Dave
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Post by Dave on Aug 3, 2014 11:46:50 GMT
Hi Guys, I know the man is on holiday but I'm in no hurry and maybe someone else has got an answer anyway so here goes. I started storing music files (mainly FLACs) years ago when 240GB was a big HDD. As capacities have increased and my library has increased I have attempted to move files across to ever increasing sizes of HDD. I have not been aware of any problems during the process but experience has now shown that I have multiple copies of many tracks taking up otherwise usable space. Does anyone know of a program that will reliably identify duplicate tracks and allow me to delete them without having to go through the whole lot manually? Several programs seem to have a 'Delete duplicate tracks' option but none that I have tried seem to work for me, so any suggestions guys? TIA, Dave.
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Crispy
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Madrigal music is playing - Voices can faintly be heard, "Please leave this patient undisturbed."
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Post by Crispy on Aug 3, 2014 13:57:35 GMT
Hi Guys, I know the man is on holiday but I'm in no hurry and maybe someone else has got an answer anyway so here goes. I started storing music files (mainly FLACs) years ago when 240GB was a big HDD. As capacities have increased and my library has increased I have attempted to move files across to ever increasing sizes of HDD. I have not been aware of any problems during the process but experience has now shown that I have multiple copies of many tracks taking up otherwise usable space. Does anyone know of a program that will reliably identify duplicate tracks and allow me to delete them without having to go through the whole lot manually? Several programs seem to have a 'Delete duplicate tracks' option but none that I have tried seem to work for me, so any suggestions guys? TIA, Dave. Dave try CCleaner www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download it is a free download that keeps your computer running better - I have used it for many years now and under the tools section it has a duplicate file finder that should do the job?
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Aug 3, 2014 15:50:17 GMT
Thanks Crispy, I've just tried this on my laptop 'C' drive (no music) and removed all the duplicates. The laptop still seems to be working OK so I'll now try it on one of my smaller music storage HDDs and see what it throws up - thanks a lot. Dave.
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Post by hifidez on Aug 4, 2014 7:20:57 GMT
I don't know if this will help or not. But, after all, it IS the norm on the net to get answers which have little to do with one's problem ;-)
I rely on 'freefilesync' (http://sourceforge.net/projects/freefilesync/). It works very well indeed. because it's easy to use, I use it regularly. Main library is on a 3TB drive with backups on two 1TB drives. When the music library becomes bigger than 1TB (it's getting there} then I'll have to buy more discs !
Anyway, back to FreFileSyn; it has a simple mirror function which relies on you having a master copy. It has other comparison functions too which I dont need but may help you to automatically identify and delete duplications.
Derek
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Post by hifidez on Aug 4, 2014 7:29:40 GMT
Thanks Crispy, I've just tried this on my laptop 'C' drive (no music) and removed all the duplicates. The laptop still seems to be working OK so I'll now try it on one of my smaller music storage HDDs and see what it throws up - thanks a lot. Dave. I don't have problems with my music files.. but I do have a huge issue with digital photos; duplicates all over the place. I'll take a look at CCleaner; I've used it for years and never noticed its duplicate file removal facility. Is that facility a new one or have I missed the obvious? Derek
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Aug 4, 2014 7:50:25 GMT
Thanks Crispy, I've just tried this on my laptop 'C' drive (no music) and removed all the duplicates. The laptop still seems to be working OK so I'll now try it on one of my smaller music storage HDDs and see what it throws up - thanks a lot. Dave. I don't have problems with my music files.. but I do have a huge issue with digital photos; duplicates all over the place. I'll take a look at CCleaner; I've used it for years and never noticed its duplicate file removal facility. Is that facility a new one or have I missed the obvious? Derek +1 from me to the 'not being aware of it' aspect. I can confirm it does pick out duplicate photos too because I just let mine loose on the drive rather than the music folder (for instance) and loads of duplicate pics were listed. Very useful tool for the disorganised like me!! . Just for my further information, how do you point it at specific folders rather than the drive as a whole? - not noticed anything obvious.. Dave.
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Post by hifidez on Aug 4, 2014 9:01:44 GMT
I have updated CCleaner from a V3 to latest V4.16.4763 and there it is. Thanks for the tip :-)
There is an 'Include/Exclude' window. Click on the tick in the default C:/*.* box to de-select it and then click the 'Add' button. You can then 'Browse' to whatever directory (sorry, 'folder') you like.
D.
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Post by hifidez on Aug 4, 2014 9:08:42 GMT
Having said that, just tried using that 'Include/Exclude' facility and I'm not getting anywhere :-( I'll leave that for a bit.
D.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2014 10:51:38 GMT
Does CCleaner do this based on EXIF data or what? I'd be very wary of letting it loose on my photos to be honest.
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Aug 4, 2014 12:22:17 GMT
Does CCleaner do this based on EXIF data or what? I'd be very wary of letting it loose on my photos to be honest. Not much of a risk if you have a complete back up which 'everyone' recommends.
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Aug 5, 2014 7:22:36 GMT
Perhaps I should have done this first and avoided the problem but I am now where I am. I have used CCCleaner to identify duplicate files across my drives and deleted the ones I don't want (i.e. now only one copy of each track - I think ). Due to the constant moving of tracks from one drive to another over the years I am now left with many 'empty shell' folders containing either nothing at all or nothing of interest to me, eg. non-music bits of information that my players do not need. The thought occurred to me that if I could find a program that would list these folder/files in order of size it would be a quick way of focussing down on those folders/files that I could delete after confirming they contain nothing of use. Those above a certain size could be left in place. Any ideas? - would TreeSize Free do the job? TIA, Dave.
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solderdude
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Post by solderdude on Aug 5, 2014 7:50:06 GMT
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Aug 5, 2014 8:54:57 GMT
Hi Frans, Many thanks for your prompt information - much appreciated, as usual. I've had a quick play with one or two of the links on my laptop (not my music source) and deleted some files and the laptop still works fine . However I'm not sure these programs are exactly what I want as they seem to only select empty files. No bad thing to delete empty files per se, as long as you fully understand what you're doing, but I don't. What I would like is something that identifies not empty files but files which are nearly empty - the music files from which all the FLAC and WAV info has been removed but which still contain some unnecessary bits of info, say pages and pages of artwork or other attendant files not really necessary to enable the player to play them. That's why I was thinking of something based on file size - once the file/folder (within any folder supposed to contain a music file)) identifies a file which is too small to hold a small FLAC file I anticipated being able to remove it (after examination) without losing any music. Does such a program exist, to your knowledge? Thanks again
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solderdude
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Post by solderdude on Aug 5, 2014 9:54:04 GMT
Ah I get it you have folders with deleted songs but still containing the other info that may be in there. Did CC cleaner not remove it as well or do some of the duplicate folders have had the excess info removed earlier and thus the content differs ?
Did you only have CCleaner look for WAV/FLAC ?
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Aug 5, 2014 13:16:25 GMT
Ah I get it you have folders with deleted songs but still containing the other info that may be in there. Did CC cleaner not remove it as well or do some of the duplicate folders have had the excess info removed earlier and thus the content differs ? Did you only have CCleaner look for WAV/FLAC ? Hi Frans, Yes, that is exactly the problem I am trying to solve. Still in the middle of searching out duplicates, and I'm not sure that CCCleaner will just look at FLACs and WAVs but I'll check as soon as I think I've got the duplicate files removed. Cheers, Dave.
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