Tech Tuesday Preview: Duplicate File Finder

Well, it’s not Tuesday yet, but I just thought I would begin today because you can’t get started on this stuff soon enough! If you are paranoid, like we are, you’ll save your files in different places. For example, we might have Project1.psd on my computer, Kris’ computer, and our Google drive. We tell each other, “We’ll delete the duplicates when we have more time.” We periodically back up the files here in the Pixeladies’ Studio. I keep one of the hard drives here in the studio, and Kris takes one to her house. I just keep backing up files, but I know many duplicates exist. So when Kris and her sister took their vacation to Japan, I decided “more time” had arrived.

I wanted to back up 13 years (yes, 13 years!!) of Pixeladies’ files and get rid of the duplicates. First I ordered three new 2 Terabyte hard drives. Then I pulled out all of our CDs, DVDs, Blu-Ray disks, hard drives, and yes, even some floppy disks. Yep, we’re old.

Having investigated duplicate file finder programs years ago, I had an inkling of what was possible. But now we had files not only on all the above-mentioned media but also on two desktop computers (networked), our Google Drive, and Dropbox. Egads! I wanted to be able to find all the duplicates, no matter where they were located, and delete the duplicates.
After doing some research, I found Ashisoft’s Duplicate File Finder (DFF). It appeared it would do everything I wanted, and it was free! So I hooked up all the hard drive docks and Blu-Ray readers I could find to our computers; each computer has a CD/DVD player. There were USB wires and power cords everywhere. I started Duplicate File Finder and went out to dinner.

When I returned, I saw that DFF had found gajillions of duplicate files. I started to delete the duplicates, then noticed that if I purchased the Pro version of DFF, I would have some automated methods of deleting files, such as deleting all the duplicates from Kris’ computer. Hmm, so maybe I should buy the Pro version. Tune in tomorrow, when I’ll not only reveal my answer but show you how Duplicate File Finder works!