14 DAY TRIAL // Everybody knows that Windows takes its time when it comes to deleting rich-content folders. Fast Folder Eraser promises to shrink the time required for deleting a directory sheltering an impressive number of files.
The reason behind Windows executing folder deletion with a delay is that it needs to calculate the number of files it has to send to Recycle Bin and the time it can do it in. Even if you have a small folder but it is filled with thousands of files, the operating system will still require a considerable amount of time to finish the job.
Fast Folder Eraser is a freebie designed especially for the purpose of speeding up the time for deleting a folder filled with many files. Installation goes fine, with no unnecessary hiccups on the way. The program will not try to push any elements that are not absolutely relevant to its usage.
The application comes with an easy to use interface that supports drag and drop for the items you want to erase. Adding the folders the traditional way, browsing for their spot on the disk, is also possible, but it takes a bit longer to delete things this way.
There isn’t much tinkering around in Fast Folder Eraser, as “Settings” panel offers a brief set of straightforward options even a beginner can understand without a problem. The program lets you add its erasing option to Explorer context menu for more comfortable usage. It can also be set to do all the deleting in the background; this is an option which makes the program a whole lot less intrusive than Windows 7’s erasing method.
More options in the configuration panel can make the app reduce memory usage, but this will also affect the speed of file processing; the same effect has the display of statistics, although we did not see any stats shown during the erasing procedure or after sweeping the folders.
Though this is a lightweight program, it features plenty of customization choices, which include audio alert or automatically close after the job is done. Also, you can instruct it not to delete the main folder or to be recursive with subfolders.
As far as its performance is concerned, we tested Fast Folder Eraser multiple times with various folder structures, which included at least a few thousand files. The amount of subfolders varied from a single directory holding all the data to more than 24,000. During our tests the application was put against the default erase tool in Windows 7.
The first test involved a structure of 163,625 files dispersed in 24,343 subfolders (more than 10 levels). All this weighed 1.5GB. Windows Explorer completed the job in 5’04’’, while Fast Folder Eraser was still chewing on them after 8 minutes.
We gradually simplified the folder structure and reduced the number of files and folders in order to come closer to the needs of an average user. During the next test we used only 482MB of data, which consisted in 62,975 files in 9,369 folders. Again, Windows Explorer moved quicker and removed the files in 1’26’’, while Fast Folder Eraser left behind 52,382 files after us stopping the timing at 2’30’’.
Making its job easier and eliminating any subfolders still did not place the program ahead Windows Explorer. The total of 1625 images weighing 4.33GB was eliminated in about 15 seconds by FFE, but Windows Explorer needed less than a second to do it.
UPDATE: We repeated the above test several times, to make the conclusion as relevant as possibile, and different results were recorded. Over the next three runs Windows Explorer continued to move faster than FFE, but the latter was quite close, at a difference of about 2 seconds, each time.
However, things took a turn for the better and the results of the two tools were very close towards the end of our tests, when we used a much simpler folder structure, up to five levels. The difference between the two contenders when deleting 9,177 files in 182 folders (26.8MB) was of only one second.
In one case Fast Folder Eraser even managed to come out with a lower time than the Windows tool. This test involved more than 10K files in 1496 folders (4-level structure), weighing 77.1MB. Windows completed the task in about 19 seconds while FFE finished it in 16. We repeated this test several times and each time FFE came on top.
Even if we noticed no statistics being displayed during the file erase, it looks like enabling this feature impacts on the processing speed of the application. We recorded a 2 second speed improvement with this option disabled than when we switched it on.
The bottom line after all these tests is that Fast Folder Eraser does delete things faster, if the folder structure is not too complex, but the default tool in Windows is a faster lane when large, complex folder structures have to be eliminated. To FFE’s advantage, it allows you to drop the data in its interface and all the processing can be carried out in the background, with no window to hinder your work.
It moves a little faster than the default Windows tool when it has to process a lighter folder structure, which is what an average user is more likely to bump into. Support for deleting multiple folders at once would come in handy. Also, using some file wiping algorithm would fit right in. However, this does not mean it does not fulfill its purpose of being faster than what Windows 7 has to offer; in certain conditions, which imply a lighter folder structure (a six level folder depth was just the right amount of complexity in our case) the application does score better.
The Good
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The Truth
This article is also available in Spanish: Elimina carpetas de gran tamaño con Fast Folder Eraser
