Skip to main content

Verify files in two directories with Checksum Compare

It can sometimes be important, or even a requirement, to verify that files in two different folders are identical. This can for instance be the case to verify that files were backed up correctly and without issues to another location, or to make sure that development and productive environment files are identical.

While you can perform these checks manually, it is only practicable for a small number of files.

Software like Checksum Compare are designed to automate the verification process. The free program, available as a portable version and installer, can compare files in two directories.

All that needs to be done for that is to select two directories after you have started the program and click on compare afterwards to start the scan.

compare files

All files are color coded by the application to visualize the comparison.

  1. Files highlighted in green indicate that the files are identical in both directories.
  2. Yellow highlighted files indicate that they are missing in the other directory.
  3. Red files indicate checksum differences. While files exist in both directories, they are not identical.

Checksum Compare will compare files using MD5 by default which you can switch to SHA1 in the main interface.

A right-click on any file displays additional options, such as to open it in Windows Explorer or to exclude files from future scans.

You can copy results to the clipboard. This includes only checksums by default, but you can add file names, paths and sizes to it in the program options.

options

Here you find additional preferences, like options to save the current directories when you exit the program or to save the current view mode (vertical or horizontal).

Please note that only files in the root folder of the selected directory are scanned.

Verdict

Checksum Compare is an easy to use program to compare files in two directories.  It works best if all files that you want to compare are stored in the same directory. If you have a nested directory structure, you will lose lots of time checking all those directories manually in the application since there is no way to run it recursively on all folders.

It would also be great if selecting a file in either directory would highlight it automatically in the other directory as well if it exists in it.

If you require that, you may want to check out the excellent Open Source File Verifier application instead.

This article was first seen on ComTek's "TekBits" Technology News

HOME