HHD Software DupeCare is a file and folder deduplication and compression utility. If you ever find yourself storing a large amount of more or less similar files and worry about all that wasted disk space, this product is for you!
Features
The product unique features are:
Quickly deduplicates and compresses stored data.
Operates on selected folders, not entire volumes.
Deduplicated folders behave as normal folders: all system components and third party applications can perform standard I/O operations, like folder content enumeration, reading and modification of existing files as well as creation of new files and folders.
Capable of “detecting” even small changes in files, including insertion or removal of data at arbitrary locations inside files.
In several circumstances can easily “outperform” best compression utilities, both in terms of resulting compression ratio and time.
Provides recover capabilities for accidentally deleted files.
Supports flexible configuration.
Does not require administrative privileges (when used in portable mode): a non-privileged user may create private deduplicated folders.
An estimate command may be used to estimate the benefits of using deduplication on a selected folder.
NOTE
At the same time, it is important to note that HHD Software DupeCare is NOT:
A backup software. Deduplicated data is stored on the same volume and cannot be considered a safe backup. Always use backup for sensitive data. Backup may be effectively configured for deduplicated folders using OS features or third-party backup software products.
Data compression software. Depending on the nature of stored data, the effective compression ratio may not be as good as offered by the best compression utilities. Nevertheless, when files with a large number of duplicated content are stored, HHD Software DupeCare may show orders of magnitude better compression ratio while working much faster than compression software.
System Requirements
HHD Software DupeCare requires 64-bit Windows 10 (version 1809 or later) or Windows 11. x86-64 and ARM64 CPUs are supported.
Deduplicated folder must reside on NTFS or ReFS formatted volume.
Best Practices
What kind of files are the best candidates to be put into the deduplicated folder?
Files that are frequently added and infrequently modified or accessed.
Files that potentially share a lot of similar data: various text or binary log files, dump file collection, symbol stores etc.
What kind of files are not the good candidates to be put into the deduplicated folder?
Compressed files like ZIP, RAR, 7z or image formats like JPG and PNG.
Executable or DLL files: if the purpose is a long-time storage, specialized compression software will usually provide better compression ratios. However, if executable files are to be accessed from time to time, deduplicated folder may still be used. It will provide worse compression ratio than archival software, but better than NTFS compression.
Extra large files (like VM hard disks images) which are often accessed or modified. The underlying technology used by HHD Software DupeCare requires the entire file to be cached locally first time it is accessed. This may result in a large delays.