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Finding duplicate files

Finding duplicates takes two steps.

cde hash
cde dupes

Step 1: hash​

cde hash reads files on disk and stores their hashes in the catalogs. It checks that each catalog's drive can be reached first, and skips any that cannot, with a warning.

Hashing can take a long time on large drives. These features keep the work down:

  • Only files that share a size with another file in the same run are hashed.
  • Files on different drives are hashed in parallel.
  • Files are hashed from the largest to the smallest.

Stop early with Ctrl-C​

Hashing runs in two phases. Phase one hashes the start of each candidate file. Phase two promotes some of those to a hash of the whole file.

  • Press Ctrl-C in phase one to move to phase two.
  • Press Ctrl-C in phase two to stop.

This way you can hash only the largest files, and run cde dupes on that part of the drive.

Step 2: list the duplicates​

cde dupes compares the hashes in all loaded catalogs. It does not touch the drives, so it is fast.

Dupes reads the catalog, not the drive

If files changed after the last cde hash, the report can be wrong. Hash again before you delete anything.

Hash one catalog or all of them​

CommandEffect
cde hashHash every catalog in the current directory and one below. Finds duplicates across catalogs.
cde hash C-V3Win7-C__users.cdexHash one catalog. Only that drive must be connected. Files whose only same-size match is in another catalog are not hashed.

A legacy .cde catalog cannot be hashed. Run cde migrate first.