Duplicate files - not your normal duplicate bug, honest!

[ToastMaster]

Hi,

I've used Winamp for years and am stumped by this. I renamed some mp3 folders, moved a few mp3s, and then did a forced rescan of my HD via preferences and set two different 'watch folders' for my singles and albums (both stored on different parts of my HD) - so winamp would find the new locations.

For some reason, this caused all my files to duplicate (all 12,000 mp3s). Both the original and duplicate play in winamp and looking at the path, winamp thinks they're in two different locations. E.g.:

C:\Users\Jody\Music\albums\Daedelus\A Gent Agent\03-the_now_silent_streets-soup.mp3

C:\Documents and Settings\Jody\My Documents\My Music\albums\Daedelus\A Gent Agent\03-the_now_silent_streets-soup.mp3

I'm new to Windows 7 but it looks like these paths direct to the same place - it's just a weird way that Windows 7 seems to mask urls. The mp3s are definitely only in one physical location anyway.

I've tried 'remove duplicate entries' and 'remove missing files' - neither did anything. I've also deleted my 'watch folders', rescanned, but it's still no use. I don't want to delete all tracks and reload, because I'll lose all my ratings, playcount, etc.

I even ran a system restore, but that didn't work!

Would really appreciate some help. Thanks

Winamp: 5.572

[ToastMaster]

Can anyone shed any light on this please? Thanks

[Crashguard303]

As you describe it, it seems that those "double files" are just hardlinks, Windows 7 uses much of them to speed up file operations like changing path and even moving them into wastebin.

I suppose, there was an error when you moved the files, so the hardlinks were created, but the former path was kept instead of being deleted.

The files really do only exist only one time, as you already figured out, but there are more entries in the file system which point to them.

You need a program which can deal with hardlinks, as win 7 can only do this with console commands, and (if I'm not wrong) can only CREATE some.

Maybe the program AllDup can help you to remove duplicate files, even those virtual duplicates, as it can deal with hardlinks, but be careful NOT to delete BOTH of the files!

What you also can try is "link shell extension", it can show you which file is a hardlink and where it does direct to.