Groups

Once duplicate file searching and comparisons are complete, the result report will provide a group-based display of the results.

Each group has summary information, such as the number of group entries and the total amount of disk space used by the group. Each entry within a group represents a distinct duplicate file.

Duplicate result grouping is an important functional component of Duplicate File Detective. For example, if you run a duplicate file search project that compares files only by contents, you should group the results by the file hash column (because this column represents the file contents checksum). If you were to group the report results by filename in this case, you would not be getting an accurate representation of the results.

For the reasons stated above, Duplicate File Detective automatically sets the current result report grouping once a project finishes executing. If, for example, you decide to search for duplicate files by name and size alone, the results report will automatically be grouped by the filename column. For any search the involves computing the content checksum of files, the result report will be grouped by file checksum.

Which Duplicate File Group Entry is the Original?

When viewing and managing duplicate file groups, don't be confused by the concept of duplicate file originality. Duplicate File Detective has no way of knowing which duplicate file in any given group is the "original", and it doesn't attempt to make such determinations - it simply shows all files discovered during the duplicate search process. Decisions regarding which files to keep (or otherwise process) are left entirely up to the user.

See also:

Marking Files