Pentazer

Thank you hazelnut; Yes this did help but I'm still not clear on how do I select some folders but leaving one directory alone. Below is a copy of the CCleaner duplicates found. This is what I'm trying to do - Protect/exclude the directory "E:\Local Disk\Backup Files\Program files and delete the rest. My complication is the other directories are very close to the one directory I want to keep, just with further directory addresses down the list of directories. It seems to me that if I Protect/Exclude "E:\Local Disk\Backup Files\Program files" that all these other directories will also be Protected/Excluded because that are all sub-folders of the directory I want to keep? I'm thinking maybe I should open the entire directory and just delete all the files from all the other directories as shown in the duplicate file list as a reference to all the other directories? My primary C:\drive is totally separate and shouldn't be effected by this process. I hope I've explained this adequately to explain what I'm doing??? Thanks for the help Bill

I just downloaded CCleaner yesterday and I'm trying to figure out how to select the files I want deleted and retain the one file I want to keep? This is saved on a separate HDD and not on my Primary C: dive. I've run the duplicate finder and got an extensive list of the duplicates. The reason I have so many is I was upgrading to the latest version of Windows 11 using an ISO file rather than the Windows Media Creation tool. Big Mistake as it installed over the previous version and I lost very many personal files. Odd though, I was not able to find or recover my "Downloads" file. I was able to recover most of them and having learned a lesson I backed up my recovered files several different ways. Now that I have things a little more under control I need to delete the duplicates while retaining the original. I can't seem to find the instructions on just how to do this selection of the files I want to remove? The file groups have as many as 11duplicates and I have several hundred or more file groups so selecting one at a time is not feasible. Need some help getting this set up properly so I don't make another big mistake. Thanks for any help I can get.