"Music mode" compares audio file tags, thereby also finding duplicate songs encoded in different formats or at different bitrates.Įven though "picture mode" includes a fuzzy search algorithm, it lacks an integrated image viewer to enable immediate comparisons between potential duplicates. files which match each others' size and content. "Standard mode" finds binary duplicates, i.e. It has three operating modes: standard, music and pictures.
FREE DUPLICATE FILE CLEANER WINDOWS 7 FREE
My recommendation is to first try out whether the free choices meet your needs.ĭupeGuru (Linux, macOS, Windows) is a veteran among the free dupe finders: It dates all the way back to 2004 – and it looks the part. Many of them are free, some are outrageously overpriced. Choose your toolsĭuplicate finders are available for Linux, macOS and Windows. Alternatively you can verify copied files using an external tool such as Beyond Compare or WinMerge. Windows tools such as FastCopy and TeraCopy will compare the checksums of the originals and copies after transferring them. Why am I stressing this point? Well, I’ve had a brand-new external drive die on me right after I had moved some irreplaceable audio recordings onto it. Always copy first, verify that the copied files are indeed identical, then delete the originals. Make sure you only copy your data: Never move files from one drive to another. The following advice is based on bitter personal experiences. If necessary, you should get a fresh external drive to backup the data which you are planning to analyze before going any further.
A few words of wisdomīefore you start deleting anything, make sure that you actually have three copies of everything. Ah yes, and I listened to a lot of my favorite music to sweeten the drudgery. This gave me a feeling of making progress, which is essential to stay motivated. As I went along, I kept updating the list and checking off items I had already accomplished. I actually ended up making a list with my specific needs and my goals: To clear out my internal magnetic hard drive, I need to make space on my external drives, beginning with. Few things are more frustrating than to abandon your duplicate killing spree because it has become too tedious, only to return to the task a couple of months later with only a sketchy memory of what you originally set out to do. This could take a while, so make your time count. In any case, make sure to get your priorities straight before you start. If you have a more specific goal, such as whipping your photo folders or your sprawling music collection in shape, your priorities will be different: You’re not just looking for exact duplicates, but also for reduced-resolution copies of photos as well as older, inferior rips of your favorite albums which you have since re-encoded in a more modern format. Office documents are usually too small to matter much here even photos and audio files may not be worth your time when your external drives are clogged up with old system backups. If you are running short on storage space, you will want to concentrate on large files only: backup containers, videos, music and photos – in descending order. Your specific situation will set your specific goals in getting rid of duplicates.
FREE DUPLICATE FILE CLEANER WINDOWS 7 PORTABLE
I also unearthed three rather unwieldy music collections rescued from various portable audio players before their retirement. Then there was an ancient backup folder of photos which followed a categorization I have since ditched. Some dupes were leftovers from when I emptied thumb drives before lending them to friends, others were results of a desperate attempt to rescue data from a failing drive. They were spread across multiple drives, some of them internal, others external. I, for one, suddenly found myself with more potential duplicate folders than I could sift through by hand. This probably means that you have far more copies than you actually need, and that they’re all over the place. Let’s assume you’re a bit like me and that you have tried to follow the 3-2-1 backup rule, then let things slip for a while and now you are trying to get back on track. away from other backups.Īs basic as this sounds, following through can become tough. You may have heard of the 3-2-1 backup rule – it’s fairly simple:ģ - Keep at least three copies of your data,Ģ - store two backup copies on different storage media, andġ - store one backup off-site, i.e. It’s generally considered a good idea to keep three copies of every file that is important to you. Even though having a desktop.ini file in every photo folder may seem redundant, they actually serve a purpose.
Windows itself keeps multiple copies of some important files, which you should not touch. Let me briefly point out that, generally speaking, duplicates are not merely good: they are essential.
0 kommentar(er)
