Archives everywhere if the same data

[BebeDahling]

I'm trying to clean up my HD before getting a new MacBook Pro and found 37 archive zipped files, which look like the same data (a folder of Christmas 2022). Upon checking the folder size, some where smaller but between the hordes most were exactly the same photos. I don't know how they got there. It certainly isn't archiving all the photo folders.

Could someone explain to me how and why there were created and if it would be safe to assume the originals of the photos are safe in their folder and the archives are just eating up disk space?

 

[Fishrrman]

Looks like you're going to have to "open" the archives, one-at-a-time, to get an idea of what's inside them.

If the first 2 or 3 are "all the same", I'd delete the rest of them, and let it go at that.

 

[BebeDahling]

Thanks Fisherman. I wish I had know how that worked a long time ago. I'm still learning about my Mac a lot as I prepare it to migrate it to a new one. This is my first Mac and I have been oblivious to so much. Live and learn!