Removing duplicate files

[John]

Hi

Is there a good utility to detect duplicate files based on content and then
to remove them?

Thanks

Regards

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

Hi

Is there a good utility to detect duplicate files based on content and
then to remove them?

Thanks

Regards

Google is your friend. Type the following words into a Google search box,
then take your pick:

Windows duplicate file finder

 

[John]

did before coming here...there are a number of them..can't figure which one
has the features I need..even installed and tried some as well..thought
someone may have a recommendation

regards

 

[John John - MVP]

I think that this is one of the best, it does it well and it's very fast!

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/File-Management/Duplicate-File-Finder.shtml
Duplicate File Finder 1.1.0.3

Please do not remove duplicate Windows files! Duplicate system files
are normal and the duplicates are necessary for the good functioning of
your Windows installation!

John

 

[sgopus]

Duplicate files are not compared as to content, they are compared to with
file name. It would be way IBM too complicated to compare the content to find
duplicate files.

 

[John John - MVP]

???

Real duplicate file finders will find duplicate files by contents, even
if the name and creation dates are different, it would be pretty useless
to search for duplicate by filename only! Real duplicate finders have
options to allow you to select if you want to have the filename or
creation date included in the duplicate file criteria.

John

 

[ED]

Not true.
Files are compared using the checksum value.
If CRC are equal, file contents must be equal/

 

[sgopus]

Thanks, I'm updated with that.

???

Real duplicate file finders will find duplicate files by contents, even
if the name and creation dates are different, it would be pretty useless
to search for duplicate by filename only! Real duplicate finders have
options to allow you to select if you want to have the filename or
creation date included in the duplicate file criteria.

John

.

 

[HeyBub]

Not true.
Files are compared using the checksum value.
If CRC are equal, file contents must be equal/

Almost certainly that's true, but not always.

If the check-sum is four bytes, there's a one-in-four-quadrillion chance the
files could differ but have the same check-sum.

 

[Paul Randall]

Almost certainly that's true, but not always.

If the check-sum is four bytes, there's a one-in-four-quadrillion chance
the files could differ but have the same check-sum.

Also, a malicious person could have modified the file in such a way that the
CRC is the same as it was before the modification. Other checksum
mechanism, such as MD5 were designed to be more difficult to spoof in this
way, but it turned out to be not that much more difficult. To be really
sure that the content of two files is identical, one might verify that the
CRC, MD5, and SHA checksums are all identical for the two files.

-Paul Randall

 

[Bob I]

Also, a malicious person could have modified the file in such a way that the
CRC is the same as it was before the modification. Other checksum
mechanism, such as MD5 were designed to be more difficult to spoof in this
way, but it turned out to be not that much more difficult. To be really
sure that the content of two files is identical, one might verify that the
CRC, MD5, and SHA checksums are all identical for the two files.

-Paul Randall

See FC with the /b switch in Windows Help.

 

[MaryAnna]

find duplicate files

I use Advanced Duplicate Finder to find and delete duplicates. It perfectly identifies duplicates of images, empty files, or complete duplicates with identical content.