Wed, 12 Mar 2008 TidyUp! Review

If you’re working on more than one Mac, or generating version after version of the same or similar files, chances are your hard drive is bloated with documents you don’t really need. That’s what TidyUp! is for – identifying and dealing with duplicate files on your system.

Let’s take a hypothetical, typical scenario. You’ve digitised your entire vinyl collection using an open- source sound tool like Audacity, saving individual tracks as AIFF files. Then, transferring some of those tunes to your iPod, you now have AAC versions of those files too. That leaves you with a disk-hogging folder full of AIFF files, some duplicated elsewhere, others not. Which can you get rid of?

Configure TidyUp! to perform a file name search of your hard drive, comparing media length if you wish, and it’ll seek them out for you. The difference between this and a straightforward Spotlight search is that at the end of the scan you get to choose how to handle the duplicated files. You can back them up, burn them to disk, or delete them permanently.

Question of the day!

Mark Hattersley
Editor in Chief

Do you share your creations online?

Question of the day!

Do you share your creations online?

% of Macworld readers agree with you

Yes

TBC

No

TBC

What do you create and how do you share it?

Tweet your answer here...

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paintings & illustrations, mostly, which i upload to flickr.RT @fragmentedm

I draw manga/anime characters. I also do graphic design and photography.RT @spialelo

Yes. I usually put them up on my #deviantart account for feedback on how to improve.RT @spialelo

It’s TidyUp!’s search features that impress most though. From simple name searching, you can find duplicate files by size, type, extension, creator and more. Each selection has further configuration options too – enabling you to track down specific files with complete accuracy.

Unlike many system tools that perform relatively mundane tasks, TidyUp! looks good too, with bright, intuitive icons and a progressive workflow. There are even built-in, ready to run searches called ‘Tasks’
that run common search queries.