An app for Windows for hunting down and eradicating multiple copies of files?

December 13, 2009 4:30 AM

Is there an app for Windows that you know of for hunting down and eradicating multiple copies of the same files?

Let's say I have a 1TB drive (I do) full of junk (I do) and much of that junk has duplicates, triplicates, and octuplicates of the same files in miscellaneous folders.

I'd like to find a program that I could leave running and it would scan the drive for these multiple copies and perhaps erase them for me, or at least allow me to do that later.

Know of any?

posted by Unhyper to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

Duplicate File Detective has a fully functioning 15 day trial, $40.00 to buy. I use it and find it to be fast and accurate.
posted by Duke999R at 4:37 AM on December 13, 2009 [1 favorite]

I use this one. I must warn you that I've never scanned a whole drive (much less a 1 TB one) with it, so I cannot guarantee you it will not crash or misbehave in some manner. It has always worked fine for me, though.

Just don't forget to specify "Contents Only" or "Contents And Name" when searching for duplicates, else you may delete files which are not actually identical.
posted by Bangaioh at 5:11 AM on December 13, 2009

Best answer: I've had good results with Fast Duplicate File Finder. It's freeware.
posted by Nice Guy Mike at 6:19 AM on December 13, 2009 [2 favorites]

I use an older version of Beyond Compare. It has enough fine-grained options to handle any of my needs (e.g., same picture with a different name, html files with different extensions...) The current version has a free 30-day trial.
posted by Hardcore Poser at 9:05 AM on December 13, 2009

I've been using Easy Duplicate Finder, which is free and works quite well.
posted by anadem at 10:01 AM on December 13, 2009

Double Killer is great. I have the pay version (which really is better), but the free version is also great.
posted by MesoFilter at 8:41 PM on December 13, 2009

CloneSpy is my go-to dedupe tool; it's freeware and very flexible. (I love Beyond Compare as well but as the name implies it's meant for comparing files/hierarchies, not for finding and nuking duplicates across an entire filesystem.)
posted by Lazlo at 1:44 AM on December 14, 2009

I second Lazio. I am yet to find better alternative to CloneSpy
posted by zaxour at 4:11 AM on December 14, 2009