Want to perform mass deletion of files

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I let WDSynch work on my computer last year and I got multiple copies of the same file.  The name was different because of the UTC date stamp in the titles (shown in attached file).  The problem is now I am trying to delete all the other copies.  I am dealing with music files and there are 12 copies of the same file and one original (13 total). I want to keep one copy, the first one!

I have tried in command prompt: find /V “???(2017_08_026 21_56_04 UTC). mp3 which works for one directory ie one album.  I have 1000 albums to work through saved on my NAS MYCLOUDPR4100.  Find requires a named drive ie d:\ not \\MYCLOUDPR4100\CH-DESK\Data\F\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music\Elton John\The Diving Board, and Find won’t work.  Any solution or other method to accomplish the job?

Any suggestions for making this easier?  Thanks!

Cheers from British Columbia

Chris

 

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Nir Sofer has created a utility named SearchMyFiles that will find help many duplicate files and has also written a “finding duplicate files” tutorial.

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Thanks but I really want to do is exclude the first copy and delete the rest of the duplicates.  Searchmyfiles doesn’t allow me to search for that first time eg *(2017_08_26 21_56_04 UTC).* and delete the others.  If it does, I don’t see how it would.

Cheers

Chris

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Filenames that have spaces require quote marks. If you know created time and date all of the the duplicates were created that may help filter those unwanted files. If that still does work…

A few utilities to look at are Auslogics Duplicate File Finder, Duplicate Cleaner (free & paid version); There is a list of utility program over on Oldergeeks that may do find and delete those extra files: AllDup, Anti-Twin (very old), CloneSpy, ScanDir.

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CeeJay

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Try fdupes (take a full backup before deleting any files).

Use the following switch : -f –omitfirst
omit the first file in each set of matches

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CeeJay

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“… Any suggestions for making this easier? …”
Hi Chris.
I have spent quite a bit of time developing a set of VBA procedures to tackle the problem of duplicate MP3 tracks (also duplicate JPG images etc). I have 90GB of MP3 tracks in 18,381 files in 1,937 folders.
Finding duplicates by name does not work for me, because “Liberty Valance.mp3” and “(The Man Who Shot) Liiberty Valance.mp3” can be seen as two different tracks. (Note the doubled “i”)

I am partway to a solution by comparing file content. Two copies of the same tracks ripped from different compilations CDs or different uploads to YouTube works for most of the duplicates. I am contemplating using the MP3 tags (metadata) to isolate fragments of a track, since two copies of a track, one with the two-minute standing ovation/applause truncated from the end, will appear as different tracks when overall content is compared.

There are problems with illegal file names. Windows allows me to download tracks with foreign characters, but Word/VBA will not allow me to manipulate that file, for example, I can’t rename it because, to VBA, the file does not exist!

I have been documenting my work to date with a UserGuide, a WhatFAQ.doc, and several other documents.

This may be overkill for you, but let me know if you’d like a copy of the documentation

Cheers
Chris

Unless you're in a hurry, just wait.

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CeeJay

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Hi and thanks so much for all the suggestions.  In the end I used

<hr />

<h3>From Explorer</h3>
To delete matching files:

• enter *(2017_11 in the search box, select the results and press <kbd>Delete</kbd> or <kbd>Del</kbd>

It is a little cumbersome but leaves me with the original file and deletes the rest.

Cheers

Chris

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