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I have copies over one directory to my external hard drive but the file counts are different.

What's the best tool to find out what the differences are between these 2 directories?

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13 Answers

up vote 58 down vote accepted

I would recommend Winmerge. It's a free, open source tool for file and folder comparisons. You can find some screenshots here.

General

  • Supports Microsoft Windows 98/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/7
  • Handles Windows, Unix and Mac text file formats
  • Unicode support
  • Tabbed interface

Folder Compare

  • Regular Expression based file filters allow excluding and including items
  • Fast compare using file sizes and dates
  • Compares one folder or includes all subfolders
  • Can show folder compare results in a tree-style view
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Nice little free app. – alex Aug 28 '09 at 13:54
3  
awesome. this one helped me a lot. thanks! – mezoid Sep 1 '09 at 6:18
One Word - KDiff3! – Nate Zaugg Jun 17 '11 at 21:36
@gschuster: There's nothing wrong with the links. In fact, the site sourceforge.net/projects/winmerge points to winmerge.org as the "WinMerge Web Site". In the future, please do read the sites you link to before editing people's answers. – TFM Apr 4 at 16:51
up vote 23 down vote

You can also try BeyondCompare. It's not free but it's a very powerful app. It has a free 30 day trial if you want to test it out.

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9  
The $30 USD I spent on Beyond Compare is probably the best money I've ever spent on software. As a developer, I use it almost daily. It has paid for itself many times over. – Matt Peterson Jul 5 '10 at 14:13
up vote 8 down vote

Total Commander

Commands > Synchronize Dir > Compare

of course, TC does a helluva lot more than just that :)

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One of the best apps available for Windows, in my opinion :) – alex Aug 28 '09 at 16:21
it certainly is. i'm sure Mr. Ghisler, being Swiss, wouldn't mind TC being referred to as the Swiss Army Knife for windows computers :) – Molly7244 Aug 28 '09 at 16:36
@Molly, funny thing, the swiss don't call it Swiss Army Knife or Swiss pocket knife, they call it just a pocket knife. And all the other ones are just fake and are for example called "Russion Pocket Knife".. – Davy Landman Sep 18 '09 at 11:29
i am familiar with the term "Taschenmesser" or "pocket knife", yet Victorinox (probably the largest manufacturer of such knives) is advertising them as 'Swiss Army Knives'. :) swissarmy.com/Pages/Home.aspx – Molly7244 Sep 18 '09 at 13:19
I'll ask my swiss friend about the army knives :) I wrongfully assumed the same would apply. – Davy Landman Sep 18 '09 at 13:31
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up vote 7 down vote

Nobody mentioned kdiff3 yet.

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KDiff3 ROCKS!!!! – Nate Zaugg Jun 17 '11 at 21:36
up vote 3 down vote

DiffMerge is a great tool, if you are dealing with source code or some other kind of text files.

It will compare two folders, and display the differences. Then, you can compare each file, and see what changes are there, and even copy each individual difference with a button click.

It is free, but not open source.

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This is definitely a slick product but lacks word wrap (well my version does). – Umber Ferrule Sep 18 '09 at 10:22
up vote 3 down vote

Araxis Merge is worth trying. The best tool I've seen so far, though, it's a commercial one.

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2  
Agreed. It costs a lot, but is worth every penny. – Mikeage Jul 5 '10 at 13:30
Araxis Merge is indispensable for those who must often merge source. It does everything WinMerge does and more including common-ancestry 3-way merges and binary diffs, and is easier to use. – lavinio Jul 5 '10 at 14:34
up vote 1 down vote

ExamDiff is pretty good and has a free version (currently 1.8). Here are some ExamDiff screenshots.

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up vote 1 down vote

I used AraxisMerge. It works great and looks great.

But if you don't want to pay then WinMerge should be nice.

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up vote 0 down vote

The diff tool built into SlickEdit is excellent, and particularly good at recursive directory diffs. Not free, though.

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up vote 0 down vote

For directory comparison I often turn to my SynchronizeIt! and the companion file comparison tool CompareIt! They are affordable shareware tools available separately or together in a package deal. Each does a decent job.

enter image description here

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up vote 0 down vote

There are several good answers (tools) here, however I still think it is worth mentioning that Windows has a built in tool for directory/file comparison:

COMP [file1/directory1] [file2/directory2]

or 

FC [file1/directory1] [file2/directory2]

There are further options, which are fairly well described in the help: COMP /? or FC /?

Neither COMP nor FC support comparing files in subfolders (directly).

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up vote 0 down vote

Code Compare is a really good file comparison tool, that works well with directories. There's a free version that does everything you'd need.

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up vote 0 down vote

You can try this new tool DiffDir

DiffDir shows the modified lines, MD5 sum, date, size, ...

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I don't trust programs that use Comic Sans as the default font. But maybe that's just me. – Robert Massa Feb 4 at 10:07

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