How to use CnW-FM, step-by-step guide
A simple step by step guide - once program has been downloaded and installed
You may wish to check the configuration which specifies where temporary files are stored.
The above screen is the initial display for CnW FM. It shows all the detected drives on the PC, along with the operating system, physical size and size used.
To start searching for duplicate files, highlight the required drives. This could be a simple click for one drive, or use Ctrl Left click to add a drive, or Shift click to select a complete range of drives.
Then select 'Scan duplicate files'.
The Duplication selection option is now shown to select how you want to define duplicate files. Scanning will now start.
The image above shows the on going status of the Scan. Number of files etc and it's progress. A slightly odd feature is that above progress shows 114% - is this possible. The reason for this curiosity is the percentage is calculated from expected disk used, and the files examined so far. On this disk, many of the files make use of the built in NTFS compression so there may be a 3MB file that is only taking 1MB of space .
At the end of a scan, the percentage may be 99 or 100% (or higher) and there will be a list of duplicate files and directories found.
If the option to test files and contents has been selected, the above stage is performed, followed by a second stage where each initally duplicate file is now tested for content matching uisng CRC32.
To view the duplicates, click on a drive line for a drive that has been scanned.
Once the duplicate drive has been selected, the files will be displayed in the lower window. At this point one can chose between files or directories by clicking on the buttons at the bottom of the display.
As will be seen from the above image, the program has found duplicate files in different subdirectories. The option was run based on just name and size.
Multiple Drive scanning
If you wish to have backups, it is essential to make sure you do not lose them due to a failure of your main drive. Ideally any important file should exist on 3 devices, ideally in 2 locations. A second location could be cloud storage. An easy second device is an external USB drive, or network drive.
Multiple Drive scanning
If you wish to have backups, it is essential to make sure you do not lose them due to a failure of your main drive. Ideally any important file should exist on 3 devices, ideally in 2 locations. A second location could be cloud storage. An easy second device is an external USB drive, or network drive.