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Forum Discussion
Duplicate file cleaning
I have very little knowledge of ReadyNAS and Raid, I would appreciate some direction. When I review my files on my RN10400 I seem to have a fair amount of files that are duplicates both in the same and different directories. What is the most efficiant way to identify duplicates, remove and maintain my ReadyNAS?
Is there an add-on program to accomplish this task?
Thanks,
Randy
6 Replies
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No1Husker wrote:
When I review my files on my RN10400 I seem to have a fair amount of files that are duplicates both in the same and different directories.
First, make sure they actually are duplicates. When you access the NAS using the admin credentials, you will see multiple paths to the same folder.
For instance, \data\home\admin \home\admin and \admin are three different paths to get to same folder (the private admin share in this case). Also, if you configured snapshots to be accessible from Windows, then you might be thinking the snapshots are duplicates.
So maybe give a couple of actual path names here, so we can confirm.
Also, what do you mean by duplicates in the same directory???
Hi Stephen,
Thanks for the response. I believe it has more to do with different backups over time. An example would be wher there was a backup created for my wife's phone. Then for some reason over time there was an additional backup created for the same phone. When you look in the backups a large portion of the files are duplicates of the same thing. This has happened for several devices. I am attempting to figure out the best way to clean this up and save some space on my NAS.
I noticed a competitor to Netgear uses an add on package or program call Storage Analyzer. I was hoping Netgear had something simular?
I have attached a screen shot example for one of my computers. What is listed is for the same computer.
Thanks,
Randy
No1Husker wrote:
I noticed a competitor to Netgear uses an add on package or program call Storage Analyzer. I was hoping Netgear had something simular?
There is no app for ReadyNAS that I know of that will do this.
I had a similar issue a while back - needing to consolidate files from a bunch of thumb drives and USB drives that my parents had made. I used a Windows app to find duplicates (creatively named "Duplicate Files Finder"). However, that utility didn't give me a way to delete the duplicates. I created a batch file to do that bit. There likely are other Windows utilities that would locate them and give you an option to delete the duplicates. Some might require you to map the share(s) to drive letter(s) on the PC.
FWIW, I make incremental backups to the same folder, and use custom snapshots for retention/rollback - which reduces the problem for your use case. Though I'm sure I do have duplicate files in different shares, and it would be nice to have an add-on to locate and manage them.
Just started cleaning up duplicate files from my ReadyNAS RN10400 and tried using Duplicate Files Deleter over the network. It worked, but scanning the NAS shares was pretty slow. Also noticed it doesn’t always play well with long filenames or nested folders. Anyone had better luck using this tool with ReadyNAS? Or is there a more NAS-friendly duplicate cleaner out there?
I use Fast Duplicate File Finder by MindGems. The free version will work well for what you want to do. Yes, it's going to be a bit slow. But you can select what to scan and start with sub-groups of folders you know are involved.
But before you start deleting files, you should give StephenB's original reply more heed, especially if you are using the admin credentials for log-in (which is a really bad idea for normal access).
Also, in the future, it is generally best to start a new thread instead of resurrecting an old one.
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