This operation may take several minutes

This is the message I saw this morning. I am using a tool called Renamer Pro to isolate duplicate files. For the record, I have seen the confirmation message many times, with the number of files being replaced with the number I've selected to validate. It's always the "may take several minutes" verbiage, which tells me that there is no coding done to say "If [selected files to validate] > 800,000, then show this message "Do you want to validate [selected files to validate] files? This operation may take several hours." That would have been a nice change or to do a more accurate estimate than "several minutes" - how do I define "several minutes" is certainly going to be different from the way ... well, the way anyone else in the world defines "several minutes." I understand the squishy word choice, but that doesn't mean I think it is helpful to me.

My ultimate goal is to remove all the duplicate files from my external hard drives and end up with "clean data" which I define as having zero files that have (1), (2), (3), all the way up to (999999999999999999999999999999) in the file name. THEN, when I get that done, my plan is to repurpose my many external hard drives so that I have a sane backup plan.


For the record, I have been working on this project for 4 years.

I'm not kidding.

Sometimes, I wonder how many files I would have if I didn't have files from the past. Do I really need a CEW roster from 2002? Do I really need our family Christmas letter from 2004? Do I really need either of those two files? Apparently, I answer in the affirmative. There are many more examples I could cite, but like it says in the Bible, paraphrased and without looking up the exact verse:
Jesus performed many miracles that are not recorded here, but these are here so that you may believe.