How do I find duplicate files and delete them?

[bpert]

I have three external firewire drives and I just bought a 500 GB drive. I would like to somehow delete all of the identical copies I have of my sessions and samples from the three drives and then back it up to one drive so I have free space again. I know I could use software like Retrospect or what not, but I am looking for a way to find files that are identical and delete one of the identical versions.

I could use the digi-browser and search for each folder on each volume and see what's identical... but isn't there a better way?

[bpert]

For instance, Logic is capable of finding all identical files and lets you delete the duplicates while still leaving the orginals... Any ideas anyone?

[Jeremy Mix3000]

Maybe I'm missing something here. Why do have "identical" copies of your Pro Tools Session file and samples on three drives ? The only way that this can happen is if you manually do a "save copy in" and copy your audio files to those other drives. You can do a search for the song title and just delete the associated PT Session and audio I believe.

[Chief Technician]

This link explains how to do this with Terminal.

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...10828211333805

[Extreme Mixing]

Maybe I'm missing something here. Why do have "identical" copies of your Pro Tools Session file and samples on three drives ? The only way that this can happen is if you manually do a "save copy in" and copy your audio files to those other drives. You can do a search for the song title and just delete the associated PT Session and audio I believe.

Save copy doesn't create an "identical copy" of the session. It's almost identical, but all of the audio files have different unique identifiers, so they are not interchangable. You can't say, take an earlier session document and just open it up with the new audio files.

File management is really important in Pro Tools, and this sounds like a disaster waiting to happen! You need to have a system and stay backed up every day. Too many copys is almost as bad as too few, because it's hard to remember what's what, especially as time passes.

Good luck.

Steve

[trakbytes]

Here's what I would do...

Pull up the current session you are working on. Go to the audio bin and "select unused audio", then "Clear selected", then "Remove". Now do a "Save session copy as" and copy all audio files to your new drive. Open that session on the new drive to make sure it's all there, and then delete your original sessions.

Of course the downside of this is that you will lose your unused takes, so don't proceed with this until you are further along in the mix or ready for archiving.

If you just need to keep a working copy of the session in progress, then just drag a copy of the complete session to your new drive and then drag the entire contents of the audio files folder to the new audio files folder as you add more files. If you "don't replace" duplicate files during the copy process, then you will only be adding the new files in a session to the backup, and all file names and identifiers will remain the same. Copy the current session document as you go, and you will have an exact duplicate.

Does that help, or were you just looking to get rid of multiple copies of files that may not be in a session? Not sure how you'd do that. Maybe some kind of utility? (EDIT: Just looked at the "Terminal" suggestion, and that may be the way to go. Thanks!)

Sorry if I re-stated the obvious...

Bob

[Jeremy Mix3000]

Thanks Steve and Bob. You both make some very good points.

File management is really important in Pro Tools, and this sounds like a disaster waiting to happen! You need to have a system and stay backed up every day. Too many copys is almost as bad as too few, because it's hard to remember what's what, especially as time passes.

So True.... And this is why I ask the original Poster (bpert) to reply to my original question. Why do you have Identical copies of your Pro Tools File and Samples on three Drives ? Maybe you meant to say you have identical copies of SAMPLES on Three drives. I'm not sure. I just wanted a litte clarification on your original post. Thanks in advance.

[bpert]

Thanks Steve and Bob. You both make some very good points.

So True.... And this is why I ask the original Poster (bpert) to reply to my original question. Why do you have Identical copies of your Pro Tools File and Samples on three Drives ? Maybe you meant to say you have identical copies of SAMPLES on Three drives. I'm not sure. I just wanted a litte clarification on your original post. Thanks in advance.

Yes I meant samples, sorry for the confusion, I wrote that kind of fast.. I have a few loose session files but that was easy enough to fix..