Best Free Duplicate File Detector
I'm not a great fan of the practice of routinely deleting duplicate files from PCs. Sure it can free up some disk space but it can also get inexperienced users into a great deal of trouble. There are several utilities available for detecting and removing duplicate files, but only a few really good programs have been developed.
CloneSpy is the one of the oldest programs in its class. It's certainly not the fastest, but it's definitely the smartest. You can specifically select what is to be scanned and this can include multiple drives, multiple folders, or just individual folders. It has the ability to detect duplicates by CRC, by file name, by CRC and file name, and by file name and size. It will also detect zero length files. The program does not need to be installed but can be run from the executable so it's a good candidate for your USB Flash drive toolkit. It also throws up duplicates in a way that at least makes you think about what you are deleting. Click-happy users may find this latter feature an annoyance; to me it's a safety feature.
As for annoyance, consider that you have 50 duplicates and you want to decide for each file, what you get are 50 pop-ups, one after other, for each file. And for this reason Duplicate Cleaner is my No.1 program.
Duplicate Cleaner has a very streamlined user interface divided into tabs. The scanning job sequentially progresses to the next tab. It also scans for files matching their CRC checksums. Scanning is very fast in comparison to Clone Spy. Scan results are shown as a list in the results tab, where you can select any file by looking at its name, size, date, location, or use ‘Selection Assistant’.
The Selection Assistant selects files of older date, smaller/greater size, having a specific string in file name or file path. It offers image preview of common image formats, and has a music search mode which can involve bit rate and size. It can also create hard links of the deleted duplicate files to the single file which you opt to keep. Hard linked files behave like any standard files, but are cross linked to one single file. Read further details about Hard Links before using this option.
Easy Duplicate Finder is another option. It is a little more generic than Duplicate Finder with a simple user interface. Does not have image previews, dedicated music search, Selection assistant, Hard Link creator like Duplicate Finder. For its standard job i.e. finding duplicates, it is really easy to use, search process is speedy, system files can be excluded. It's also more recently developed than both the above. Please read the help file and use with care. In particular do NOT include your Windows folder in your scan unless you are a knowledgeable user.
CloneSpy
Website: http://www.clonespy.com/
Download link: http://www.clonespy.com/?Download
Author: CloneSpy
Current version: 2.33
Version date: July 13, 2008
License: Freeware
Download File size: 693KB
Operating Systems Supported: Windows 98se/NT/ME/2000/XP
Additional Software Required: None
64 Bit Capable: No
Non-English languages supported: Unknown
Duplicate Cleaner
Website: http://www.digitalvolcano.co.uk/dupe.html
Download link: http://www.digitalvolcano.co.uk/download/dc_down.html
Author: Digital Volcano
Current version: 1.2.0
Version date: April, 2007
License: Freeware
Download File size: 1.7MB
Operating Systems Supported: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP. Windows 95/Vista installations are currently untested/unsupported.
Additional Software Required: For Windows 95/98/ME you will need the Unicode driver from Microsoft.
64 Bit Capable: Unknown
Non-English languages supported: None
Easy Duplicate Finder
Website: http://www.easyduplicatefinder.com/
Download link: http://www.easyduplicatefinder.com/download.html
Author: Easy Duplicate Finder
Current version: 2.1
Version date: May 13, 2008
License: Freeware
Download File size: 737KB
Operating Systems Supported: Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP/Vista
Additional Software Required: None
64 Bit Capable: Unknown
Non-English languages supported: Unknown
This software category is maintained by volunteer editor Zeeshan.
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Easy Duplicate File Finder is really good. It supports Unicode filenames.
Yep, for duplicate files and music, duplicate cleaner is my fave.
The selection assistant is particularly handy.
Clone Tools from www.pilotman.com is another program. It works very different from all the other programs as it works with folders containing duplicate files. Knd of like a mix between a standard duplicate file detector and a folder compare program.
I second Duplicate Cleaner. It rocks :)
I use Directory Report
http://www.file-utilities.com/downloads/wdir.zip
It can find duplicate files based on the same:
Name, size, CRC (32 bit has) and/or comparing byte by byte
Lots of other features as well
I would recommend NoClone 2007 Free Edition. I normally use it to scan my duplicate mp3s and it works perfectly. It supports Windows 9x/Me/NT4/XP/2000/Server 2003/Vista . I highly recommend this one to be added to the category.
http://noclone.net/
I wasn't aware this was free.
Can you provide a download link to the free version?
Not exactly the same thing, but on a related note is VisiPics
http://www.visipics.info/index.php?title=Main_Page
VisiPics (as it's name would suggest) finds duplicate pictures on your computer, even when they are not exactly the same. You can make it detect pictures with more difference by setting it to a loose filter or make it only look for photos that are almost exactly identical by setting the filter to strict. It is great, especially if you constantly save pictures to your hard drive and don't have that great of a memory on if you have or have not saved a picture before.
www.funduc.com/dupfiles.htm
brooksyounce.byethost13.com/soft/dupfinder.htm
Only one weak point - not unicode. Otherwise it's an excellent product.
Niefer ;)
If one wishes to compare what changes have been made
between two revisions of the same file, folder or archived
folder (including subfolders) [eg. you have an older backup
of a folder and you would like to compare this with the newer
folder], then csDiff is the tool you need.
- Bharat Kurve
Hi Bharat
csDiff is indeed a very good and a kind of unique program. I thought of using it as dup detector but it seems far fetched, as there are many good software available for the job. But it certainly does not under mines the importance of the software itself as it is really quite unique for its specific task and I for myself can definitely use something like this.
Thanks for sharing.
Zeehsan
recently I needed to eliminate hundreds of duplicate mp3s {a friend panicked when on a system message and merged iTunes music...eh}
I tested several duplicite finders and found these critical features to make a difference.
-level of combinations by which to compare files [date, size, name, checksum]
-level of options to specify exclude/include directories
-visual presentation of the results after a scan...
...-speed and ability to work with the results-list of duplicates after a scan (sorting, mask-selecting...)
-an option to save/remember the results-list
and then just little things: I remember someone complained a program failed to see a difference between VOB files and reported them as duplicates...
http://www.easyduplicatefinder.com/
is my own fave, and it supports vista
doublekiller is another contender worthy of mention.
http://www.bigbangenterprises.de/en/doublekiller/
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