# Files on my computer link to nothing, how can I find and remove them?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/files-on-my-computer-link-to-nothing-how-can-i-find-and-remove-them/303025>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 9, 2005, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/files-on-my-computer-link-to-nothing-how-can-i-find-and-remove-them/303025 "2005-05-09T04:53:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\
**Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/files-on-my-computer-link-to-nothing-how-can-i-find-and-remove-them/303025/1 "2005-05-09T04:53:27Z")

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Specifically format changes, duplications and renaming of music files. .MP3, .WMA, .AAC, .WAV files specifically. There will be a unification of said formats, my roommate will stop using WMP, alot of duplicate ripping will occur, and a good, clean save file will be reserved.

The music files are by far the largest portion of the hard drive’s content (almost all ripped), but I’d also like to be able to find those space-wasters that do nothing on the drive.

I’ve read the Computer FAQ, and found nothing applicable. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

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**Author:** ![scm1001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@scm1001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scm1001)\
**Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/files-on-my-computer-link-to-nothing-how-can-i-find-and-remove-them/303025/2 "2005-05-09T10:21:51Z")

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I am not entirely sure whay you mean by files taht link to nothing (old shortcuts?) but if you want to quickly find all the mp3 files in your system, download a desktop search engine (e.g copernic [http://www.copernic.com](http://www.copernic.com) ), search for the mp3s and manually delete them.

or else use one of the freeware disk cleaners that search for duplicate files or orphaned shortcuts (see [http://www.snapfiles.com/freeware/system/fwdiskclean.html](http://www.snapfiles.com/freeware/system/fwdiskclean.html) )