Susan from Wood River, IL USA writes:
I have Windows 7 and am looking for a program that will removed duplicate files on my hard drive. Can you recommend a good one?
Duplicate files can be a real nuisance to the organization of your PC. They take up unnecessary room, and can be a headache when trying to find the right version. This tip will take you through how to delete these files and take the power back from your clogged up hard drive.
It’s simpler than you might think to get rid of duplicate files, and doesn’t even require you to download external software.
To get started hold the windows button on the keyboard and hit “F” at the same time.
This will open the search program. Type in the file that you suspect to be duplicated. On the toolbar, click “views” and then “details”.
Scroll down the list and look for files with the same name. If the date modified is the same in two that appear to be the same then the chances are that you can delete one of them.
However, if you are aware of a large amount of duplicates on your hard drive, then you may want an external program to find them for you. Go here, download the program, and much like before, scroll down, find the duplicates and delete them.
It’s as simple as that! Just remember that if you make a mistake you can always go to your recycle bin and restore the file.
I’ve been guilty in the past of having multiple copies of the same album. After a clean up of the duplicate files I freed up 8GB of space!
~Matthew McGuire
Tags: drive, duplicate, file, files, hard, hdd, space, storage
Your link to Easy Duplicate Finder download is bad. It downloads Responsive templates. Here is the proper link http://www.easyduplicatefinder.com/.
I wonder if instead of having 1 specific file she thinks might be duplicated she believes she may have many and doesn’t have any idea what the file names are. There are applications available that will search the entire hard drive looking for these. One is even called “Duplicate File Finder” from Ashisoft and is available for free from sites like download.com.
Hi all, I’ve checked the link page and it looks as though it’s working now – not sure what the problem was.
Mark, the program I’ve linked to will do this for you, just click add in the program and add a directory to search – it will then scan that directory for all of your duplicate file.
Did not help me. It warned I have 64bit and 32bit could not be downloaded. Did not offer 64 bit that I could see.