two files in each block. So I scanned again this morning, now there are more than 7000 files occupying 1GB. Big blocks!!! It seems crazy.

 

I emailed them, but they didn't reply. Anyone could help me, please? I would be very grateful.

 

Thanks a lot.

I don't see where you're having a problem. I just downloaded it and tried it and was able to tick individual items and delete them no problem (right click>Delete selected)

 

6543 duplicate files is a scarily high number though and I would suggest exercising extreme caution with what you delete (dupe file finders are as dangerous, if not more so, than reg cleaners IMO)

 

Edit: It finds 1559 duplicates (324Mb) on my computer - NONE of which will, or should, be deleted.

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