How to combine two sets of files

Question

I have several very unorganized backups of home directories (same user) that I burned throughout the years. Every once in a while, I just copied the entire home directory to a new directory on a huge hard drive. The format of the home directory changed much throughout the years and some large, important files were simply removed to save space (I knew there was a backup). Even worse some files were moved from something like myfile to old/myfile.

Now, I want to combine these backups into one comprehensive directory that has one and only one copy of everything (only the latest copy). I would like tools that use stuff like filename, modified date, and SHA1Checksums to combine these files. What are some good tools that can do this?

Please no advice on how I should have used backup software. However, I wouldn't mind hearing some software features that help convert this current messy model into a centralized backup model.

Thanks

Answer 1

The simplest method I can think of is to copy each folder one at a time (in order of archive date) into a master folder. Then use de-duplication software to scan the master folder and remove duplicate items.