Finding duplicate files and folders

As most of you know i am a sucker for downloading free trial software, and the latest is Dupehunter Professional, It finds so many duplicates on my PC it would take weeks to go through them one by one ( i have 1.5tb stored data)

Has anyone used this program and is it safe to clean all it finds?

Thanks Bill

 

Hi Bill.

I don't think such a perfect program exists. :cry
Mainly due to poor programming and NON-USE of the PATH command, it is not really safe to bulk delete apparent "duplicates"

Lots of programs/programmers simply repeat the same file, time after time, in the same program instead of installing the file once within the Path of the program. They also don't bother as most hard drives are "huge" nowadays so there is not much/any incentive to be concise.

No more 20 megabyte hard drives these days. Or 20 gigabyte hard drives, for that matter, either.

Deleting these "duplicates" will probably crash the program so you usually don't have much choice but to examine each instance :cry manually.

Bazza

 

Basically, I agree with Bazza.
I'd be very skeptical and wary of trusting such a program 'carte blanche'.

That said, I think you have to look at the problem from two perspectives:

• Keeping track of software that you have downloaded
• Keeping track of software that you have installed

The second point of installed software should be easier to track by using
either 'Add or Remove Programs' or something like Revo Uninstaller.
Also, since most software is installed in a default master location like 'Program Files',
you can easily inspect that folder to see what you have that may not be shown
as an 'installed' program.

I rarely choose to install something in a location other than the default
location, except to maybe abbreviate one of the ridiculously long folder names
that some programs want to use.

Sometimes, I choose to install in a different location, particularly if the program
does not require installation.
In that case, I use another Master folder with sub-folders which are named by general
category with additional sub-folders *OR* by nameing the folder with the program name.

This way there are Two Master locations which makes things easier to find.

In your case, the same technique should be used to store all the programs you download.
That's how I do it. Like one folder for Browsers and Browser Utilities, one for
System Cleanup, one for System Maintenance, one for Security, etc. with appropriate
sub-folders in each. For those things that don't quite fit a specific category,
I have a Utility folder with many sub-folders.

It's your stuff so set up a hierarchy that matches how you think.
I rarely have trouble finding something that I downloaded and it's easy for me to see
what old versions of program installers I still have.

Then it's not such a big deal to periodically go through a major category folder and do
some house cleaning.

Sorry this is so long winded, but that IS the nature of the problem.
There's so much stuff to keep track of.

The same thing applies to Bookmarks except that gets much more complex.
As you know, some bookmark apps rely solely on Tags which eliminates the need for
designing a hierarchy.

Sorry to say, I think you will have to do some tedious manual cleanup and then begin
thinking about how you will store what you get in the future.

I don't know if my blurb here actually addresses what you're concerned with :-o :confused

Hope so.

 

But your missing a point, duplicate data files, ie documents photos mp3s, i think thats something that it would definitly help with, even tho i haven't used the app myself, thats more likely to be the key.

 

Thanks guys.

It looks as if i will have to go the long way (it's not as if i don't have the time) and do this one at a time.

 

While not strictly an example of duplicate files, this is a familiar example of "Language" poor programming. A simple question of what language you would like as a default would stop most of these "duplicate" files.

See the thumbnail for a sample listing of the various languages catered for.

The program, VLC Media player, lists a lot more languages than I have shown.
Probably, actually, twice as many. :cry The thumbnail is only from A-L

Maybe VLC ought to offer and English/USA version and an "International" version as some other programs do, and release a much smaller program.

If you can recognise the abbreviations for world languages, you can probably delete most of them. I'm going to. :major It can always be uninstalled, downloaded again, and re-installed if you stuff up.

(End of rant). :-D

Bazza

 

Yes, you're right about that.
Much more likely to have duplicates of those.

Question is, does the program look for only matching filenames or can it be
configured to also match date / time / size.

Even if all of those match on given file(s), you still don't know if the content matches.

What a headache!

 

You can get it to search in many formats but i have uninstalled it now and am going the difficult route.

 

If you are still using XP, this may help find (for possible removal) lots of files.

Do a Search on C:\I386\*.*_ (note underscore _) Back 4/2006, when I was using XP, I found 5,524 unextracted files totalling 260 megs approx. I cannot exactly remember the path now, so look for \I386\ Folder, or Sub-Folder.

I made 2 backup copies, one on CD and one on DVD before removing these.
No apparent disasters occurred. :cool

Also, in 7/2006, I backed up and removed 3,394 files (566 megs) DLLcache files.

Sorry I'm a bit vague on the above 2 items, but in my defence it was over 4 years ago, and in XP Pro, but I did back them up before deleting them AND no apparent effect on my PC operation.:-o :-o

Bazza

 

If you don't already have this you should check it out.

MediaMonkey

Much more info at the Home page:

MediaMonkey: Free Version Features

 

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