double file finder

[Karl Heinz]

I have a lot of duplicate files and I want to use the "double file" finder / CCleaner ver. 5.88.9346 / 64. But it is not at all clear to me which of the duplicate files I can delete without getting problems? Can you please tell me the correct procedure and what kind of files I have to pay special attention to that must not be deleted under any circumstances! Please do not refere to the “CCleaner help page” as this is not really helpful for users and leaves many questions on the topic unanswered.

Karl

[nukecad]

The first thing to say is that the Duplicate Finder is not a system cleaning tool (as such).

It can help you save space by suggesting some files that you may not need to have more than one copy of, for instance video files and music files can take up a lot of space on your drive(s), and many people have lots of photos - some of which will be copies.

The second thing to say is that normally you should have it set to ignore system files and hidden files.
Looking at system files is an advanced option for someone technical looking for possible problems with the system.
Many system files need to be duplicated in different locations, and removing any of the duplicates could stop some apps working properly.
So it's best to not even to search for duplicate system files, unless you are a technician troubleshooting a problem.

As a general user you usually want to be looking for duplicates of your own images, videos, music, & documents.
Photo and music duplicates are the things that get searched for most, by far.

You need to be careful and think about just what you tell the duplicate finder to look for.
Different files can have the same name as each other, and copies of the same file (duplicates) can have different names.
But if you search for duplicates using just 'size' and 'content' then you can be sure that they are indeed the same thing.
(Although sometimes you may want to find different files with the same name, so that you can then rename one).
eg. These are my usual settings when I'm looking for duplicates that may be in different directories (folders) and/or with different names:

I will then set the pathname and file type(s) according to where I want to search and what type of file I am looking for, and if I want to search subdirectories as well.

Duplicate finder will check the locations I specify for files with the same size and if it finds any then check if the actual contents of the files are identical.
That makes sure that they are indeed duplicates, no matter what they are called. (It also ingnores files with the same name that aren't duplicates, because I didn't tell it to look at names).
It's quick - much, much quicker than you having to search hundreds (thousands?) of files for yourself.

But once it has found the duplicates that match your specified parameters only you can decide which of them you may want to get rid of. Nobody else can do that for you.
So, if searching like in my above example, you have to look at the pathnames of the duplicates found and decide which you want to keep - which may be all of them anyway.
There is an option to save a list of duplicates found to a text file.

Hope that helps.

[Dave CCleaner]

if, like me, you used to keep doing full backups of your phone to your HDD then you may have multiple copies of large holiday videos and whatnot on there - those should be recognisable to you and safe to delete the redundant copies.

If you don't recognise the files then might be safest to leave them alone. 

If you are getting too many results of tiny files, you may wish to consider setting a minimum size.

... and as Mr Nukecad very wisely recommends, keep that "ignore system files" box checked.

[kathoyt]

Hello!

I am trying to figure out this duplicate file quagmire!

The more posts I read of previous questions, though, the more I know I don't know. I was going to ask if there was a way to do a sweep and delete all the duplicate files, but now I see that maybe there are some system files that are ok to be duplicates and not to mess with those.

In the mean time I figured out how to select all the duplicate boxes while leaving one copy , but don't  dare do it. I know that I have a lot of music and photo files that were duplicated by accident when transferring to this pc last fall and that is what I really want to get rid of(I can see those audio and photo files) but there are files that say Program Files, Data and Test Files also. 

What can I delete?

Any help is much appreciated!

Kat

 

[nukecad]

When all is said and done only you can decide which files you want to keep and which you don't.

Nobody else can make that decision for you, and certainly an application can't do it for you.

Duplicate Finder is a powerful search tool if used right, but like any tool you have to learn to use it and use it carefully.

You are going the right way to start with, you just need to do a bit more.

As you say you should leave the system files alone, always set duplicate finder to ignore them. (unless you have a specific problem with some system files).
In fact if you don't know just (exactly) what any duplicate file found is then it's best to leave it alone.
Only delete something if you are certain that you don't need/want it.

In your case you say that it is accidentally copied/duplicated music and photo files that you are looking for, so there are a few things you can do to narrow that search down.

To start with as they have been copied from the same place then any such accidental duplicates will have the same file formats and the same names. (unless you did something to change them during the copying).

So when setting up the search path set it to look only for music filetypes.
Those will typically be .mp3 or .mp4 files, but there are other possibilities. https://www.canto.com/blog/audio-file-types/

Let's say your music files are either .mp3 files or mp4 files.
Use the 'Add' button to set the search path and filetypes. (Use 'Browse' to set the Drive/Folder).
The below would set the search path to search for .mp3 and .mp4 duplicates in any subfolder of drive 'C'. (I've done both types at the same time here, but you could do one type at once).

Then set the Match by and Ignore like this - this tells it to search all of drive 'C' and only find duplicate .mp3 files with the same name and the same contents, or duplicate .mp4 files with the same name and the same contents.

So clicking on search would look in all subfolders on the 'C' drive for all .mp3 or .mp4 files that have the same name and the same contents.

Note. You could search on name only and not contents, but then you should be doubly careful of the results - just because 2 files in different folders have the same name doesn't mean they are the same.

But again - once it has found those duplicates for you then you still have to decide which ones you want to keep or not, only you can know that.

The first question I would ask there is what app are you using to play your music, open that app and see what folder it is looking to play the music from.
(Normally that would be 'C;\users\{username}\music' but it could have been set to something else if you store your music elsewhere).
Whatever that folder is then that's probably the one with the files that you want to keep.

As you say you think there are also accidentally duplicated photos then once you have done the music files you would do the same kind of search but using whatever image file extension you normally use.

If none of the above helps then if you could let us know the full pathnames of any 2 files that you are certain are duplicates we should be able to suggest how to search for them.
(Preferably 2 of the music duplicates and 2 of the photo duplicates)