Duplicate Commander identifies duplicate files that exist on your NTFS formatted hard disk, enabling you to easily manage or remove them to conserve space on your hard drive.
It will check for files based on actual file data (i.e. files that are exactly the same irrespective of what they are named) or based on filename, filename and extension, filename and size, or filename and timestamp.
But what I like about Duplicate Commander is it’s ability to instantly create hard links to resolve file duplication problems, right from the program interface (for those unfamiliar with these, hard links allow a file – not a shortcut – to exist in multiple locations while occupying space on the hard drive only once; more on this here and here).
Duplicate Commander also offers powerful filtering and search options, allowing users to include or exclude certain file extensions, to specify file size ranges to include and quickly check or uncheck items in the results based on rules.
This program is free for personal, educational, or professional use. Both portable and installer versions available.
A file duplicate checking program that works really well; but here’s what I really like about it:
PROS:
- Can quickly create hard links: you will invariably find many files that are exactly the same located in many folders; if so, simply check one of them and click the “link button” (see the top right corner of the screenshot above) and Duplicate Commander will convert all instances of the duplicate file into hard linked clones; how cool is that? (Note: this works on NTFS formatted hard drives only).
- Undo changes: via so-called “undo scripts”. Duplicate Commander will ask if you would like to save such a script when performing mass move/copy/hard link operations. You can save these to disk and use them to reverse your changes later on.
- Sorts results by file size: so you can quickly scroll down and see where the “real” wasted hard disk space is occuring.
- Can move/copy duplicates into a folder:
- Portable version: is available
- The user interface: is quite straightforward and practical. Balloon tooltips tell you what each button in the titlebar does, making checking/unchecking result sets easy.
CONS:
- Bugs: I’ve encountered some. Ironically, the software had no problem searching 2 hard drives for files that are exactly the same (i.e. actual data), but crashed midway when searching the same drives by filename. I know, however, that the developer of this one is constantly fixing this sort of thing and ironing kinks out.
The verdict: a very cool file de-duplication program and excellent addition to your hard disk cleaning arsenal of tools.
Version Tested: 2.1
Compatibility: WinAll; works on NTFS formatted hard disks only.
Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 606K).
