Free space on your computer’s hard drive tends to run out at the most inopportune moment. And there is no difference, two terabytes of this same disk, four or six. Everything comes to an end. And usually, much faster than the user planned. How to clean the disk and allocate a little space for new files? Standard cleaning of the partition using special programs does not help much. However, there is a solution. Finding and removing duplicate files can help free up a lot of hard disk space. How to do it? We will talk about this below. But first, some general information. So to say, a little "educational program".
What is a duplicate?
In a computer environment, a "duplicate" is a file with the same name, name, size, and content as is already present in the computer's memory. Many users mistakenly think that they do not have any duplicates on the HDD. They are very mistaken, because sometimes the Windows itself creates duplicates. For what purpose - is unknown. But such a fact does occur. If the duplicate is several megabytes in size, then Buddha is with him. Touching it makes no sense. But there are giants, ranging in volume from 200 to 2000 megabytes. And a couple of these files can seriously eat scarce hard disk space. Finding and removing duplicate files manually is hellish work. It is necessary to consider a huge number of parameters. It is not simple. You can go astray and delete not at all what you need. Therefore, the developers came up with special programs that can help users in this difficult task. Now we will look at the most popular utilities and understand which one deserves the title of best.
Popular TS file manager
Oddly enough, a two-pane file manager called Total Commander opens the list. In fact, it is not a duplicate search utility. But thanks to the support of a huge number of plugins and some built-in functions, it may well be suitable for this task. The option with Total Commander is good because you do not need to install any additional software. But this is only if you download and install the version of the PowerPack TS. It is in this version that there is a huge amount of pre-installed software of the Portable edition. To search for duplicates in the file manager there is a special utility called Duplicate Buster. It works quite quickly and does not load the computer. You can call it using the special panel at the top of the Total Commander window.
Dupkiller
Small and lightweight program to remove duplicate files. It has a simple and intuitive interface, is easy to configure and has a powerful algorithm for finding copies. The utility easily copes with its duties and can plug into the belt for the speed of work more famous products. And this despite the fact that the installation file "weighs" only three megabytes. This is the most lightweight application with such functionality. Dupkiller is able to find all duplicate files and permanently delete them. Moreover, the deletion algorithm is such that Windows will not even be able to restore them if it wants to do it "quietly." Files are deleted immediately and forever. And this is the main advantage of the utility over other products. The same “Total Commander” cannot do that. Therefore, many choose this application.
Fast Duplicate File Finder
This utility is designed to quickly find duplicates and remove them completely. Duplicate File Finder can search for copies even among system files. True, for this he needs administrator rights. At the moment, this is the most common program of such a plan. It is completely free, which makes it the most preferred for home use. The utility has a powerful mechanism for finding copies of files. It is based on artificial intelligence and accurately identifies duplicates. Removal occurs in the usual way. There are no features here. Therefore, duplicates may suddenly reappear. And therefore, you need to regularly check the system for copies of files. And so the utility itself copes with the task. More is not required of her.
NoClone 2007
Quite an ancient program, but still relevant. At least for those who still use the "seven" from Microsoft (and most of them). Search and removal of duplicate files occur according to the simplest scenario: found, asked, deleted. NoClone does not shine with any additional options. There is no advanced search algorithm either. So the utility may well miss something. Often you have to clean up her misses with his hands. However, she copes with most of the duplicates. So, it makes sense to use it. But the owners of the "top ten" it is absolutely not suitable, as it will not be able to scan system files for duplicates. Better to pick something fresher. For example, the latest version of NoClone. It exists in nature. Only for some reason nobody has seen her until now.
Clonepy
Another utility of this kind. Feels like an exact copy of NoClone. In terms of functionality, too. Removing duplicate files in CloneSpay occurs in exactly the same scenario. There are no options for the “correct” removal either. Use this program is only in tandem with your own hands, as it often skips duplicates. But with most of the copies copes. The utility was good in the early 2000s when there were no sane alternatives. But now this product is doomed to extinction. It simply does not compete with steeper products. Even the notorious Total Commander handles duplicates much better. But some still use this utility "from old memory." By the way, if you have a dozen, then this program will definitely not suit you.
Conclusion
So, we examined some of the most popular software products for finding and removing duplicate files. Not all of them can boast of functionality and accuracy. But among them there are quite working instances that can be used in modern realities. Those who don’t like cluttering up their computer with various obscure programs may well use Total Commander. This file manager cheers with the automatic search for duplicate files and deletes them without problems. That's just this manager is paid. And the license is quite expensive. But we know exactly what needs to be done. It is so?