I have a beginner script. I'm new to Powershell.

It goes into a large directory tree, then recurses through it, getting identical fies and deleting the duplicates.

I want to add some more information to it's output:

1. I want to accrue the size of each recurs'd duplicate
2. Print out the size at the end (probably MB or GB)

# Specify the folder to search
$FolderPath = "C:\Users\Ben\Music\Apple Music\Media\Music\"

# Get all files in the specified folder and subfolders
$Files = Get-ChildItem -Path $FolderPath -Recurse -File

# Group files by their hash (to identify duplicates)
$Files | Get-FileHash | Group-Object -Property Hash | Where-Object { $_.Count -gt 1 } | ForEach-Object {

    # For each group of duplicate files
    foreach ($DuplicateFile in $_.Group) {

        # Skip the first file in the group (keep one copy)
        if ($DuplicateFile -ne $_.Group[0]) {

            # Delete the duplicate file
            Write-Host "Deleting: $($DuplicateFile.Path)"
            # Remove-Item -Path $DuplicateFile.Path -Force
            $fileSize = (Get-ChildItem ($_.Path).Length)
            Write-Host ($fileSize | Format-List | Out-String)
            $size=$size+$fileSize
        }
    }
}

Write-Host "deleted $($size/(1024*1024))MB of files."

I've commented out the remove-item line because I wanted to get an idea of what the script was doing without deleting 10K files and being up... a creek.

I get the error:

Deleting: C:\Users\Ben\Music\Apple Music\Media\Music\Music\A Song.mp3
Get-ChildItem: C:\Users\Ben\Documents\DeleteDuplicates.ps1:19
Line |
  20 |          $fileSize = (Get-ChildItem ($DuplicateFile.Path).Length)
     |                       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     | Cannot find path 'C:\Users\Ben\Documents\140' because it does not exist.

deleted 0MB of files.
Press Enter to continue...:

What's going wrong?

I've written this for Powershell 7.5

I'm aware it's highly inefficient but you gotta start somewhere.

I have a beginner script. I'm new to Powershell.

It goes into a large directory tree, then recurses through it, getting identical fies and deleting the duplicates.

I want to add some more information to it's output:

1. I want to accrue the size of each recurs'd duplicate
2. Print out the size at the end (probably MB or GB)

# Specify the folder to search
$FolderPath = "C:\Users\Ben\Music\Apple Music\Media\Music\"

# Get all files in the specified folder and subfolders
$Files = Get-ChildItem -Path $FolderPath -Recurse -File

# Group files by their hash (to identify duplicates)
$Files | Get-FileHash | Group-Object -Property Hash | Where-Object { $_.Count -gt 1 } | ForEach-Object {

    # For each group of duplicate files
    foreach ($DuplicateFile in $_.Group) {

        # Skip the first file in the group (keep one copy)
        if ($DuplicateFile -ne $_.Group[0]) {

            # Delete the duplicate file
            Write-Host "Deleting: $($DuplicateFile.Path)"
            # Remove-Item -Path $DuplicateFile.Path -Force
            $fileSize = (Get-ChildItem ($_.Path).Length)
            Write-Host ($fileSize | Format-List | Out-String)
            $size=$size+$fileSize
        }
    }
}

Write-Host "deleted $($size/(1024*1024))MB of files."

I've commented out the remove-item line because I wanted to get an idea of what the script was doing without deleting 10K files and being up... a creek.

I get the error:

Deleting: C:\Users\Ben\Music\Apple Music\Media\Music\Music\A Song.mp3
Get-ChildItem: C:\Users\Ben\Documents\DeleteDuplicates.ps1:19
Line |
  20 |          $fileSize = (Get-ChildItem ($DuplicateFile.Path).Length)
     |                       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     | Cannot find path 'C:\Users\Ben\Documents\140' because it does not exist.

deleted 0MB of files.
Press Enter to continue...:

What's going wrong?

I've written this for Powershell 7.5

I'm aware it's highly inefficient but you gotta start somewhere.

• powershell
• powershell-7.4

2 Answers 2

I think your brackets are misaligned:

 $fileSize = (Get-ChildItem ($DuplicateFile.Path).Length)

This gets the Length property of $DuplicateFile.Path which, in your example, I presume is 140 characters, so it tries to get the item named 140.

Just replace with:

 $fileSize = (Get-ChildItem $DuplicateFile.Path).Length

Use Get-ItemPropertyValue to grab the Length property per file:

$Files | Get-FileHash | Group-Object -Property Hash | Where-Object { $_.Count -gt 1 } | ForEach-Object {

    foreach ($DuplicateFile in $_.Group |Select-Object -Skip 1) {
        $fileSize = Get-ItemPropertyValue -LiteralPath $duplicateFile.Path -Name Length
        Write-Host "Duplicate file at '$($duplicateFile.Path)' size: $($fileSize) bytes"
        # Remove-Item -Path $DuplicateFile.Path -Force
        $size += $fileSize
    }
}

Here I'm deliberately using the -LiteralPath parameter to pass the file path, to avoid wildcard expansion - if you were to pass a path like C:\path\with[square]brackets\file.ext to the -Path parameter it would otherwise interpret [square] as a wildcard macro