My 200 GB external hard drive had reached its bottleneck with the additions of TV series Chuck and it's time to do housekeeping; removed unnecessary files & old videos etc. There were not so many files I was willing to remove, so I need to scrutinize a little bit harder (which folder takes up significant amount of space & see what can be deleted) to free up some space otherwise there will be no room for new fresh tv series. It turned out my mp3 folder took up roughly 35 GB of space. A quick check on the mp3 folders, expose duplicate songs and some of them got up to 3 duplicates!
I knew it long time ago but I keep procrastinating so the number of duplicates grows out of hand. So here are few softwares I found on Google that are able to help me in doing the housekeeping.
1. Heatsoft Clone Cleaner (HCC)
HCC comes in 2 version free and premium. The free version is more than enough to do the job but of course premium one provides additional features such as checking for duplicates in multiple drives and the ability to exclude subfolders from checking for duplicates. The only downside is it keeps asking me to upgrade to PRO version.
Duplicate File Finder is a simple, but effective tool to locate duplicate files in one or more selected search paths. It scans the files and compares them based on Byte for Byte Comparison, which ensures 100% accuracy. You can then choose to delete the selected duplicate or original files. The program is multi threaded and performs scans quickly. For 200 GB it only takes roughly 5 minutes to complete. It's totally free!
Double Killer is able to scan for duplicates by using names, sizes, dates and CRC32. They are not 100% accurate and if you want to use raw binary comparison, you need to Purchase the PRO version.
This software is able to exclude system folders such as windows and program files. It says that it search for true duplicates (files with same contents) and it scan pretty fast!
I used Heatsoft Clone Cleaner Lite to clear up the duplicates (roughly 3 GB. What a waste of space!) and will be using this software in the future.
Technorati Tags: remove duplicate files, free up drive space, windows xp, computer tips, tricks, freeware
Aug 3, 2008 at 15:32:19
That’s a very good list. You have done a good job by keeping all similar utilities on a single page. Thanks for the post. They are really useful when the hard disk has lot of files where it becomes difficult to manage files.
Stumbled!!! :-)
Aug 3, 2008 at 17:58:15
Thanks Pavan for dropping by and really appreciate your stumble :)
Aug 4, 2008 at 00:50:29
The last post, Easy Duplicate Finder, is misleading. I went to their site where it said, “Easy Duplicate Finder is a completely FREE Software. It contains absolutely NO ADWARE, NO SPYWARE, NO REGISTRATION, NO POPUPS, NO MALWARE or other unwanted software.”After downloading and installing it says you have to register the software by buying someone else’s software. No Thanks!!
Aug 4, 2008 at 01:25:00
Great find…I will use it right now to clean up my 500 gb HD…
Aug 4, 2008 at 06:58:03
Casey - I’mnot sure which software you really download. I don’t find any required registration. Thanks
Aug 4, 2008 at 07:57:57
I downloaded Easy Duplicate File Finder from http://www.easyduplicatefinder.com/
After installing it it said all I could do was 20 files, if I wanted to do more I’d have to register. I clicked on the register button and it took me to a site that said I had to purchase some other software to register. I ended up deleting the whole thing. Unless I misunderstood something, this is what happened.
Aug 4, 2008 at 12:54:11
Casey - I run the program again and there’s no such thing as registration request. I deleted 57 files all at once and I didn’t encounter any registration request. Unless you download something else like “Clone Remover” which falls under “Also Recommended” category which is also in the same page as Easy Duplicate Finder.
The only thing that I hate about this program is I need to select each and every duplicate before I can perform deletion. The rest is brilliant.
Aug 4, 2008 at 19:47:16
Very very useful software list.
I never thought of searching for a software that can find duplicates..
I needed for the same reason mp3 files but I do have some documents which were duplicated..
Aug 5, 2008 at 18:00:36
When there are duplicate files, how does one determine which file to delete?
Aug 6, 2008 at 08:44:32
So I just used Easy Duplicate Finder on my Music collection of (formerly) 66,8 GB. EDF found a not very surprising 3000 duplicates and freed about the same amount of space in MB. Mind you: It also marks folders as duplicates and some of the duplicates I removed were album arts.
Afterwards, DoubleKiller was dry in its default mode (size & CRC comparison) and also in CRC-only comparison mode.
Duplicade File Finder also was dry.
I couldn’t reverse check cause I had permanently deleted the files.
Some tests were about slower. Especially the first one in EDF obviously a bit longer since it had 3k files more to scan and had hits.
Specs:
Files: 14000 (mostly mp3) [Original : 17000]
Size: 63,7 GB [Original: 66,8 GB]
HDD: 3×500GB WD 7200RPM SATA2 RAID0
Scan Time (Double Killer): 00:47,55
Scan Time (Duplicate File Finder): 02:14,49
I cannot post the time of EDF since I didn’t time it the first time and EDF is (due to the install) capable of saving previously gathered infos to the point that a complete rescan (if unchanged) takes a mere 5 seconds in which EDF checks whether there were no new files added.
Points of Interest:
Double Killer seems to be the fastest tool. This might, however, change if it actually detects something. Also the settings suggest that it might not find as many duplicates (obviously also avoiding false positives but neverteless).
Duplicate File Finder’s options are less advanced but geared more at the average user. In fast mode, it splits its scanning time in half to 01:02,60. However, time should not be a concern if even large Music collections take merely a few seconds to minutes.
DK and DFF have the advantage that they are on-the-go tools and don’t require an installation. EDF can be used in both an installed version as well as a portable version.
EDF makes the most professional impression and also performed quick (though unmeasured unfortunately). The real advantange is that it is entirely freeware and offers all options (altough defaults will do for almost any situation)
I didn’t test HCC since I was simply to lazy to install/uninstall yet another program. Ain’t good for Windows (espcially Vista..)
Hope this helps.
Greetz
Darkstriker
Aug 6, 2008 at 08:53:04
@Alice McGuckin:
Well, they are the complete duplicates. That means that essentially all but their filename (and sometimes even that) are identical. Hence quality and other features should be identical. So really, just delete the files the program turns out. EDF will show all files while allow you to select all duplicates (in the main or any subfolder). You can then simply delete the files. It really shouldn’t make much of a difference.
Aug 6, 2008 at 10:57:01
Darkstriker - thanks for your great effort in testing most of the softwares and come up with your feedbacks. It’s very much appreciated!
Aug 6, 2008 at 22:59:02
HCC is ok. I am considering buying the pro version.
Another dupe cleaning program is Clone Tools. It is very different from the programs you have tested since it is folder based instead of file based.
DL from http://www.pilotman.com
It is a bit more expensive than HCC but I like the folder based concept.
Oct 12, 2008 at 20:53:13
I use Directory Report to find duplicates
http://www.file-utilities.com/downloads/wdir.zip