$re = '/(?s)\h([a-zA-Z0-9]{8})$(?=.*\h\1$)/m';
$str = 'Folder A\\Folder C\\File three.txt 56efd95f
Folder A\\File one.txt b8e1b873
Folder A\\Folder B\\Folder D\\File four.txt 56efd95f
Folder A\\Folder B\\File two.txt 21e8e9c9';
$subst = "$1";
$result = preg_replace($re, $subst, $str);
echo "The result of the substitution is ".$result;
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php