Isolating folders by name

[Vinker]

I have copies of folders across a number of hard drives. What settings let me find duplicates of folders/folder names?

I also need to consolidate duplicate folder contents to create one complete copy as my primary backup.

I'd rather not get into working with more than 2 drives at a time, but I can use a usb hub and get them all mounted if that's required.

I'm not clear on a the sequence steps and settings to do this.

Thanks!

[therube]

Are your directories ordered the same, relatively, between drives?

c:/trains/steam
c:/trains/electric ...

k:/kback/2022/trains/steam
k:/kback/2022/trains/electric ...

z:/nas/from_c/transportation/trains/steam
z:/nas/from_c/transportation/trains/electric...

If so, I'd think you'd be better off using a sync (update) program first, then cull duplicates after the fact.

Say you want C: to be your "repository", & it will get its data from c:, itself, & also from k: & z:.
So if you sync from k: to c: & from z: to c:, adding files that do not exist on c:, that will get all your trains running (i.e., c: should have a complete set of your files).

Once that is done, then look into what to do further.
Maybe you want to then remove all those dups from k:.
And with z:, you'll want to end up with that being a mirror of c:, so you'll keep what is existing there, & then update from your "repository", c: to z:.

So the files will be, in full, on c:, gone altogether from k:, & z: will end up being a full backup from c:.

The sync end of things, kind of assumes that your directories are laid out in a manner that this will work.

[Vinker]

Directories are not ordered the same at all. They are folders and files dropped onto hard drives randomly with no structure almost as an emergency backup. The hard drives may have up to 3-4 duplicates of files and/or folders.

Is there software that will try to build a master copy of files and folders by looking at every backup drive, and attempt to only copy one version of a file/folder onto the master drive?

Problem is some files were saved outside of and without the other contents of their original folder. It's a mess

Thanks.

[Callistemon]

Say you want C: to be your "repository", & it will get its data from c:, itself, & also from k: & z:.
So if you sync from k: to c: & from z: to c:, adding files that do not exist on c:, that will get all your trains running (i.e., c: should have a complete set of your files).

Duplicate Cleaner does this as well. Add two or more folders to synchronize to the Scan Location tab, set each to External Only + Master, and turn Find Uniques to Yes. With that, the Remaining Files tab shows all files missing from any of the sources. It may be easier to only process 2 folders at once with this method.