Simple Steps To Find And Remove Duplicate Files.
Step 1
Select the search engine which you want to use to locate duplicate files. Search Engine defines the means by which Duplicate Finder compares files to determine whether or not they duplicate one another.
Select the Byte by Byte Search Engine if you want to find 100% Duplicate Files - Recommended.
Step 2
Click on Add Path button and add as many Folders / Drives as you like to scan for duplicate files.
To search for predefined file types, press the File Mask combo button and select one of the options. (see visual below)
Select the appropriate file size range if you want to limit the search accorrding to file size. Skipping smaller files will improve search speed.
Any folders or files types listed in Exclusion section will be ignored during the Scan.
You can protect all files found in a specific search folders, from Accidental Delete. Files in the Proctected Folders will be marked with Yellow color in the Result List.
Now click "Start Search " button to start the search, the program starts to looking for duplicate files. It can take some time, depending on your system and on the number of files in the selected folders. Also some searching algorithms are more time consuming than other.
You can just minimize the program and let it run in the background.
Step 3
After search is completed, you should review search result to verify if they are duplicates by previewing images, opening files and folders and view file properties.
This is the list of all duplicate files found using the search-criteria. You can view the list, export it to a text/xml/html formats. And, most importantly, you can select which files to process and either delete them or move them.
Take Action
It is possible to review all the files and check duplicate files manually, but Duplicate Finder have "Easy Marking" option to mark all older versions of duplicate files. Select Action > Easy Marking > Mark All Duplicates.
Tip : The previous selected files remains still selected after using of this function.
Mark All Duplicates - Selects all files except the latest ones in each Duplicate Group (based on the file modification time)
Mark All In Selected Folders - e.g. if you've compared 2 folders and now want to delete duplicates from the second folder then just use this function to select required files.
Mark All In Selected Folders and Sub-Folders - Similar to previous option but applicable to the branch of subdirectories.
Duplicate Finder allows you to act upon marked duplicate files in a number of ways. Each of these functions is accessible either via the main application toolbar, or via the result list menu.
- Delete - This function allows to Delete the duplicate files. You can delete duplicates permanently or move them to Recycle Bin.
- Move - This function allows to Move the duplicate files to specified folder.
- Copy - This function allows to Copy the duplicate files to specified folder.
- Rename - This function allows to rename duplicate files.
The output list includes both original files and duplicates! You need to be careful when you delete or move files.