deleting duplicate files:easy cleaner

[dr_ml422]

hi fellas, just downloaded easy cleaner. used the duplicate files option which found a whole boat load of duplicate files.

it'll show you 2 files for each entry it found. are these both duplicates to the original file? or do you delete 1 of them? if you delete 1 then which 1 is the 1 that should b deleted? hence which is the duplicate, or the original 4 that matter?

[Chewy]

I played with a few of these programs a long time ago and found them to be inferior to just organizing your files and eliminating duplicates manually.

Got 10 copies of an mp3, pick the best one and delete the rest?

5 copies of an installer for something like imgburn, delete the old ones.

There are no easy shortcuts

Back when we were all on dialup saving everything made more sense, today broadband makes it too easy to just delete it and redownload it.

bottom line! don't trust this kind of program

[dr_ml422]

chewy a lot of the files that come up are not even related to software, digital media, or audio. many have to do w/start up, .init., windows 32, and just about everything on the hard drive. including files for drivers etc..

wouldn't deleting this extra crap make my pc even more of a power user? looks like it might help make it more lean and mean.

[Chewy]

those are the ones you never want to touch, unless you like starting over and reinstalling windows and your programs

power user implies a certain amount of experience and knowledge, don't try to fix what's not broken

mainly "power users" learn to not break things then the fixing is a lot easier

[dr_ml422]

those are the ones you never want to touch, unless you like starting over and reinstalling windows and your programs

power user implies a certain amount of experience and knowledge, don't try to fix what's not broken

mainly "power users" learn to not break things then the fixing is a lot easier

chewy i needed to really heed your warning on this one. i just finished installing my drivers etc. etc..

hey sometimes experience is best teacher, but wise men always learn from the experiences of others. i'm a rookie for certain things still.

look out on this request. first how can i go about organizing my files. any of them. mostly video or audio. u know the ones u mentioned that r not gonna make me redo my pc again. also where in my hard drive do i go and look for files that are duplicated anyway.

what's the path for these? i don't mind manually deleting them at all. especially what i just went through.

thnx.

[Chewy]

think data only for worrying about duplicates

otherwise just keep everything organized and normal computer maintenance

[MilesAhead]

dr_ml422 there's a nice little freeware Windows port of the Linux "locate" command that I use instead of Windows Search. When you run the scan it makes a database of the files and folders on your system. Search is nearly instant. It works on XP and Vista and probably other Windows flavors too:

http://locate32.webhop.org/

[dr_ml422]

dr_ml422 there's a nice little freeware Windows port of the Linux "locate" command that I use instead of Windows Search. When you run the scan it makes a database of the files and folders on your system. Search is nearly instant. It works on XP and Vista and probably other Windows flavors too:

http://locate32.webhop.org/

miles which 32bit version should i download? there's like about 4 different ones.

[MilesAhead]

The top link appears to be the newest with an installer.
After that you can unpack the update over it if you
want latest and greatest.

Sorry, I didn't look at the "daily update" yet. I didn't realize
it was just a bunch of files.

[dr_ml422]

yeah that's exactly what it is. a bunch of files. now that i'm here, how do you deal w/compressed zip folders anyway? i till now haven't a clue what to do w/them when i come across them anywhere, especially in regards to freeware...

can u either help me w/this or point to a link that'll show me.

i searched the forum, but a whole lot of other stuff related, but not addressing this.

[Chewy]

for that download create a folder on your desktop, put the download in there, extract the files into that folder, name the folder locate, after extracting delete the zip download

[MilesAhead]

dr_ml422 the top link on the download page is an installer. That's all you need.

[dr_ml422]

thnx chewy. thnx miles. i just downloaded the exe. file.

chewy the procedure above is that a good standard procedure for all zip files? or just for ones that contain a bunch of single files, and not an application or executable?

[dr_ml422]

dr_ml422 the top link on the download page is an installer. That's all you need.

miles i'm lost in regards to this locate 32. what do i do now? i opened it and ran a search of the whole system it came up w/every file imaginable. which ones are able to be deleted?

chewy said think data. there's hundreds of data files. i'm not going to mess my system again by deleting the wrong files. i need some starting point so i could take it from there.
thnx.

[Chewy]

I use the term "data" to refer to files that you created, it's then obvious what's to keep and what's to delete

other files are system or application/program, leave them alone

follow general cleanup guidelines, if in doubt don't fix something that isn't broken

like in disk cleanup, there's little to be gained by compressing old files and a lot to risk

I still am having a hard time seeing any relevance in this whole thread, someone that's been up and running for a long time on the same install might need to do this, but looking for dups on a relative new install seems useless.