View Full Version : Duplicate file finder?
Is there some software that can find duplicate files, even with different file names? My old blueyonder webspace finally croaked, and I've a LOT of pics I need to rehost, but over the years they've ended up all over the place, and nosing round my comp there's copies all over the place too (whenever I changed to a new hard drive I'd copy anything needed from the old one - and to give an idea of how long ago this has been going on, one directory is called 300meg drive!!!!).
Basically, all my files are in a mess :( So I'd like to clear as many as I can before I start trying to move them all into a sensible order...
Just trying a freeware thingy I found. Says it works on a byte by byte basis or something? Will report back...
edit: hmm, this could take a while - 89230files on one drive, and after searching 7000 it reckons 900 duplicates. Not convinced I've got THAT many though ;D
Yup, that freeware thing was an utter waste of time. It reckoned driver files were identical to jpg's etc. :angry:
Just spent a couple of hours dumping as many files in one folder as I can. That way when an identical filename came up, if the size was the same, then that's some found.
Cleared about 4gb so far :cool:
Windows Search will allow you to sort by filename, but it's doubtful that's very helpful unless you have a lot of time. There's probably some batch file trickery that'll do it but this sounds far too like work and I'm still on holiday. :p
FDUPES checksums every file with an MD5 hashing algorithm and WILL find any duplicates (that is, exact duplicates).
You will need to compile it for your platform though.
Compile? For windows? Eek!
Lots of time I sometimes have of an evening, but lots of patience?!
I think once I've reduced the mess of directories it was all in down to a few, that should make life a little easier...
32-bit version...
http://www.ouroboros.me.uk/misc/08/01/fdupes-1.40.zip
Used Cygwin because I'm lazy so I've chucked in the bit of Cygwin I believe is required to make it all work. :)
Ooh, thanks Mark :)
tried it though and it briefly flashes up a window but it dissapears instantly :( I tried the driver file in the system32 folder and the same folder as the exe. Did I put it in the wrong place?
I'll try it again from Work. I have a non-Cygwin machine there I can use to test it.
Cheers :D If it looks like it'll be hassle tho don't worry - I'm making progress doing it the hard way :)
Won't get to it until tomorrow now so if you get far enough by then I guess I can leave it be.
But, but, but......
I've been lurking in the shadows watching this thread hoping a solution would come along. I've got much the same problem after multiple backups of three computers around here over the years...
Any chance of going ahead with it for my sake please?:confused:
Didn;t get time last night to do any more anyway :(
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