OS 10.6.8 imac 8Gb ram I have 2 external HDs with several hundred movies on them. I'm pretty sure there are some duplicates and my question is, is there any software or a method of checking for duplicates? It would be tedious to check them manually. jaybass

You may find something here, and the App Store is also a good place to look.

As Artie mentioned, the App store catalogs over 100 apps for finding duplicates (use the keyword "duplicate" as a search term). Several are specialized for iTunes and iPhoto libraries while others are more general in application. I have had good results in iTunes using iDeDuper, it has been around for a while and keeps improving. "Any Duplicate Finder" is more generalized and has specific functions for scanning, music, photos, and movies. With over 100 apps to choose from the only issue you are likely to encounter is whether or not an app is compatible with 10.6.

Know of anything free that will do the same?

I've googled this question about finding duplicates or near duplicates in itunes, and people keep referring to a Show Duplicates command under View. I don't see that in itunes 10.6.3

I don't have access to the App store.

It may be time to reconsider your reluctance to run the 10.6.8 Combo; it will enable you to update to the latest version of iTunes.

Edit: Among other things!

I'm running iTunes 10.7, and what you're seeking is under File [not View] > Display Duplicates.

It's also there in iTunes 8.2.1, which is more along the lines of what deniro's running.

Thanks for pointing it out.

(Note that your "iTunes 10.7" and deniro's "itunes 10.6.3" are OS X, not iTunes, version numbers.)

Since both 10.6.3 and 10.7 are available versions of iTunes, it's possible that both deniro and grelber are in fact referring to iTunes version numbers. Unless you know otherwise?

According to my iTunes app info, it is indeed version 10.7 (Copyright: iTunes 10.7, © 2000-2012 Apple Inc.).
According to About iTunes, it is iTunes 10.7 (21) 64-bit.

Good catch!

On thinking, I'm pretty sure that grelber is running a later version of OS X than 10.7, and deniro is running OS X 10.6.3, and, coincidentally, iTunes 10.6.3 is the last version that will run in that version of OS X, so I can't be certain about him.

Edit: Don't know why I posted that as an answer, rather than a question?

Yes, it was under File.

Nope. I'm running Lion (10.7.5). Later versions of Mac OS X haven't offered anything I'm interested in – they seem to be geared to those floating in the (i)Cloud.

The same holds true for iTunes 11. While I've downloaded it to version 11.3, I have no use for most of the new features; so I'm just storing it in a file. Version 10 does everything I need.

artie, I looked at several apps but the ones I was interested in were for 10.7 and up but a couple for 10.6 were too expensive so I opened up my 2 external HDs and dragged all the files from the 1TB HD to the 3TB HD. This took a few hours but the less than a dozen duplicates involved were alerted and were not copied.
Considering this will not happen again, I think that was the way to go. Thank you and joe for your advice. Jaybass.

> ...the less than a dozen duplicates involved were alerted and were not copied.

How? It sounds like all you did was a simple drag & drop.

I think you made a good decision; it's the one I'd have made. Why pay for a one-shot app when the same functionality can be had not only free, but easily.

And your quite welcome; it's my pleasure to help.

I imagine jaybass encountered this sort of alert.

What, exactly, did you do to cause that pop-up to appear?

I don't know whether I'm misunderstanding what jaybass did or being dense for a change.

If you copy a selection of items from one folder to another, and the destination folder contains some items with the same names as items you're trying to copy, you get this type of alert. It's been through a few iterations between Snow Leopard and Mavericks, so it won't be quite the same on your system. (In Mavericks, the Don't Replace button is a Keep Both button.) But I believe the basic functionality—allowing you to specify, via the Apply to All checkbox, the rule you want Finder to follow for all such instances it encounters during a bulk copy—is the same.

I believe it's important to point out that the Finder response Dave highlights is based on file name only, NOT content. If the moved file is newer, you may lose* any recent changes made between the copy on the target volume and the one your moving.

*) Assuming you don't notice in time to recover those changes from Time Machine, AND assuming you have TM or some such backup activated...

I don't have any cause for alarm as I have all of my movies on a back-up partition so I can check if I find something is missing.
Thanks, jaybass.

Just something for you to think about, the most frequent failure in a computer is the hard drive (that is not a damaged volume structure rather the drive itself). If you are backing up to a partition on that hard drive, when the drive fails you lose both the original and the partition.

Being the over protective type, I have duplicate back-ups on 2 different xHDs so the odds of them both going south is pretty remote. Overkill I suppose.
jaybass

Personally I would call that smart not overkill.

A while back, my internal HD, external HD, and enclosure all went south within days of each other.

Yeah, I'm with joemike!

I also keep two backups on two different external hard drives. I too have had two hard drives fail within days of each other. It happens.

Hard drives are inherently fragile, flakey, and unreliable, and have a limited life expectancy. Keeping multiple backups of important data isn't paranoia, it's prudence.

As the old joke went "What's the difference between a hard drive crash without a backup, and getting hit by a truck?" With the hard drive crash you know you're dead.