How to Delete Duplicate Files on USB Drive (4 Methods)
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Duplicate Finder
Find & Remove Duplicate Files on USB Drive
“As a salesperson, I often back up some client contracts, reports, and other files with my USD drives. Sometimes, I back up the same files multiple times. Over time, my USB drive has become cluttered. I want to clean up my USB drive safely without losing anything important by mistake.”
Your USB flash drive cluttered with unnecessary copies? Take your USB drive to a self-service printer but end up printing several duplicate photos? Plug a USB drive into your car but it keeps playing the same songs?
Don't worry. In this article, I will show you how to quickly and safely clean up duplicate files on USB drives using several methods. Deleting them can help you improve organization, free up storage space, and even improve the reading and writing speed of your drive.
How to delete duplicate files on USB drive with Cisdem Duplicate Finder
This method is for those who want an easy, long-term solution to keep their USB drives duplicate-free and organized at all times.
This method uses Cisdem Duplicate Finder, a powerful and user-friendly duplicate file finder software. With this tool, you can regularly scan your drive for duplicate documents, photos, audio files, and other file types, then perform quick and reliable bulk removal. You don't need to worry about accidentally deleting important files, since the tool allows you to preview duplicates before removal and gives you full control over the process.
A step-by-step guide
Here's how to delete duplicate files on a USB drive using this tool.
1. Connect your USB drive to a Windows or Mac computer.
2. Download and install Cisdem Duplicate Finder. Open this tool.
Free Download Windows 10 or later 
Free Download macOS 10.11 or later
3. Click the Add button to add your USB drive, then click Scan.
The tool will quickly and deeply compare files across your drive by content and identify all duplicate files, even if they have different names.
4. Once the scan is complete, the results window will list found duplicate files by file type.
You can easily search or sort the results, check file information, and preview duplicate photos.
5. In each group of duplicates, the tool has already automatically selected the duplicate item(s) while keeping the original file untouched.
(If you want, you can adjust selections manually or using the selection rules, such as Select Newest, Select by Filename, and Select by Priority.)
Once you are satisfied, click Delete and then confirm the action to clean up all selected duplicate on your USB drive.
A tip to help you better delete duplicate photos on your USB drive
In addition to duplicate photos (exactly identical regardless of names), which you can easily remove by following the steps above, your USB drive may contain some non-exact duplicates, such as identical pictures in different file sizes or formats, and photos that look similar but have subtle differences.
Cisdem Duplicate Finder can also help you handle non-exact duplicate photos. After its similar detection feature find these duplicates, you can preview them in the results window. In each group, you can manually pick the best version to keep and select unwanted versions for deletion.
This way, your drive will only have unique, preferred photos, making it great for printing for backup.
Don't want to use software? Try these methods
If you don't want to use third-party software, you can try these built-in methods to find and delete duplicate files on USB drive. However, compared to professional duplicate file finder, they are more time-consuming and less convenient.
1. Use Windows PowerShell
This method is suitable for technically users, especially those who are familiar with the command line.
1. Connect your USB drive to a computer.
2. Press the Win + X keys. Choose Windows PowerShell (Admin).
3. Enter the following command in PowerShell:
cd E:\
(Replace E:\ with your USB drive)
Press Enter.
4. Then enter:
Get-ChildItem -Recurse | Get-FileHash | Group-Object -Property Hash | Where-Object { $_.Count -gt 1 } | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Group | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Path
Press Enter.
It will start count the hash value of each files on your USB drive. Wait for some time.
5. After you see a list of files, enter:
Get-ChildItem -Recurse | Get-FileHash | Group-Object -Property Hash | Where-Object { $_.Count -gt 1 } | foreach {
$group = $_.Group | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Path
$group | Select-Object -Skip 1 | Remove-Item -Force
}
Press Enter.
It will then delete all but one file from each set of duplicate files on your USB drive.
2. Use Windows File Explorer
This method will take a lot of time if you have large numbers of files on USB drive.
1. Open File Explorer.
2. Navigate to your USB drive under This PC.
3. If most of the files on your USB drive are photos, click the View button at the top. Select Large icons.
If there are many video, audio files, documents, the Content view would be more convenient.
4. Click the Sort button at the top. Select Name and Ascending.
5. Manually find and select files that are the same size or have "Copy" in the file name. They are likely duplicate files.
6. To remove the duplicate files from your USB drive, right-click and select the Delete button.
3. Use Mac Finder
Mac users can use Finder to manually delete duplicate files on USB drive.
1. Open Finder.
2. Navigate to your USB drive.
3. If there are several different types of files on your USB drive, you can click Kind. Choose a file type, such as Image.
4. At the top toolbar, choose a View mode like List, Column or Gallery to help you find duplicate files more easily.
5. Then arrange files by Name or Size, which can also help you find duplicates more easily.
6. Select the duplicate files you want to delete. Move them to Trash.
Tips to prevent duplicate files on your USB drive
- Before transfer files from your computers or phones to USB drives, check if the files have already been transferred.
- When naming files, add dates, events, etc. to the file names. So you can find certain files on your USB drive quickly and prevent duplicate file from being uploaded.
- If you need to store different types of files, you can create multiple folders to help you manage them more conveniently.
FAQs
1. Can I get rid of duplicates across multiple USB drives?
Yes. To find duplicate files across multiple USB drives, using Cisdem Duplicate Finder. This app supports scanning multiple USB drives at a time. Additionally, it let you select duplicates for removal from prioritized drive.
2. Is it possible to recover accidentally deleted files from my USB drive?
I introduced 4 methods to delete duplicate files on USB drive above. With the PowerShell method, the deleted files won’t be able to recovered. However, with the other 3 methods (Cisdem Duplicate Finder, Windows Explorer, and Mac Finder), you can recover files in the Recycle Bin or Trash within 30 days.
3. Is there a duplicate photo finder for the USB drive?
Yes, there is. You can use Cisdem Duplicate Finder to find duplicate photos on USB drive. This software also detect similar images.
With a passion for tech and writing, Sarah joined Cisdem, where she focuses on creating articles about using utility tools to enhance file management and simplify contact management.
Adrian Li is Cisdem’s Chief Engineer and serves as the editorial advisor for Duplicate Finder and ContactsMate. His work and insights have been featured in leading tech publications such as Fossbytes, TUAW, Redmond Pie, SafetyDetectives, and BestForAndroid.