How to Remove Duplicate Files from External Hard Drive?

Published On

July 17th, 2023

Reading Time

7 Minutes Reading

If you are looking for solutions to remove duplicate files from external hard drive, you are at the right place. This article explains multiple techniques to find and delete duplicate files on external hard drives.

We habitually create backups of the files on our computers in case of computer damage and data failure due to system drive crashes or accidental computer resetting. These backups get made in external hard drives with storage capacities as high as five terabytes. Every external hard drive backup you make has one serious problem – duplication!

This blog explores the reasons and solutions for removing duplicate files on external hard drives, so keep reading!

Signs of Duplication in External Hard Drive

There are many signs of duplication you can find in your external hard drive, and some of them are:

The first and foremost sign of duplication is the excessive time your computer takes to read and open the hard drive. It means that the duplicate files in the hard drive have made it run slowly on your computer.
The files and folders open slowly because the duplicate files slow down the hard drive’s performance.
Repeated crashes endanger both the hard drive and your computer.
File arrangement becomes messy and tough to navigate in an emergency, and some files differ only in names, but the content stays the same.

It becomes necessary to quickly find and delete duplicate files on external hard drive, as shown by these signs of duplication.

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Reasons to Find and Delete Duplicate Files on External Hard Drive

There are many reasons to delete duplicate files from external hard drive, and some of these reasons are:

Duplicate files quickly fill up the storage of the hard drive. Even though the external hard drives have an astonishing high storage capacity, the drive storage gets filled up since the duplicate files have the same storage as the original ones.
The duplication issue leads to the slow performance of the external hard drive like the hard drive taking time to open on your computer and the files and folders in the hard drive opening slowly.
We tend to copy the same files in different folders on the hard drive, resulting in duplication issues.

These reasons necessitate the urgent removal of duplicate files from external drives, and the solutions in the following points will help you prevent the duplication issue!

Solutions to Remove Duplicate Files on External Hard Drive

We will discuss manual and automated solutions for removing duplicate files from external hard drive, so keep reading!

Manual Solution to Get Rid of Duplicate Files on External Hard Drive

The manual solution involves directly removing duplicate files from external hard drive. This blog will show the manual deduplication process for Windows and Mac computers.

For Windows

If you have a Windows computer/laptop, follow these steps to deduplicate your external hard drive:

Plug your external hard drive into the computer/ laptop.
Open the This PC folder and select the external hard drive under Devices and Drives.
Double-click on the hard drive or click Enter from the keyboard to open it.
Open the folder having the duplicated files. Arrange the files according to name, type or size.
Select the duplicated files (you can see numbers within parentheses), click the Shift + Delete keys, and permanently remove them from the hard drive.

For Mac

If you are a MacBook or iMac (Apple computer) user, follow these steps to get rid of duplicate files on external hard drive:

Plug the hard drive into the MacBook/ iMac.
Click on the Finder icon (smiling face) on the extreme left of the apps tray.
Select the hard drive in the Devices sidebar.
Open the folder with duplicated files. Use the ribbon menu above the files and create search criteria having the file type, format, and date.
Sort the file using the Name or Size column and select the duplicated files.
Drag them to the Trash (icon on the extreme right in the apps tray).
Open the Trash folder and use the Shift + Command + Delete keys to empty the trash folder permanently.

The manual method to remove duplicate files from external hard drive deletes the replica files directly from the hard drive perfectly, and this method is free and easy to follow for both Windows and Mac users. But where this method comes short is you can search and delete only one type of file at once.

Other drawbacks of this method are you can mistakenly delete other files while deleting the duplicated ones, and it’s time-consuming. These drawbacks restrict the usage of the manual method.

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Automated Solution to Delete Duplicate Files from External Hard Drive

The manual method for removing duplicate files from your external hard drive is perfect for deleting them, but the drawbacks restrict its usage. Hence, an automated tool is the best solution to get rid of duplicate files on external hard drive. The tool we are discussing here can deduplicate your external hard drive in just a few minutes, ensuring perfect accuracy in identifying and deleting duplicate files on hard drive. This tool is the 4n6 Duplicate Remover.

Features of Software

Batch deletion feature to delete all duplicate files from external hard drives at once.
Remove all types of files such as PDF, DOC, XLS, XPS, JPG, PNG, GIF, MP3, MP4, and all others.
The tool comes with several filter options which seem most effective while fixing this clutter.
You can see the complete analysis of duplicate files in the software panel before deleting them permanently.

How to Remove Duplicate Files on External Hard Drive?

First, connect your external hard drive to your computer.
Install the tool, run it, and click Proceed to start the duplicate removal process.
Click Select Drives and Folders under Location to Scan and click Browse to select the external hard drive for scanning.
Select a preferred filter from File name, File Extension, Ignore File, File Type, and Size Filter to scan the duplicate files on particular criteria.
Click Scan Duplicates to find the duplicate files in your external hard drive.
The tool scans and selects the duplicate files with their size in your external hard drive.
Delete the duplicate files from the external hard drive by clicking Remove.
Open your external hard drive and view the original files.

Conclusion

This blog explored the reasons and solutions to remove duplicate files from external hard drives. The manual solution involves deleting the duplicate files directly from the hard drive in Windows and Mac computers, but the limitations restrict its usage entirely. On the other hand, the automated tool helps you to deduplicate files from your external hard drive quickly, ensuring no original files get harmed during the deduplication process. A simple interface and bulk deduplication feature help users to get rid of duplicate files on external hard drives.

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