One of my year 2008 resolution is to clean up and organize all my files. I have software, movies, mp3s, documents and notes everywhere in I think at least 5 separate external hard drives. All my external hard drive enclosure looks the same and I honestly tell you I can’t identify which is which unless I connect to my computer to see what’s in there. Both my laptop and desktop hard disk is running out of disk space. When I am in these conditions, don’t expect me to have a proper backup of my stuff when all my files are in such mess. I know it’s bad… really bad. Actually having less or no duplicate files is good because you can free up your hard disk space, have proper backup, reduce backup time and reduce file searching time.

So what I am going to do is I have to start organizing my files. I’ll put all software into one hard disk, all mp3s into another hard disk and so on… Then I’ll have an extra hard disk solely for backing up my important files. But before I do all that, I expect to have a lot of same and duplicate files which is taking up a lot of unnecessary hard drive space.

I’ve found a total of 6 freeware to help me find and remove duplicate files on my computer. It is interesting because I learn the methods used by each different software to scan for duplicate files.

If you do a search in google on “remove duplicate files”, you’ll easily find a lot of software that is able to do that. I’ve found 6 of them and I will try my best to find out which is the best to use. For me, most important thing in a software is how easy it is to use and also the method being used by the software do perform a task.

1. Duplicate File Finder

- This is the easiest software to find duplicate files and also with only a click of a button, it will remove all old duplicate files. Portable, simple graphical user interface and no configuration at all. The method being used to scan for duplicate file is raw binary comparison of the actual data inside the file. It is 100% accurate using this method. Original Files are determined by creation date, if it was created first, it is considered the original file. Took 2 minutes and 29 secs to scan 106GB (23950 files). Not able to select which folder to exclude scanning, so you have to avoid adding root of a drive to the path.
[ Download Duplicate File Finder ]

2. Heatsoft Clone Cleaner Lite

- Nothing much to configure. Just add the path that you want to scan and search. By default it protects Windows, Program Files and hidden folders. Took 2 minutes 5 seconds to scan 106GB (23950 files). One thing I don’t like is it promotes the PRO(shareware) version at a few places on the software. It uses TABS to show you the scan result in same name, same size, same name and size, same content, full clones and zero size. It has Smart Mark where you can automatically mark the duplicate files to be deleted.
[ Download Heatsoft Clone Cleaner Lite ]

3. DupKiller

- DupKiller has all types of scanning methods. Same name, same date and time, same size, same type(extension), similar name and same content. The same content is raw binary comparison which is 100% accurate. Has very good exclusion option but unfortunately very slow in binary comparison. Took 4 minutes 55 seconds to scan 0.3% of 106GB (23950 files). I also don’t like DupKiller automatically saving and loading of previous scanned results by default. You can turn it off at the options page.
[ Download DupKiller ]

4. Easy Duplicate Finder

- Able to exclude system folders (windows and program files). It says that it search for true duplicates (files with same contents) which I think it meant raw binary comparison. Took 1 minute 46 seconds to scan 106GB (23950 files). This can be a really good duplicate finder BUT there is no way I can easily select all duplicates and delete them with one click. It found 5809 duplicates on my computer and I am going to have a hard time selecting them one by one.
[ Download Easy Duplicate Finder ]

5. DoubleKiller

- Ability to scan for duplicates using names, sizes, dates and CRC32. All methods used here is not 100% accurate. CRC32 is not 100% because there is a very small probability of two files having the same checksum although they are not identical. If you want to use raw binary comparison, you need to PURCHASE the PRO version. I didn’t test this because it doesn’t have raw binary comparison.
[ Download DoubleKiller ]

6. CloneSpy

- CloneSpy is another one that doesn’t do raw binary comparison. It only compares checksums, same name and approximate size. I’d totally avoid using this to scan and delete duplicate files on my computer.
[ Download CloneSpy ]

There you have it. The best duplicate file scanner and remover is Heatsoft Clone Cleaner Lite and the easiest to use is Duplicate File Finder. I’d be using this two in future to remove all the duplicate files on my computer, laptop and external hard drives.

[tags]clone, CRC32, duplicate, identical, compare[/tags]