Eliminating duplicate files advice and best practices
^*Resubmit* ^*of* ^*an* ^*earlier* ^*post* ^*that* ^*didn't* ^*get* ^*any* ^*traction*
Over the years, I have acquired several iterations of duplicate files (mostly from back-up attempts) and I would like to eliminate the duplicates and start using a more structured back-up regime. For years I used a Laptop (actually two, one replacing the other) and attempted to back-up my files by copying my C: drive to a External hard Drive (Western Digital, 2 TB), which I now realize was a really stupid way to back-up my files. About two years ago, I copied from my Laptop as many essential files (i.e. not system and application files) as I could find to a new PC (Windows 10) and then reorganized the PC's files. These practices have left me with a mess of duplicate files, since in addition to the files I want to keep, there are also system and application files on the External Drive. I haven't had any major file losses, but I still want to make sure that I don't delete files from the back-ups that I don't have a version of on the PC.
To summarize:
## Goals - Eliminate duplicate files - Find any essential (not application or system) files on my External Drive that I don't have on my PC - Delete non-essential files to free up space on my External Drive
## Plan My plan is to use dupeGuru and WinMerge to sort through the duplicates and delete them.
## File locations - **PC** - Contains "reference" or essential files that I want to keep and compare others to. Originated as copies from Laptop. All possible duplicates are under one directory with no extraneous files. - **Laptop** - Originals of PC and External files. Most likely doesn't have files that are not on the PC, but I would like to make sure of that. - **External Drive** - Contains multiple versions of old Laptop files. These files include everything from C: drive, including non-essential system and application files.
## File History - Laptop -> External Drive (multiple times) - Laptop essential files -> PC (Reorganized)
## Questions 1. Other than "My Documents" and similar folders, what other places should I search for files that I might want to keep? 1. What is the best order to compare files and delete duplicates? 1. What common directories can I skip when comparing files? 1. Are there better tools to use than dupeGuru and WinMerge? 1. Can I trust dupeGuru to have found legitimate duplicates and delete them en mass (so far when I have used it, it finds hundreds of thousands of duplicates, which is too many to go check individually) 1. Are there any "best practices" for removing duplicate files?
## Other Notes - Laptop was originally an HP machine, then a Windows 10 Asus machine. I cloned the HP to the Asus using (if I remember correctly) Windows Easy Transfer - The PC is Windows 10, with an AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-core 3593Mhz processor, 16 GB RAM. - External Drive is a [Western Digital, 2TB](https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Desktop-External-Hard-Drive/dp/B002QEBMCI), connects using USB-mini - The "essential" files in question are mostly everyday files, such as school work, hobby projects, ect., and include images, MP3s, MS Office docs, PDFs, TXT files, and some obscure file types, like LaTeX, Spice, and statistical software file types.