Introduction
How organized are you? Perhaps the better question to ask is how organized is your server? If you are even a little bit like me, you have certain areas of that server that are squeaky clean organized, and certain areas that you really do not want to go near. For me, that “do not go near” folder is my personal User folder.
For example, I just took a look at my Downloads folder on my workstation. It currently has ~250 files in it waiting to be categorized and moved, or perhaps deleted. Quite often I get to the point where I simply throw them onto my server for a “someday” cleaning job. Someday never seems to come however, and that User folder on my server simply gets worse and worse over time.
This is where Snoop-de-dupe comes in.
It won’t help one categorize files and it certainly won’t move them for me. It *will* help me find the 24 copies of that Microsoft Security Essentials installer that I have downloaded at various times. Or so the authors of Snoop-de-dupe claim. If it works as advertised, it will help me weed out a few files to have to search through.
Someday…
Snoop-de-dupe is another Windows Home Server add-in from electrongoo. This particular add-in has versions for both Windows Home Server v1 and Windows Home Server 2011. I will taking a look at the WHS 2011 version. According to electrongoo, the following explains exactly what it can do for you.
Keep your server’s storage space optimized! Snoop-de-dupe will automatically scan your server storage and display duplicate files in an easy-to-view layout directly within the server’s user Console. Once snoop-de-dupe locates duplicate files then you can respond to them as you choose. You can delete the duplicate files, ignore/keep the duplicate files, or replace the duplicate files with a hard-link (available in WHS/SBS 2011 only). You will be in command of your server storage space like never before!
I really need something that will trim down that nightmare of a folder and hopefully, Snoop-de-dupe can help. The question, of course, is how well does it work? Read on.
Features
Before we get into the actual add-in, the complete feature set of Snoop-de-dupe, per the company website, follows.
- Supports Windows Home Server 2011
- Supports Windows Home Server V1
- Supports Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials and Storage Server 2008 R2
- Batch-mode to easily manage large quantities of duplicate files
- Add-in localized in both English and German languages
- Automatic, real-time continuous file de-duplication scanning
- 160-bit SHA-1 de-duplication hash for optimum results
- Windows Home Server Console integration
- Pause and Resume operation at any time for maximum efficiency of your server
- Select any folders of your choosing on your server for de-duplication scanning
- Simple, easy-to-view heads-up status display to monitor progress
- Easy to navigate list of duplications for: deleting, linking, or ignoring duplicate files
- Quick-launch feature allows for viewing contents of duplicate files
- One-click “copy to clipboard” to simplify management and tracking of duplicate files
- 15 day free trial available
I like some of the options available such as “Select any folders of your choosing on your server for de-duplication scanning” as I am mostly interested in my personal User folder. Before checking out the actual add-in, however, we do need to install it.
