How can I easily find and delete duplicate docs

[Guest]

I have an external drive that has been used to back up files from several
computers. Now there are TONS of duplicate documents and I really want to
delete them. DOes anyone know of a quick way to identify all dup docs and
easily delete them. I do not want to have to bring up all docs and sort them
as they are in different directories also which would make for a visual
nightmare and probably deletion of more records than I intend.

Help!

Many Thanks!

 

[GHalleck]

I have an external drive that has been used to back up files from several
computers. Now there are TONS of duplicate documents and I really want to
delete them. DOes anyone know of a quick way to identify all dup docs and
easily delete them. I do not want to have to bring up all docs and sort them
as they are in different directories also which would make for a visual
nightmare and probably deletion of more records than I intend.

Help!

Many Thanks!

Here is one way of doing it. First, build an archive in WinZip
and pack all of the *.doc files into it, complete with their
roots. Second, sort the archive alphabetically for duplicate
file names; doc files with the same size and/or dates might be
considered to be obvious duplicates. Third, for duplicates,
filter by their directory information and delete unnecessary
ones. Finally, unzip the archive after the sorting but also keep
one or more copies of the final archive for backup. HTH and
good luck.

 

[Don Schmidt]

The program, EmptyTempFolders will delete duplicate files.

http://www.danish-shareware.dk/soft/emptemp/

 

[alanwo]

NoClone can uncover true duplicate files regardless of file name and
attribute but file content. you can download it free of charge at
http://noclone.net/