What cool software am I talking about? WinDirStat and SmartSync Pro. I went from 600 GB down to less than 60 GB!
Recently my Windows Home Server had issues and I had to recover from a failed hard drive. In addition to lots of recovery efforts, I was sent back to some older backups. In some cases I had 25 copies of the same file! Here’s what I’ve been doing the last several days…
WinDirStat
What robust software! I’m on Windows 7 now… And most vendors are struggling to get their software to work with Windows 7. I have version 1.1.2.80 that appears to have been released in 2005. WinDirStat stands for Windows Directory Statistics and gives a GREAT visual of your files on your drives. It’s pretty easy to recognize duplicate files.
While this software is really great, I’m most impressed with the fact that it’s not needed to change for 4 years despite many change in Windows. Here’s a quick look of what it looks like for a drive with lots of repeats. This is just an image of the map, and not of the additional statistics:
SmartSync Pro 3.1
This is a tool I’ve used for years. I think for 4 or 5 years. When I lost my WHS (Windows Home Server) drive and was trying to eliminate duplicates I discovered a new feature in SmartSync Pro. You can “Move” files from one location to another and it will keep the newest version from either location and delete the rest. This is much better than just using Windows move. So with that I can quickly eliminate duplicate files.
I now use the other features – namely the syncing ability – to keep a copy of the important files on a local drive that I can keep with me.
What’s Important?
- Digital Photos
- Music
- Personal Videos
- Personal .NET Code
- Certain Install Files (for a short time)
So now I have reduced the size so that it is easy to carry with me and so that I can easily sync it with the master copy on my WHS. Here’s what it looks like in WinDirStat now:
Here’s a snapshot of what was on some of my old backups…
Several interesting points here… 1) You can clearly see the repeated patterns, 2) The number ONE disk consumer was PowerPoint files!?!, 3) These were files co-mingled with my own that I deleted… I did not want those on any of my computing equipment (I thought they were all already deleted…)
Note: I currently have VERY few PowerPoint files. 🙂
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