Help! How to sort duplicate files?

[STC]

8 hours ago, bluesman said:

I may have missed it, but I don't see any mention of simple software like Similarity, AudioDedup, and AllDup, all of which are freeware that seem to work very well.

 

Finding the duplicate files is not difficult but how do you eliminate one by one when the number is (now was) about 64K?

 

 

I have a long list like this and sometimes as many as three similar tracks in the same folder.  Long file names got truncated when transferring/copying to another folder.  I also have a large number of rips of multi-artist Cds which were filed under individual artist folder. It is too tedious to organize them under one folder with the actual  CD album's name now although I am still trying to do them. 

 

Anyway, I am almost done. Just take a smal break and verify the steps and I believe I could clear the two drives with over 64K files each in a couple of hours.  Now, just making sure my prized collection are in tact before embarking in bulk deleting. 

[bluesman]

4 minutes ago, STC said:

 

Finding the duplicate files is not difficult but how do you eliminate one by one when the number is (now was) about 64K?

I'm pretty sure that AudioDeDup will group all the duplicate files it identifies, so you can back them up en mass and then move or delete them.  You don't have to do it one by one.

• "After the scan process is finished the program shows all audio file duplicates in groups...Just a couple of mouse clicks will remove all duplicate audio files and save valuable disk space. A backup of the duplicates can be saved as the tool can move the files to a specified folder maintaining the directory structure."

I just thought it might save you some time and effort if it works as advertised. I'm sure it's not as easy as they make it sound, but it may be a short cut for you.

[STC]

5 minutes ago, bluesman said:

I'm pretty sure that AudioDeDup will group all the duplicate files it identifies, so you can back them up en mass and then move or delete them.  You don't have to do it one by one.

 

I will look into it this weekend. Meanwhile, the grouping feature is a little tricky for my situation. Here is a scenario of one my drives.

 

Drive D.

There are 4 main folders of music in them:-

1) Dell laptop music.

2) JRMusic

3) Music

4) ZoomRecording.

 

In Music folder, under folder X, there will be Track XXY and Track XXY 1 and Track XXY 2. I am not sure how I could have three identical tracks in one folder but I believe when you copy an identical file it doesn't replace but add them to the same folder with an addition of a number to the track name. I think this happened when I used either Itunes, WMP or JRiver to move/copy files. With file explorer, I can choose to replace or skip the files.

 

Using the the group feature, I will get three identical files. If I choose to delete them based on grouping of the four folders then I would have deleted all the duplicates (Track XXY and Track XXY 1 and Track XXY 2) in Music folder. Grouping works fine if Track XXY is (1) or (2) above or in any other folder besides (3) Music.  This is the reason I am reluctant delete them by grouping. 

 

Thanks again for the suggestion. 

 

 

[bluesman]

1 minute ago, STC said:

 

I will look into it this weekend. Meanwhile, the grouping feature is a little tricky for my situation.

Wow - that’s some kettle of fish! Good luck.