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Finding identical files. We search for and delete duplicate files on the computer. Search for identical files

A program for finding duplicate files is most often needed by users who store on disk a large number of music, photos and documents.

And, although you can delete such unnecessary copies manually, specialized applications can save a lot of time.

Especially if the files are located in different folders or in .

You can search for such duplicates using the universal software or designed for specific type data.

In the first case, the search speed increases, in the second, the probability of finding all copies increases.

Content:

Universal Applications

Universal Applications to find copies, they mainly work on the principle of comparing file sizes.

And, since the probability of the same number of bytes in different photos is practically zero, same values are considered a sign of a duplicate.

Sometimes the algorithm involves checking names - also important parameter for searching, especially since the same data in most cases also coincides in name.

The advantages of the programs are the ability to find files of any type with their help and the relatively high speed of operation. Disadvantage: lower detection accuracy.

So, for example, none of these utilities will consider the same file saved with different resolutions to be a duplicate.

1. DupKiller

And among its advantages we can note:

  • ease of setup;
  • setting multiple search criteria;
  • the ability to ignore some files (with a certain size or creation date, as well as system or hidden ones).

Important: If files with a size of zero are detected, they do not have to be deleted. Sometimes this may be information created in another operating system(eg Linux).

Rice. 4. Optimization program CCleaner systems can also search for duplicate files.

5.AllDup

Among the advantages of another program, AllDup, we can note support for any modern Windows operating system - from XP to 10.

At the same time, the search is also carried out inside hidden folders, and even in the archives.

Although the comparison of information by default occurs by file names, so it is advisable to change the settings immediately.

But during the search process, each duplicate found can be viewed without closing the application.

And if a copy is found, you can not only delete it, but also rename it or move it to another location.

TO additional benefits application applies and completely free work for any period of time.

In addition, the manufacturer also produces portable version in order to search for copies on those computers on which installation of third-party software is prohibited (for example, on a work PC).

Rice. 5. Search for files using the portable version of AllDup.

6. DupeGuru

One more useful application The one that searches for duplicates with any extension is DupeGuru.

Its only drawback is the lack of new versions for Windows (although updates for MacOS appear regularly).

However, even a relatively outdated utility copes well with its tasks when working in newer operating systems.

With its help, even system files, and the menu is intuitive and in Russian.

Rice. 6. Detecting copies using the DupeGuru utility.

It is noteworthy that, in addition to the usual universal option, the manufacturing company has created a utility for searching for files of a certain type.

There is a separate version for images and another for music.

And, if you need to clean your computer not only from documents and system files (which, by the way, need to be deleted very carefully - sometimes it’s even worth leaving an “extra” copy rather than disrupting the system’s functionality), it’s worth downloading these applications as well.

7. Duplicate Cleaner Free

The utility for detecting copies of any file Duplicate Cleaner Free is different the following features:

  • filtering data by extension;
  • Russian interface language;
  • opportunity free use;
  • high speed work.

Its disadvantages include minor limitations when searching for images (for this it is recommended to purchase paid version) and not entirely accurate translation of individual menu items.

However, due to its effectiveness and ease of use, the application enjoys some popularity.

Rice. 7. Find duplicates using the Duplicate Cleaner Free utility.

Finding duplicate audio files

If the duplicate search results do not satisfy the user, you can consider an option designed for certain files. For example, for accumulated on disk.

This need often arises when downloading several albums and collections of the same artist at once - often the same tracks end up in different folders.

They may have similar sizes and differ in by and large, only by names. Especially for this, there are utilities for searching for similar melodies.

8.Music Duplicate Remover

Among the features of the Music Duplicate Remover program are relatively quick search and good efficiency.

In fact, this application “listens” to the composition and compares it with other audio files.

At the same time, naturally, its operating time is longer than that of universal utilities.

However, the amount of data checked by the program is usually tens of times less, so the average scan duration rarely exceeds a couple of hours.

Rice. 8. Detection of copies of music and audio files by album.

9.Audio Comparer

At the same time, photo analysis also takes longer compared to searching for files of any extension, but the result is worth it.

Images are detected even when there are several duplicates of the same image on the disk, but with different resolutions and, accordingly, sizes.

In addition, to increase efficiency, files with any graphic extensions– from to.png.

Rice. 11. Search for pictures using another version of DupeGuru.

12. ImageDupeless

Moreover, it is distributed free of charge and has a Russian interface. And the manufacturer periodically releases updates to it, increasing the efficiency of image search.

Rice. 12. Stylish interface of the ImageDupeless application.

13. Image Comparer

The advantages of the Image Comparer application except simple interface, we can call the presence step-by-step wizard, which allows you to learn how to quickly and efficiently search for images.

This feature distinguishes the utility from most others, to work with which you will have to read help files that are not always correctly translated (and sometimes even provided only in English).

In fact, the application is another version Audio Comparer, and is also distributed under a “shareware” license – that is, the user will have to pay for certain functions.

Rice. 13. Application Image Comparer- a good way to find duplicate pictures.

Sometimes in everyday life computer activities The task arises of finding duplicate files. There can be many reasons for this: lack of space on the hard drive, attempts to reduce entropy in your files, deal with those dumped in different time photographs from the camera and many other necessary cases.

You can find a large number of programs on the Internet that allow you to search for duplicate files. But why look for any programs if a smart tool for such work is usually always at hand. And this tool is called Total Commander (TC).

In this article I will show all the methods based on Total Commander versions 8.5 , in this version, the search for duplicate files has become very rich in functionality.

!!!A small important digression. What do you mean by duplicate file? Two files are IDENTICAL only if they are exactly the same bit by bit. Those. Any information in a computer is represented by a sequence of zeros and ones. So, files match only when they completely match the sequence of zeros and ones that make up these files. All talk about how you can compare two files on any other basis is deeply erroneous.

TC has two, essentially different, methods for finding duplicate files:

  • Synchronize directories;
  • Search for duplicates;

Their features and application are best illustrated with examples.

1.Directory synchronization.

This method is used when the two folders you are comparing have an identical structure. This usually happens in many cases, here are a few of them:

  • Have you regularly archived your work folder? After some time, you need to find out which files have been added or changed since the archive was created. You unpack the entire archive into separate folder. The folder structure in it practically coincides with the working one. You compare two folders “original” and “restored from archive” and easily get a list of all changed, added or deleted files. A couple of simple manipulations - and you will remove from the recovered folder all the duplicate files that are in the working one.
  • You are working in a folder on network drive and regularly make a copy to your local disk. In time your work folder has become quite large and the time spent on full copy, has become very large. In order not to copy the entire folder each time, you can first compare it with the backup one and copy only those files that have been changed or added, and also delete them in backup folder files that were deleted from the main one.

Once you get the hang of it and feel the full power of this method, you yourself will be able to come up with thousands of situations where the directory synchronization method will be of great help to you in your work.

So, how does everything happen in practice? Let's get started.

Let's assume we have a main folder "Working", which contains the files with which you are working. And there is a folder "Archive", in which lies old copy folders "Working". Our task is to find duplicate files in both folders and remove them from the folder "Archive".

Open TC. In the right and left panels, open the folders being compared:

Press menu “Commands” - “Synchronize directories...”


The directory comparison window opens

Next we need to set the comparison parameters. Put a tick in the parameters “with subdirectories”, “by content”, “ignore date”

  • "with subdirectories"— files in all subdirectories of the specified folders will be compared;
  • "by content"- Here key option, which forces TC to compare files BIT by BIT!!! Otherwise, files will be compared by name, size, date;
  • "ignore date"- this option forces TC to show differing files without trying automatic detection directions for future copying;

!!! Files will only be compared with same names!!! If the files are identical, but they have different name, then they will not be compared!

Press the button "Compare". Depending on the size of the files, the comparison can take a very long time, do not be alarmed. Eventually the comparison will end and the result will be displayed in the bottom status line (section 1 in the figure):


If the buttons in the “Show” section (section 2 in the figure) are pressed, then you will see the comparison result for each file.

— this button enables the display of files that are in the left panel, but not in the right;

— this button enables the display of identical files;

— this button enables the display of differing files;

— this button enables the display of files that are in the right panel, but not in the left;

If you initially have all display buttons turned off, then the result of the comparison can only be assessed by the status bar (section 1 in the figure above), in in this case we see that 11 files were compared, of which 8 files are the same, 2 files are different, and there is also a file in the left panel that is not in the right panel.

To complete our task, it is necessary to leave the display of only identical (identical) files, so we turn off all other display buttons


Now we only have identical files left, and we can safely delete them in the folder "Archive". To do this, select all files. The easiest way to do this is by pressing the universal combination CTRL+A. Or first select the first line with the mouse, then press the key on the keyboard SHIFT and without releasing it, select the last line with the mouse. As a result, you should get something like this:

The final step is to click right key mouse on any line and select the item in the menu that opens "Delete on the left"

TC kindly asks us about our desire,

and if we press "YES" then it deletes all marked files in the folder "Archive".

After this, the two folders are automatically compared again. If you do not need a repeated comparison, the process can be interrupted by clicking on the button "Abort" or press a key ESC on keyboard. If the repeated comparison was not interrupted, and we turned on all the display buttons, then we will see a window like this

All. The task has been completed. All identical files were found and deleted in the folder "Archive".

Educational video on the topic

2.Search for duplicates.

Fundamental difference this method from the directory synchronization method is that TC ignores the names of the files being compared. In fact, it compares each file with each, and shows us identical files no matter what they are called ! This search is very convenient when you do not know either the folder structure or the names of the files being compared. In any case, after searching for duplicates, you will receive an exact list of identical files.

I will show you the search for duplicates on one practical problem, searching for duplicates personal photos. Quite often you download photos from your digital gadgets to your computer. Often the situation gets confused, something is reset many times, something is skipped. How to quickly delete files that have been dropped multiple times? Very simple!

Let's get started.

Let's say you always dump all your photos into a folder "PHOTO" on drive D. After all the resets, the folder looks something like this:

As you can see, some files are located in folders named by the date of shooting, some are dropped to the root of the folder "_New" And "_New1"

To start searching for duplicates, open the folder in which we will search in any TC panel. In our case this is the folder "PHOTO"

Next, press the key combination on the keyboard ALT+F7 or select from the menu “Commands” - “Search files”

A window opens standard search TC. String "Search files:" leave it empty, then all files will be compared.

Then go to the bookmark "Additionally" and check the boxes “Search for duplicates:”, “by size”, “by content” and press "To start searching".


The search can take a VERY long time, do not be afraid of this, as it happens great amount comparisons of large volumes of files. At the same time, the progress percentage is shown in the status bar

When the search ends, a search results window will open, in which we press the button "Files to panel"


In the search window and in the panel window, identical files are collected in sections separated by dotted lines

Each section displays the file name and full path to the file. The names of IDENTICAL files can be completely different!
In this case, it is clear that the same photograph was recorded THREE times, twice under the same name( IMG_4187.JPG) and the third time this photograph was recorded under a completely different name ( IMG_4187_13.JPG).

Next, it remains to select unnecessary identical files and delete them. This can be done manually by selecting each file by pressing a key Ins. But it takes a long time and is not effective. There are better and faster ways.

So our task is to remove duplicate files in folders "_New" And "_New1".
To do this, click on additional keyboard, on right big key [+] . Typically, using this key in TC, files are selected by mask. The same operation can be done through the menu “Selection” - “Select group”

Hello, friends! In this article we will figure out how to implement find duplicate files on our computers. I admit, I don’t have such a problem. Usually, my computer has three partitions. The first system partition is from 50 to 100 GB, the second is for documents from 100 to 200 GB, and the third partition is for everything else. I have one folder for photos, one for music, and so on. Everything is transparent. The parents' computer is another matter. The hard drive is divided into three parts there. On the 3rd section there are two or three folders with photos + in each folder there are a bunch of subfolders. A photo folder was also subsequently formed on drive D. It’s hard to go through everything manually, and here programs for finding duplicate files will help us.

I don't want to install separate program for some function since there are many functions (for example, defragmentation or the same search for the same files). Accordingly, many programs will have to be installed on the computer. My position is the following. The less you install, the more reliable and stable your computer works.

There are solutions. Find a program that is practically necessary for computer maintenance (that is, it will most likely be installed) and that would be able to search for duplicate files. It didn't take long to search. This is the already familiar and proven CCleaner from Piriform. Starting from version 4, CCleaner was added this function and below we will see how it works.

Download the program from the official website

We install.

When you launch it for the first time, the window below will appear. If you select Yes, then when cleaning the computer by default, authorization on the above mail services may not be lost. Click Yes

Go to the Service tab on the left

Click on the Search Files button

For search identical files all that remains is to indicate required settings

There are not many settings and they are divided into three groups:

  • Coincidence
  • Pass
  • Where to look and places to exclude

Let's look at each group in more detail.

Coincidence

You can search for duplicate files by Name, Size, and Modified Date. You can also combine these criteria by checking more than one box. When organizing photos on my parents' computer, the first thing I do is search for a match by Name. Most likely there will be a bunch of files saved in different places. Then, it will be interesting to search for a match by Size. Since the photo can be renamed, but the size should not change.

How to effectively use the search for duplicates with the Changed checkbox enabled has not yet occurred to me. If you have options, please write in the comments. Perhaps if you took and added something to the photo without changing the name. But, in this case, with great probability, the size will change.

Pass

Which files should be skipped when searching for duplicates. The following options are possible here:

  • Bytes with size 0
  • Read-only files
  • Size less than x MB
  • System files
  • Hidden files

Where to look and places to exclude

Here, using the Add button on the Inclusions tab, you specify where to look for duplicate files. On the Exceptions tab, add places on your hard drive, flash drive, or external hard drive where you do not want to search.

In principle, everything is simple. To reset the settings, press the corresponding button.

When the filter is configured, click Find.

Sorting duplicate file search results

The result is an easy-to-view table with search results. Moreover, the table is formed immediately when any duplicate is detected.

Suspected duplicates are separated among themselves. The only thing I would like to see in this table is sorting by clicking on a column.

When you click on a file right click mouse, a context menu appears that allows you to conveniently sort search results. This is especially true if there are a lot of results.

The Exclude item allows you to remove all files from the folder you select. For example C:\Program Files. The Limit item will leave only files from the folder you select in the search results. The Select duplicates option allows you to select all files located in the folder you select. The remaining points seem to be clear.

The Open Folder option is very useful. Using it, you can quickly go in and see where the file is located and whether there are any identical files there that were not included in the results table or were eliminated by sorting.

All that remains is to figure out which of the files should be left and the rest deleted using the button at the bottom right.

Conclusion

This is how I’m going to look for duplicate files on my and other computers using good old CCleaner. For my purposes, the program's functionality is sufficient. If you need more, then DupKiller is worth a look. This demon paid program, you can read about it and download it from the official website http://dupkiller.com/index_en.html. DupKiller has much more ample opportunities configure the search. Viewing is also implemented there graphic files and listening to audio. An interesting possibility is to not exact match files, but up to a certain level (percentage).

Thank you for sharing the article on in social networks. All the best!


Hello dear readers. Today we will talk about duplicate files, as well as methods to deal with them.

Based on the name itself, you probably already guessed what these files are. Duplicate files like this are very polluting HDD, so you need to get rid of them periodically.

Duplicates appear on the computer arbitrarily and due to user inattention. Although we are all human and we tend to accumulate all sorts of things. No matter how large the amount of memory your hard drive has, after removing duplicates it will become much freer than it was before this process.

Unfortunately, deleting duplicate files cannot be done without third party programs. Windows Developers For some reason we missed this moment, but people found a way out. There are plenty on the Internet free programs to get rid of duplicate files. Below I will list three of the best ones and also give you the opportunity to download them.

CloneSpy

Very simple and convenient utility to clean your computer from duplicate files. After launching CloneSpy searches for checksums files, while ignoring the date and time of their creation, size, etc. This method of searching for duplicate files allows you to make a more accurate and detailed search.


But CloneSpy also has a disadvantage, because in the search results, in addition to copies, it can display files with the same name.

Download CloneSpy utility for free

Auslogics Duplicate File Finder

More powerful program search for duplicate files. Performs detailed analysis hard drive for the presence of identical files, at the end of which you will receive a list with all duplicates found.


I noticed that Auslogics Duplicate File Finder specializes well in finding duplicate multimedia files, which are gigabytes of identical music tracks, films, pictures, etc.

Download Auslogics Duplicate File Finder for free


DupKiller

Also very good program to find and remove duplicate files. I really liked the function of setting the percentage of acceptable matches, which you can set manually before starting analysis of hard disk.

On a computer with hard drive at one point it may turn out that its capacity is not enough. This, at least, happens to most users who actively use PCs. In case of solid state drive(SSD) the situation is identical with the only difference being that the free space on such a device is usually much less.

One way to increase free space is to delete duplicate files that inevitably appear after a while. Good duplicate file finder software should be able to recognize duplicates by name, size and/or content. And after finding duplicates, the program should offer the user the ability to choose which files and folders to delete and which to leave.

With all this in mind, excellent choice Duplicate Cleaner Free will be used to detect and remove duplicates. The program offers an abundance of functions combined with relatively high speed and an intuitive interface.

Before starting a scan, you can tell the program whether to take into account similarities in file names, whether files with a small or zero size, and system files and folders should be excluded from scanning. In addition, you can limit scanning to only files of a certain type and any or fixed size; and files created or modified between certain dates. And the “Audio Mode” section will be useful when searching for duplicate audio files. You can search by file name, artist, etc.

If your hard drive is so full that you're not even sure if you can install this program (weighs about 5 MB), you can try the old one, but still working version Easy Duplicate File Finder. The application is portable, which means you can download it directly to a flash drive and use it without installing it on your hard drive.

This program is not as feature rich as Duplicate Cleaner Free or Current version Easy Duplicate File Finder (which, by the way, is a smart alternative to Duplicate Cleaner), but it is very compact, portable and... works.

Finding duplicate images can be difficult and requires the use of specialized software. If you want to declutter your albums, perhaps you should try Awesome Duplicate Photo Finder. This program is absolutely free - you can use it freely both at home and in the office.

Awesome Duplicate Photo Finder allows you to find all your duplicate photos with just a few clicks. According to the authors, the program can compare photo sizes or even photos that have been color corrected. Supported following formats files: JPG, BMP, GIF and PNG.

Each of the programs mentioned above can be useful. Do a scan and you will be surprised how many duplicate files you have accumulated on your computer.

WindowsTips.ru

Finding duplicate files on a computer or laptop Windows XP, 7, 8, 10, looking for identical files using programs

Deleting duplicate files (copies of the same file) or folders can free up free disk space and reduces unnecessary trash in the system, which has a positive effect on the speed of the system. Sometimes duplicates are created by the user himself (for example, the same photos are copied to different folders located inside the same physical disk), in some cases they remain after using various software. The function of searching for unnecessary copies is performed by many applications, most of which are distributed under the free status. Let us describe the operation of several such applications.

Removing duplicates using Total Commander

We use Dupeguru

This software is designed solely to scan the system for copies and does not perform other functions.

Setting an alarm on your computer or laptop

AllDup to detect duplicates

The design of the program is made in a beautiful and easy-to-use style. Immediately after launch, a window appears with quick guide for finding duplicates. You can search anywhere physical disk entirely by checking the required local drives.

Or add individual folders by clicking on the arrow next to the “Source Folders” button and selecting “Add Folders” from the drop-down list.

Let's try to find duplicates in the Games folder in local disk"WITH:\"

Activate the “Search Method” tab and set up the criteria. By default, the option to search for duplicates only by similar names is active; if necessary, check the required settings. It is advisable to enable search by extension, otherwise the software may show files with similar names, even if they are not copies of each other.

Afterwards, click the start search button.

After completion, a new window with the results will open, in which we check the boxes Not necessary files, right-click on the file that is supposed to be cleared of duplicates (open the context menu) and select “Delete all other files from this group forever” to delete copies. In this case, the original itself will remain untouched, only duplicates will be deleted.

How to use DuplicateCleaner Free

A very thoughtful application for finding and removing duplicates on your computer. This allows you to search for all files in normal mode, search for copies of images or music, or identical folders.

Let's launch the application. First of all, we set up the search criteria, for this in the “ Additional options"check the "With the same name" setting and go to the "Scan path" tab

Select a folder, click the button to add the selected folder to the included paths and click the “Scan” button.

Is your computer slow? 5 Ways to Speed ​​Up Your Windows PC

We wait until the end of the scan, which will display the statistics of detected duplicates in a separate window. We close the window.

In the “Duplicate Files” tab, the list displays identical files, mark the unnecessary ones and click the “View” menu, select the “Delete files” item

In the window that opens, click “Delete file(s)”. In this case, it is advisable to enable deletion in the Recycle Bin so that you can restore the necessary files.

composs.ru

Finding and deleting identical files

Greetings, dear reader! Today I will show you a program that searches for identical files on the computer. The program not only finds copies of files, but also, at the user’s request, immediately deletes them. Very convenient in this regard. And there may be so many copies of files that you won’t even suspect it. They just may be located in different folders and even on different drives. You may use some of them all the time, but you may have forgotten about their copies.

For example, they downloaded a picture from the Internet, used it for their own purposes and forgot about it. After some time, you needed this picture, but you were too lazy to look for it on the computer. It's easier to find it on the Internet. Download again and get a duplicate file that already exists on your computer.

The same can happen with music files. You downloaded it into different folders and think that you have it in a single copy. Many PC users make one mistake. When you grab a file with the left mouse button and drag it to another folder located on another disk, it is not moved, but copied. This means that the file remains in the same place, but in new folder there was a copy of it on another disk.

It turns out that one file is superfluous and only takes up free space in the computer’s memory.

Search for identical files

This program has flexible settings with which we can speed up the search. Let's say we are looking only on one or two disks. We tick them and click the “Scan” button. But the program will find all files that have copies. But we don’t need this because, for example, we only want to find images.

Search by file type

In this case, go to the “Files and Folders” tab. Check the file format boxes. Images come different formats, but the program offers us only four jpg, jpeg, gif, bmp. These are the most popular image formats that almost every user has. The rest that are not in the list must be entered manually. Click the “Add” button. In the window that opens, enter required format Pictures. For example from Photoshop-(*.PSD)

OK! We scan and get a bunch of copies to delete. Stop! But they can be systemic. So let's move on.

We scan only the necessary folders

Let's select individual folders to scan. The program will only check them. At the bottom of the program there is a “Searched folders” setting. We check the “Only specified folders” item; with such parameters, the disk in the “Disks” tab can not be selected. Yes, and don't forget to check the box here "Include these folders even if the corresponding drive is not selected"

We scan and get the result. Upon completion of the scan, DupKiller will switch to the “List” tab, where all found duplicate files will be shown.

The files, in our case, are pictures, sorted into groups. A group consists of two or more files. They are all the same, as they are copies of each other.

Which files should I delete?

Click on any of the files in the group, and you will see a thumbnail image in the preview window. Now just scroll the mouse wheel to move through the list and compare copies with each other.

All information about the file is visible on the program screen. And even if the image is not displayed in the preview window, we can compare files by name, size and type. The first column, called "Path", shows the location of the file.

Deleting identical files

We look at this data and select one file in each group. Now the marked files can be deleted by clicking on the “Delete” or “Delete selected files” button. You can also use the “Delete” key on the keyboard to delete.

If there are too many files to delete, then it is better to use automatic deletion files. In this case, you choose from which folder to delete identical files. how it works? Select one file in the group with the right mouse button and click on the “Auto Select” button

In the window that appears in the top block, the paths to folders in which there are similarities between the files will be displayed. The same folders are listed in the lower block, but are not checked. We need to select one of these folders in which the files should be deleted. Click “Ok”

There's another problem here. Each time you delete one of the copies, a confirmation window appears. You're tired of confirming. Disable this notification by going to the “Delete” settings and uncheck the “Ask for confirmation before deleting” option.

OK it's all over Now. I superficially showed you the principle of operation of the DupKiller program.

There is a desire to delve into additional settings"Search Settings" and "Other Settings"

And in my opinion, she does her job well.

Write in the comments how you like this program and how do you clean up disk space of unnecessary copies?

Program website http://dupkiller.com/index_ru.html

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intercomp13.ru

Finding and removing duplicate files on your computer

Now you can find hard disks simply amazing volumes, measured in terabytes. Users can now store more and more data on their computer. But strangely enough, no matter what the size of the hard drive, at some point an unpleasant “emergency” occurs - there may be no space left on the disk at all.

Is it really necessary in such a situation to sacrifice some of the data stored on the disk, or buy another hard drive? As it turns out, there is a more economical and practical way out similar situation. The solution to the problem is to delete duplicate files, which accumulate on the system over time and take up unnecessary space.

It happens all the time that the same file can have several unnecessary copies. Therefore, you can and should get rid of unnecessary copies, thereby freeing up space on your hard drive. Naturally, searching for such elements manually is ineffective and you may not even find anything. So in today's article, we will look at a quick and easy way to clear your system of unnecessary duplicates.

Selecting a program to remove duplicates

Exists huge selection paid and free utilities who are capable of coping with such a task. Having made a detailed analysis of each, it was decided that it could do a good job here CCleaner program. This utility is quite popular and has won such favor among users due to its freeness and ease of operation, but most importantly, it provides desired result when it comes to cleaning the system. The program is capable of cleaning the system from many types of software “junk”, so it is useful for many other similar tasks. Recently, it has added a function to search for duplicate files. Now we will take a closer look at how it works.

First, you need to download and install the program version no lower than version 4. You can do this using the link: http://ccleaner.org.ua/download/

Once the program has been installed, open it. On the left side of the window, select “Service” and click on the file search tab. Here we will see the main parameters for searching for similar files.

Here you can select which match criteria will be used to search for files. And also, in the skip section you can specify exceptions, files that will not be affected. This is useful and will help you avoid deleting anything important. After this, we indicate those partitions on the hard drive in which the search for identical files will take place.

If desired, you can narrow your search area to specific folder on disk. To do this, click on the “Add” button and select it from the Explorer window.

Also, in this window you can specify file extensions that will be searched. This setting can be useful if you need to delete only identical music or movie files.

There is a section with the “Exceptions” parameters. Here you can manually specify files that the program cannot touch. When you have completed setting up the search for identical files, click on the “Find” button.

After the search is completed, the program will display a report with the results in the window.

The results are a list of found files, consisting of the name, file location, size, and creation time.

Now simply mark all unnecessary files with checkboxes and click on the delete button. Try not to delete everything at once, because among the duplicate files there may be quite important ones system elements. If the file is unfamiliar and you have no idea about its purpose, then just in case, it is better not to touch it. Sometimes identical files can be located in completely different folders, and the purpose of each will be related to different applications. In this case, you should not delete such files either. Always try to make sure that deleting a file will not break the system.

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How to remove duplicate files on your computer?

Hello, dear friends! In today's short article we will talk about how to remove duplicate files on a computer or laptop. But first, what is a duplicate file?

A duplicate file is a copy of a file that is located on the computer in another directory: folder, disk and has the same name, extension and “weight” as its original. Even if you did not specifically duplicate files in case of loss, system failures or for another purpose - they are still on almost every computer.

On operating systems that have been in use for more than a year, unnecessary duplicate files inevitably appear. These can be service libraries, videos, music, pictures, etc.

Where do duplicates come from, you ask?

Everything is very simple, for example, you downloaded two albums of songs by the same artist from the Internet, often the songs in the collections are repeated, i.e. the same. The same thing usually happens with photos - in different folders identical photos.

Over time, duplicate files become more numerous, and they take up space on your computer’s hard drive or flash drive. By deleting useless and duplicate files, you can increase (and sometimes significantly) free place on hard drives computer or laptop.

Sometimes it is not the user who is to blame for the occurrence of many duplicates, but third party programs installed on a computer. For example, some applications may install the same DLLs or OCX files to different folders.

How to remove duplicate files?

To get rid of duplicate garbage on your computer and solve the issue of how to remove duplicate files automatically, you can use special programs.

There are many programs to deal with this problem. Most applications this kind work on the same principle. First, the user starts the scanning process, the program searches for files with the same names and same size and offers to delete them.

Duplicate Finder

Even though the program Duplicate Finder has absolutely small size, she has good functionality. This application can quickly solve the problem of how to remove duplicate files by matching files bit by bit, which allows you to most accurately identify duplicates.

After the scanning process is completed, the program offers to either delete unnecessary copies or move them to a separate folder.

Duplicate Finder can also use the CRC32 algorithm to search for duplicates. The application is able to find files with zero size and supports working with removable drives (including USB devices).

The program has a built-in image viewer where you can view duplicate photos before deleting them.

However, Duplicate Finder is a paid program. Her free version allows you to delete or move up to 50 files to a separate folder, the size of each of which cannot exceed 2 megabytes.

Of the free programs that can solve the problem of how to remove duplicate files, the most popular are CloneSpy and DupKiller. They, like other applications of this kind, can compare files with each other by names, creation dates or checksums. DupKiller is used to find duplicates special algorithms, significantly speeding up the scanning process.

Auslogics Duplicate File Finder

Auslogics program Duplicate File Finder is also free and does a good job of solving the question of how to remove duplicate files, i.e. she is able to find extra copies music files, movies, images, etc. The program searches for duplicates by comparing the MD5 hash.

The application interface is intuitive - after launching the program, the user is asked to select the type of files to scan (archives, programs, photos, etc.), and after scanning, all that remains is to delete unnecessary copies. The only disadvantage of the program is that from time to time it shows intrusive advertising.

And let's look at this program in more detail.

Auslogics Duplicate File Finder works in the operating room Windows system, quickly downloads and configures. If necessary, it can be removed at any time.

You can download Auslogics Duplicate File Finder for free from the official website using this link: http://www.auslogics.com/ru/software/free/