So how is the dupe cleaner doing in v...4093?

[slowday444]

I'd stumbled upon the thread after the first release when it was considered grossly dangerous. Realizing one must still be cautious, how is it functioning? Thank you!

[Andavari]

Haven't used it myself since the announcement topic never mentioned the inclusion of hash checking (crc, md5, sha-1, etc.,) which was a valid point wanted by some of us, and I won't use it until they at least put in some hash checking to determine if a file is a real dupe.

[DennisD]

I don't think it's something I will ever use.

 

There are duplicate files on my PC which I do know of such as audio and video encoders and decoders. I have a habit of providing audio and video programs with their own codecs rather than have them access a shared one from a "common" folder.

 

And I'm pretty sure there will be duplicate files of which I'm not aware, which are "active" and being used. I don't think I could be chewed to sort out which duplicates are needed/useful and which aren't.

 

I've gone six and a half years without ever using a tool of this type so I think I'll just keep it that way.

 

Personal choice of course, but don't rush into using something like this without knowing exactly what you're doing.

[login123]

I just tried it, worked ok. It seems that, like any application with enough power to be useful, the user has to make decisions about what to delete. That could be a problem if one doesn't know what the files are and what they do, or isn't careful.

 

I used it to narrow down the search to a folder known to have duplicates and lots of identical file names. You can see in the pictures that it found tons of matches. That is because i have been saving Nirsoft utilities for a while, and never have taken time to eliminate the duplicates.

 

Settings used: List of some files found:

 

Interestingly, before I selected the option to "include files and subfolders", no duplicates showed. I had no idea what that option meant, learned it while making this post, so thanks, Slowday.

 

You can see in the list,

- the 1st and 4th sets have 3 files with the same name and the same file size.

- the 2nd and 6th sets have 3 files with the same name but different file sizes.

Before deleting anything I'll compare the apparent duplicates. Using Nirsoft's "HashMyFiles" app .

 

It would be more complicated if these were system or program files, and one didn't know what they do. If thats the case, as others have said, just leave'em alone.

 

edit: did the same operation in win xp & win 7. Same result.

[kroozer]

. . . don't rush into using something like this without knowing exactly what you're doing.

 

jawohl . . removing some dupes will not improve performance but may create issues; so risk outweighs reward.

[Andavari]

Before deleting anything I'll compare the apparent duplicates. Using Nirsoft's "HashMyFiles" app .

 

You had to use a checksum/hash tool to find out if they were really duplicates!

[Guest Keatah]

Why I dislike the dupefinder in CCleaner. Why it is bad. Why it is beta.

 

I prefer using the dupefinder (or any other 3rd party dupefinder util) in specific controlled situations. This means like when I'm organizing & pruning a large set of files that are mostly user data. Things like pictures and music, old videogame and computer software images, scanned magazines in the process of being renamed and sorted. Things of that nature.

 

As a self-proclaimed expert user I never feel comfortable running them on system & application directories. There are too many unknowns and specifics that are subject to problems. Too many unique situations & configurations. Using a dupe finder requires you have a good bird's overview of what you're working on. And even better knowledge of how duplicated files fit into the system and "connect" across user profiles and different configurations and versions of applications.

 

In this modern day era of hiding details from users and dumbing down the "computing experience" via touch-screen operation and obfuscated filing systems, introducing a tool such as this to the "uneducated" masses just asks for headaches.

 

Why such a feature was ever included in CCleaner I'll never know. The performance gain is minimal to none if you kill off even a whopping 20% of the files in a system. The savings in space, however, could be more tangible, if you happen to be pushing around and organizing thousands of small files.

 

To make matters worse, it is not a true duplicate finder - and therefore doesn't work. This is a beta-feature and shouldn't be thrust upon the public. Understand that a pair of duplicate files can be sitting right under its nose and they'll slide right on by. But files named the same, with different contents will be flagged. Talk about a screw-up.

 

Unabashedly I wholeheartedly recommend a true duplicate finder that works correctly. If you're an expert user, you'll likely have already acquired a nice tool anyhow.

[login123]

You had to use a checksum/hash tool to find out if they were really duplicates!

 

Yep, have to make sure they are in fact duplicates. Name, size and date aren't enough to do that.

 

Maybe if there was a way to check the hashes of selected files, after the initial search is run, it wouldn't slow the process too much.

 

Fwiw, I would only ever use it like Keatah suggested, to find duplicate files like music, word documents, etc. That would just be to save space and confusion.

 

The files in those pictures above are small and already somewhat sorted. It seems like this duplicate finder would be most useful on a big data storage drive. It took only about 2, 3 minutes to search a 500 gb USB HDD. Found a bunch of stuff i didn't know was still there, don't need, will delete. The job for me is now to see if they really are dups and I really want to delete them. A built in hash checker would make that easier.

 

Anyway, thats a job you never can avoid, you have to make informed decisions about what to tweak. Ever notice how similar the words tweak and break are?

[Andavari]

Ever notice how similar the words tweak and break are?

 

That would make a cool forum signature, and even a t-shirt. Often true when tuning/tweaking cars too.