Deleting mass files ending in specific characters

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  1. Posts : 12
    Windows 7 x64
       #1

    Deleting mass files ending in specific characters


    Hello,

    I have an external HDD formatted in FAT32 that has mass files that were duplicated. I would like to be able to delete the duplicate files which all seem to have been duplicated like this example:



    This is for tens of thousands of songs and other file types in thousands of folders. Not only do I want to delete every files that ends in "1" "2" "3"... I also want to delete the added characters before and after each of the remaining files.

    I am not the best at Google keywords so I found it quite hard to find a straight, simple answer on how to do this.

    Thanks in advance for the help!

    COSenna
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 12,012
    Windows 7 Home Premium SP1, 64-bit
       #2

    It's complicated a bit because the files are scattered across many folders.

    Looking at your above list, which are the ones you would want to KEEP?

    They all have the @ symbol. Which of those are the keepers?

    Or maybe it doesn't matter, as long as you keep one version of all songs?

    I notice that Wasn't Born To Follow isn't shown with an "@0" version. Or do you actually have an
    "@0" version of ALL songs?

    I've got an idea on how to do this, but need answers to the above questions.

    Do it in two stages:

    1: delete the duplicates

    2: rename the survivors with a file-renaming program.

    Regarding renaming files, suppose you have a file named:

    235 Bob Dylan - Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat 54z.mp3

    A file renaming program can easily chop off certain characters, leaving you with:

    Bob Dylan - Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat.mp3
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 12
    Windows 7 x64
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Almost every song, and every file underneath a large file that was used to backup my old computer was duplicated 4 times. I only need one of each. Any of the files can be saved, although I was thinking of just saving all the files ending in "0".

    If the songs are duplicated at all, then they were duplicated 4 times, and 4 times only, from what I've seen. I don't understand why about 90% were duplicated and the others were not...

    Deleting the duplicates would take AGES. I originally had 70,000+ songs... now about about 4x that in duplicates? Yeah... I might just start my music library over to save some time/headache if that's the case.

    Is there no program that I could DL/buy that would do this for me? Maybe some sort of batch cmd? It's hard to believe there isn't.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 12,012
    Windows 7 Home Premium SP1, 64-bit
       #4

    Here's my idea. I've done similar procedures with this tool.

    Get the "Everything" search tool from voidtools.com. It's a free download that you should have anyway. It's a fabulous drive search tool.

    Run it. Configure it to index and search this external drive.

    You search for a specific text string within the file name. It will cough up a list of files that match. You can then sort that list by clicking on the column headings.

    If your files are named something like this:

    Elvis - Hound Dog @3.mp3

    then try @3.mp3 as a search term.

    After you've sorted the list, scroll down to find a large group of duplicates that you know you don't want. There may be thousands of them in a row, so you can select the thousands all at once.

    Highlight them all and hit the delete key.

    They will be deleted from that hard drive.

    Be careful, it's a powerful tool. Be sure you've highlighted only files you want to delete and are working on the correct drive.

    After the first batch is deleted, then use other search terms, like maybe:

    @2.mp3

    @3.doc

    @3.jpg

    Or whatever term you think is descriptive and common to the unwanted duplicates.

    Until you've exhausted all possibilities. I'm assuming the unwanted files have common characters and are identifiable by extension and something like @3.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 12
    Windows 7 x64
    Thread Starter
       #5

    Sounds like a plan! Thank you kind sir, I'll give it a shot.

    Edit... It seems as thought this program can only index NTFS, is that correct? The drive doesn't even show up in the program. :/
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 12,012
    Windows 7 Home Premium SP1, 64-bit
       #6

    COSenna said:
    Sounds like a plan! Thank you kind sir, I'll give it a shot.

    Edit... It seems as thought this program can only index NTFS, is that correct? The drive doesn't even show up in the program. :/
    I have no idea about NTFS only. Could be. Never tried other file systems.

    Voidtools has an active forum. You could ask or perhaps they can point you to an alternative.

    There are other ways to copy all of the files from multiple folders to single folder, but that won't do you any good because it's a copy, not a move. Your fouled up copies would remain behind.

    Can you copy all files to some other drive that is NTFS and then maybe copy some back to the desired drive?

    XXcopy is a powerful downloadable command line tool. I have minimal experience with it and have no reason to believe it can do a move rather than a copy. It can certainly copy files from multiple directories to a single directory with this command:

    xxcopy source destination /sr

    But again that won't help you.

    All I can suggest is to pound Google.

    It doesn't do you much good to get all your duplicates in a single folder if you can't then search them to differentiate between the ones you want to delete and the keepers.

    Off the top of my head, if it were me, I'd try to get them on an NTFS drive and use Everything.

    That tool can make a database of tens of thousands of files in a few minutes. It can then search that database for a given search term almost instantaneously. I'd guess you could do the entire job in under an hour.

    I'd assume some heavy duty command line guru could come up with a tool, command, or program that would work, but that's beyond me.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 1,519
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, Windows 8.1 64-bit, Mac OS X 10.10, Linux Mint 17, Windows 10 Pro TP
       #7

    It seems as thought this program can only index NTFS, is that correct? The drive doesn't even show up in the program.
    Since it's a Windows-based application it most likely is limited to NTFS and maybe FAT32, can't work with Mac OS X and Linux formatting.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 374
    Windows 7 Home Premium
       #8

    I agree with ignatzatsonic Everything search works on fat32 drives and is very fast. The instructions he gave in post 4 are correct. You also can use wildcards too such as "*@3*".

    Everything Search Engine

    Bill
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 26
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
       #9

    Or you could avoid buying/installing additional software for a built in function.

    In search, use
    Code:
    System.FileName:~="@1"
    That will search a folder for all files containing @1. You can change it to
    Code:
    System.FileName:~="@2"
    and
    Code:
    System.FileName:~="@3"
    for the others. Or install the apps, i dk your choice.

    EDIT: In case anyone is interested, here's a full list of the search commands - Advanced tips for searching in Windows

    DOUBLE EDIT: You can also do a combo search:
    Code:
    System.FileName:~="@1" OR System.FileName:~="@2" OR System.FileName:~="@3"
    This searches for any files containing: @1, @2, or @3. From there just scroll to make sure it didn't catch anything you want to keep, then CNTL+A~Delete
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 374
    Windows 7 Home Premium
       #10

    /Not only do I want to delete every files that ends in "1" "2" "3"... I also want to delete the added characters before and after each of the remaining files./

    I was assuming the 05,06,07, etc in front was the track numbers. Once you have deleted all the files you want deleted you will need to use a renaming utility to remove the characters you don't want in the names such as bulk rename utility.
    Both utilities mentioned are free.

    Download - Bulk Rename Utility

    Bill
      My Computer


 
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