By Michael | Last Updated
External hard drives are often used for backup purposes and they can also be used to transfer files between computers. As you use your external hard drive, duplicate files may slowly accumulate over time. In order to use the storage space on your hard drive efficiently, it is a great idea to find the duplicate files on it and delete them. This article will describe easy and quick ways to find and delete duplicate files on external hard drive.
The manual way to find and delete duplicate files on an external hard drive is to use File Explorer on Windows. You can use it to locate and get rid of duplicate files.
Step 1: Connect your external hard drive to your computer and use the WIN+E keys to open File Explorer. Navigate to the External hard drive, in this case, its drive letter is (G:). Double click to expand all files and folders.
Step 2: To better sort out the files, you will need to make the following changes. Select the Preview pane from the View menu. This will allow you to get a preview of the file you have selected. Then choose Details in the Layout section. Finally, access the Current view tab, click on the Group by and select the Name and Ascending.
Step 3: Now we can search for duplicate files by entering the extension of the file we are looking for in the "Search" tab. Compare the file name, modification date and size and if you find a duplicate file, move to the Home tab and select Delete.
If this manual method of finding and deleting duplicate files on an external hard drive is complicated for you, use the automatic method described below.
Since it is inconvenient to find thousands or hundreds of files manually, using a professional tool can help you to delete them quickly. In this case, you can use iSunshare DupFiles Genius -- an excellent and efficient tool for finding duplicate files. It comes with the following five highlights.
Step 1: Download and install iSunshare DupFiles Genius on your Windows PC, then connect your external hard drive to your PC.
Step 2: In the main screen of the software, click on the Add button in the bottom right corner and select the external hard drive from your computer to scan. Click Next to continue.
Step 3: You can select one or more folders to be excluded from scanning by clicking on the Add button to the right. Then proceed to the custom scan settings. You can tick the types of files to be scanned, you can set the maximum and minimum size to be scanned, you can also tick to skip scanning systems, hide and program files etc. Once you have completed a series of settings, click the Start scanning button.
Step 4: After scanning, iSunshare DupFiles Genius will list all duplicate files according to your scan settings. You can right click on the file and select the Open file location option to check the file.
Step 5: If you have purchased the full version of the software, you can simply tick the box in front of the File Name, click Delete and in the pop-up window click Yes to confirm the deletion of these duplicate files, if you are using the free version, you can only delete one file at a time.
Step 6: Wait a moment and the duplicate files on the external drive will be deleted successfully. Click "OK" to end the process.
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