One of my year 2009 resolution is to clean up and organize all my files. I have software, movies, mp3s, documents and notes everywhere in I think at least 8 separate external hard drives. All my external hard drive enclosure looks the same and I honestly tell you I can’t identify which is which unless I connect to my computer to see what’s in there. Both my laptop and desktop hard disk is running out of disk space. When I am in these conditions, don’t expect me to have a proper backup of my stuff when all my files are in such mess. I know it’s bad… really bad. Actually having less or no duplicate files is good because you can free up your hard disk space, have proper backup, reduce backup time and reduce file searching time.

So what I am going to do is I have to start organizing my files. I’ll put all software into one hard disk, all mp3s into another hard disk and so on… Then I’ll have an extra hard disk solely for backing up my important files. But before I do all that, I expect to have a lot of same and duplicate files which is taking up a lot of unnecessary hard drive space.

I’ve found Duplicate Finder by Ashisoft to find and remove duplicate files on my computer.

Screen Shot - Duplicate Finder

The program will rapidly search the folders you request and mark up what it thinks should be deleted and place it in a list next to the suspected matching duplicate file. It will pick older files or whatever other preferences you choose to set. You can check the files and delete away. Couldn’t be simpler.

I saved 15.9 Gb of space on an 80 Gb Hard Drive in less than 8 minutes while I made a cup of tea. In my book that makes this software well worth it’s $26.00 asking price.