Checking for Dupes
October 23, 2004 4:05 PM   Subscribe

yet another computing question - in windows xp, how can i check to determine whether files in the recycle bin are copies of files elsewhere on my computer? (note - this is for a large number of music files, so i'd rather not check them one by one...)
posted by ubersturm to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)
 
If I understand your question: you could restore them all and cut and paste them into your music folder and see which ones ask if you want to overwrite..... everything else there would just copy into that directory.... not that simple?
posted by Espoo2 at 10:25 PM on October 23, 2004


Response by poster: unfortunately, it's not quite that simple. most importantly, the hard drive [which is devoted to music] is nearly out of space, so there isn't room to paste the contents of the recycle bin [also mostly full of music files.] i was sort of hoping for some sort of program/function that would allow me to compare the contents of, say, my recycle bin and my music directory.

secondly, some of the names of files in the bin have been modified. obviously, these would require a different solution - i suppose something analogous to musicbrainz tagger, something actual files to see if they are the same. however, these files are a minority of the ones in the bin, and i can probably deal with them by hand.

i just don't want to delete music accidentally, as with a large music collection like mine, it could take a while to figure out how much is missing...
posted by ubersturm at 11:00 PM on October 23, 2004


Beyond Compare from Scooter Software will let you compare the contents of two directories side by side, and copy/move/delete files as needed. It won't ignore filenames and compare music content, but it should make it much easier for you to narrow down to those and handle them directly.
posted by Tubes at 3:30 AM on October 24, 2004


Response by poster: thanks! exactly the kind of thing i was looking for.
posted by ubersturm at 7:42 AM on October 24, 2004


« Older Printer for fine art on OSX   |   I need an external HD for use with a Powerbook. Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.