Today we will be looking at how to tackle duplicate files on a flash drive. Duplication of data is a common story nowadays, computer users from all fields get affected by it. Duplicate files lead to slowdowns in searches, are of absolutely no use and occupy valuable storage space for no good. And if the duplicates are present on a folder/ drive linked to cloud storage, this means they might possibly be costing the user a good sum of money if the user has subscribed to a paid-for plan.
Now consider this. The user has a USB drive, which they use to transfer data across computers. However, often the total volume of the data exceeds the USB’s capacity, and the user has to repeat the procedure several times to complete the data transfer. The role of duplicates in such a scenario becomes even more criminal, as they are not only occupying a vital resource but also causing the user to make extra which can easily be avoided by taking the right measures.
Which measures can those be? Let’s find out in the lines below.
Use Windows Search
This feature can be very helpful in unveiling duplicate files. It helps lookup all file extensions, and there are various scan result layout options to choose from. The whole search process will be boosted if you’ve enabled indexing. But the downside is that this search operation only relies on the file name to determine duplicates, and the file contents aren’t given any consideration at all. Also, once the scan results are out, you might have to perform some hefty amount of scrutiny of the results to determine which ones are duplicates. If the number of results runs into an excess of a few hundred, well, we’re not sure this is the right path to tread. Anyways, let’s get to the solution.
- Open up This PC.
- Double-click the USB drive to open it.
- Click the View tab.
- Click Preview pane (helps preview images and identify any duplicates).
- Select Details in the Layout category.
- Look for the Current view category just next to the Layout category.
- Click Group by | Name (to sort all the search results in a namewise manner).
- Now search for various file extensions by entering one extension (e.g. .mp3, .jpg etc) at a time in the Search box just next to the address bar.
- Once you see the results, it is as simple as spotting a duplicate and pressing Shift + Delete to permanently get rid of it.
Turn Off ReadyBoost
ReadyBoost is a smart feature not many users are aware of. It was unveiled with Windows Vista, and is designed to speed up the program load times for those apps which you use on a regular/ more frequent basis. Basically what will happen is that loading a program from the memory is much faster than doing so from the hard disk. So Windows will load the programs using the system memory to speed things up. If you’ve enabled ReadyBoost on a USB, and connect it to the computer, this it will be given first priority as a location for storing programs and loading them up. And this is where the duplicate files come into existence. Also, ReadyBoost is only helpful in loading small files. For medium/ large sized files, opting for system memory is the best way to go. So here is how you can disable ReadyBoost so that the system memory can be utilized.
- Connect the USB to your computer and launch This PC.
- Right-click the USB icon and select Properties.
- Now select the ReadyBoost tab.
- Select the Do not use this device option.
- Click OK.
Use Clone Files Checker
Clone Files Checker is a software program which will run an advanced scan on your USB. The whole process will be over within minutes and bring up accurate results. Users have the luxury of choosing whether they want to retain the newest, oldest, most modified, least modified or from a specific folder. Lastly, users can also optionally create a backup of the files before deleting them. This backup can rescue them if they somehow make a mistake while deleting files.
And what’s the best part about this software program is that it scans your Dropbox, OneDrive and Google Drive duplicate data right on the cloud. This means that you do not have to download the data to your computer before you scan it. Simply enter your login credentials in the designated area, load the data, scan it and there you go!
