Reviews - SmartComputing.com

Delete Duplicate Files

Search, Purge & Merge

Original review: Easy Duplicate Finder at SmartComputing.com

Computers & Electronics
July 2010 • Vol.21 Issue 7
Page(s) 36-38 in print issue

We’ve all searched for a misplaced file only to discover we have three or more copies located in different places on our hard drives.

Duplicate files are common for many reasons. You may open a file, edit it, and then inadvertently save a new copy to a different location. You may accidentally copy a file instead of moving it. Or, due to lack of confidence in your backup program, you may make extra copies of important files and folders.

Even if you know you have duplicates, it is easy to ignore them. Who wants to take the time to compare them, and how can you be sure they are truly identical? Happily, programs exist that can identify and eliminate duplicate files for you, even if they have different names or dates. Here, we’ll show you how to eradicate unwanted duplicates so you can organize your core file set as you wish.

Why Bother?

With affordable hard drives boasting terabytes of storage capacity, you may wonder why duplicate files are an issue. Indeed, if you have a dedicated external drive used only for making “safeguard” copies of files, and you never access these files unless the originals become corrupt, eliminating duplicates is less of an imperative.

Even so, unless you can ensure altered and new files are properly integrated into your safeguard set, you’ll eventually be left with duplicate files and/or folders—and no easy way to determine the correct versions of files. If you create duplicates on your internal drives, the danger is much greater. It’s easy to accidentally open more than one version of the same file and make chang....