The first rule towards keeping your data secure is to make regular backups of your important files. This way you can always restore your files in the case of hardware failure, software glitches, files corruption or malware infection. But when you are making regular backups of your files, it is not very uncommon to copy the same files over and over again to different folders as backups. You may end up having thousands of identical files on your hard disk drives or other storage media.
If you want to tackle the problem of finding identical or similar files, then you can use a third-party software called Beyond Compare. This program can be used on both a single standalone workstation or on a network connecting several computers.
Beyond Compare, as its title suggests, can be used to compare the contents of files and folders. There are two types of comparisons available – ultra high speed comparison which compares just the file sizes and file modification dates, and the thorough comparison which compares every single byte of one file against that of others.
The software offers input filters in which any number of adjustment processes can be set up. These compare settings can be saved and can be called up again later with a mouse click. There are also plenty of display options for search results.
Beyond Compare has a very useful 3-way merge feature. This feature can be used to compare the differences of two versions of a file and merge them into a third new version of the file. So if your coworker sends you a file after some changes, you can use this feature and intelligently merge them in your version of the same file.
Beyond Compare also has a synchronization feature. We can compare the contents of two or more folders or drives. The changes can then be synced in either both the folders or only in one direction. This way, we can create backups, update the backups and more. Beyond Compare also offers a scripting language using which we can automate some tasks.
You can download Beyond Compare from https://www.scootersoftware.com/.