i'm a new user. I've run the cleaner successfully but now i'm having trouble with the duplicate finder.
when i point it at the whole c drive it finds loads of dupes - a scary amount that i'm not convinced of.
when i run it and only point it at one folder where i know there are dupes, it finishes instantly, as if it hasn't even looked, and finds nothing.
am i doing something wrong?
Hi merlin,
You are going to have to give some more information before anyone can work out just what you are seeing.
To start with:
What OS are you using? (Xp, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10).
Where are the duplicates found? (Say you have just updated to 10, or if Microsoft has prepared your computer for an OS update, then there will be a lot of duplicate system files on the C:/ for a while).
If you only point to one folder then I would expect that it will only check for duplicates in that folder, it won't check if the files are duplicated elsewhere.
Hello Merlin,
I updated to Win 10 last Aug. 2015, had problems and went back to Win 7.
Went back to Win 10 again and more problems, so I settled back to Win 7.
In reading your post, I agree with you that for awhile I had duplicate files
in C disk. These are now long gone.
However, I still have a bunch of duplicate files on my backup disk D only.
They are small in size and are dated Oct 25 and Oct 30, 2015. then Jan 9, 2016
(date of my last OS change from Win 10 to Win 7.)
I have read to just leave these files alone since they could affect one's OS.
My question is since all these files are only on the backup disk D (nothing on C),
is there a way to remove them, and if so, how? Can backup files be safely deleted?
CCleaner does not delete these duplicate files, even if you try one at-a-time.
Please note that this is my first time using this forum. I'd appreciate any advice.
This is just an example of a few duplicate files on backup disk D found by CCleaner:
Thanks again,
Ed
Would anyone in this forum kindly reply to my post above? I'd appreciate a response.
Once again, please note that these duplicate files are not on my HDD “C”. They are
all on my HDD “D” for backups. Thus my inquiry to see if these can be deleted, and
if so, how?
Thanks,
Ed
In a nutshell, and only based on the info you have supplied, then Yes, they can be deleted.
but the big caveat is, I/we only know what you have stated and on the assumption your system drive (where Windows is) is on C:\ drive and as you say, assuming D:\ is just backups, then of course they can be deleted.
when you try to delete them (let's say by simply hitting the Delete button) are you getting some sort of error message?
if so, that may indicate those files are still 'special', that is, in use, or referenced in the Registry, who knows, and that's something only you can decide.
if you investigate and satisfy yourself that they can be removed, but the normal process doesn't work, try using a program like Unlocker to remove them. (search Unlocker in the forum for a recent discussion and precautions when downloading it).
Thank you for your reply MTA: First off, to answer your question, when I select delete on one of the duplicate files, CCleaner gives me a response in a window that reads "The operation has been completed. Some of the selected files were not deleted." Thus, CCleaner can not delete the duplicate files.
Secondly, Most of this duplicate files have suffixes .dll .exe and .dat – wich appear to be system files, yet again, these dup files are on a backup disk (D), not on the primary C disk, which has no duplicates at all.
I know the location of the duplicate file folders, but when I try to delete them using File Explorer, I get the disturbing window, that I do not have the required permissions to delete, even though I’m the administrator. To go one-by-one for the thousands of dup files and allow permissions would take for ever.
Lastly, I don’t know whether to proceed with the Unlocker program you suggest and whether or not this could damage some files.
Please advice.
Thanks again.
Ed
again, big caveat here, I can only give advice on the very limited knowledge gleamed from what you have stated.
first up, if D:\ is truly a backup of C:, in other words, things have only been put on D:\ because they were copied from C:\ then removing them off D:\ would still leave the original; on C:\
so even if something shouldn't have been removed, your next backup should recreate it back on D:\
if it doesn't, than it is no longer on C:\
again, I cannot stress this enough, it is your PC and ultimately only you have the 100% knowledge of that PC's life and how things got onto D:\
if in doubt, leave the files alone.
who cares if there are a few duplicates, no one has ever gotten into trouble for having too many files. better that than the opposite.
my guess as to the error stating you don't have permissions to delete those files is they were put there by another User of the PC, and the User you are currently logged onto, is not that same User, so Windows is throwing up that message.
that is one of the benefits with Unlocker, it will still delete files that 'belong' to another User.
that probably explains why you have dups on D:\ but not on C:\ apparently.
D:\ been the dumping ground for backups for ages, for multiple Users and there's various versions of system files; those EXE and DLL etc files you mention.
On 3/3/2016 at 07:15, merlin777 said:<div class="ipsQuote_contents"> <p> I've run the cleaner successfully but now i'm having trouble with the duplicate finder. </p> <p> </p> <p> when i point it at the whole c drive it finds loads of dupes - a scary amount that i'm not convinced of. </p> <p> </p> <p> when i run it and only point it at one folder where i know there are dupes, it finishes instantly, as if it hasn't even looked, and finds nothing. </p> </div>
Can confirm.I'm running dupe finder on (3) drives. All searches involving any directory but the main return nothing and are instant. I started with nothing but (3) subdirectories and the search returned nothing. I ran (3) searches after that. Each one was for a whole drive and (1) subdirectory on each of the remaining ones. Each time it returned dupes on only the top directory level search.
If anybody needs a workaround, you can still search a whole drive and make a list of exclusions.
Version 5.52.6967
Windows 10 fully updated
I'm admin on this machine.