Good free software to find duplicate files.

I'm not sure what software to use, but I do have 2 important suggestions:

1. Make sure you have a complete backup of your system before you start removing duplicate files.
2. Make sure you only scan user files for duplicates.

iMoverBerlin said:

Hi,

Thanks for your suggestions.

What's the difference between user files and other files?

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You get user files mostly the ones you create - music/films etc..
And get system files that the system needs to run correct the OSX or applications and without these files can cause problems. Therefore if you run through the system files it could delete files that your system really needs to stay stable

iMoverBerlin said:

OK. I thought as much. Yeah, I would only be scanning files I have on a removable hard drive; all music files.

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If you only scan the external hard drive you'll be fine I'm not sure in the program you would use though

iMoverBerlin said:

I just heard about Gemini file duplication finder software. Think I'm gonna go with that.

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Gemini seems to be a frequently recommended app for removing duplicate files, but it's not free, i.e. $10 in the Mac App Store -

iMoverBerlin said:

Yeah I know. Sure seems worth it to me!

Click to expand...

Are you happy/satisfied with the software?

I had to buy a new External Drive for Time Machine (old drive had a power failure) and noticed my 1TB Internal HDD was almost at capacity.

I tried doing a size search but other than some newly imported movies, it seems the majority is the mass of smaller files (like Music and Photos) that I have been importing.

Trying to find a decent application to find dupes...and possibly delete the=m.

THANKS!

I have Gemini (bought it as part of a bundle) and it didn't work at all and the developers never responded to my email. Is there another option?

RadDave said:

Gemini seems to be a frequently recommended app for removing duplicate files, but it's not free, i.e. $10 in the Mac App Store -

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be warned Gemini shows advertising even if you pay for it via Mac App Store

duplicate files

AppleMacNerd said:

You get user files mostly the ones you create - music/films etc..
And get system files that the system needs to run correct the OSX or applications and without these duplicate files can cause problems. Therefore if you run through the system files it could delete files that your system really needs to stay stable

Click to expand...

Thats True

You could do this for free in terminal. Check out find and md5...

program to delete duplicate files

If I move a file from one folder to another, iDrive will recognize the moved file as a new file because it is in a different directory. Is there a way to delete the old file automatically?