My partner and I are planning to make a web based duplicate file remover application.This application will delete the duplicate files on your system. We are already have an idea on how to implement this by using hash algorithms but my question is since it is web based,is it possible that the web server could actually access your local? We will be using PHP and Codeigniter frameworks. I hope you can enlighten our minds.
is it possible that the web server could actually access your local?
No, it isn't.
This can only be done if you have a client side application that the user installs on his system and is able to provide the necessary data to your online application for identifying duplicate files in a folder/volume. You can then use this data and send information to your client side application to delete the files you have identified as duplictaes. As suggested by @Charlie "you need to create server-client application for doing this. like ftp server, dropbox, google-drive etc.".