Trying to combine folders within LR4 from two separate drives without creating duplicates--sometimes it won't let me transfer to destination folder because it says files are there when they are not; other times, allows duplicates to transfer

Question

Trying to consolidate 261K+ of images within LR4 between two drives.  Someone who was "helping" me with my Library in LR4 for some reason took some but not all of the file folders from my main backup drive (M) and duplicated them onto a partitioned hard drive (E) directly on the computer.  The duplication is huge, so I am trying to condense them all back onto the original backup drive M, particularly since I believe there are also folders on the partitioned backup drive E that do not appear on the main one M, and there are many more file folders on M that are not on E, so that is the destination drive.
CONSOLIDATION:  When I try to drag either the file folders or the individual files from the duplicate drive E to the original drive M to combine the two drives since the folders in many cases for some reason are not identical, sometimes LR4 says the files already exist when they clearly don't. Other times it allows me to drag and drop all files, even if the exact duplicates are already on the destination drive, thereby doubling the number of files per image and creating more duplicates.  Right now I am opening each file folder on the duplicate drive E, looking at what extensions and file names are there, scrolling to the original drive, making sure they appear to be identical, then going back to the duplicate drive E, deleting the images in the folder, removing the folder, and moving to the next folder on the duplicate drive E.  *There has got to be a simpler way.*
CONSOLIDATION APPROACH: I did start to create file folders names A, B, C and group file folders under them to reduce clutter, since those header folders can be closed down when not in use, but now I am wondering if I should have done that alphabetization to the main backup drive rather than to the partitioned backup drive.
My goal is to consolidate the two drives down to one, delete as many images along the way that I know I will never miss, then backup the catalog and export it to an external drive and then copy that to yet another drive for offside storage.  Does this sound like the proper plan?  Last time it took almost 24 hours and over a terabyte to export the catalog.
DUPLICATION:  I also have many file folders that have the exact same image in them.  One portfolio image may actually be in eight different folders, with the exact file, file name, file size, and date, even though I always have checked "no duplicates on import,"  How can this be? What is the best way to sort through duplicates?  Why are the files in some of the duplicate folders not in numerical order? If I do a search and call up a file # and find 15 duplicates, the only way I can find where those duplicates reside is to take each duplicate, right click to Locate Folder in Library, then once I find it, I have to go back to All Photographs>Text.search for file #, go to the second duplicate, right click to Locate Folder in Library, then once I find it, I have to do it all again.  Is there a simpler way to see all the occurrences in their respective folder locations at once?
SEARCH BY FILE FOLDER NAME ONLY: I also find I can't search for a file using a folder name (for example, "John_Doe").  I can only search by file #, keywords, or camera/lens/date, etc.  Why will it not work to use All Photographs>Text>search for Doe? In other words, if I didn't keyword the individual files as John Doe, I can't search for them by that moniker.
BACKUP:  It also appears that the only way I can back up the catalog is to shut down LR.  Really?!
FOLDER LIST PRINTOUT: Is there a way to print out the Folder list (other than a screen shot)? I have so many file folders on each drive since I sort not by Year/Month/Date but by subject. It makes trying to compare duplicate folders quite unwieldy. 
SLOW RESPONSE:  And finally, as though that weren't enough, why does LR4 continually blink to a white screen after each keystroke?  Takes forever just to be able to click through images, view info after hovering, etc. All other programs are closed down and the operating system shows very little memory being used.

Answer 1

A brief and probably non-helpful answer: I know of no way to eliminate your large amount of duplicates other than by repetitive, tedious manual effort.
*There has got to be a simpler way.*
I hope you're right, but I don't think there is a simpler way.
BACKUP:  It also appears that the only way I can back up the catalog is to shut down LR.  Really?!
Yes, really