2 identical external drives - identical files on both. different remaining capacity left . why?

[Norbert V]

hi guys, 

 

i looked around but couldn't find any topics describing this exact thing. if there is something please point me to it. thanks.

 

so what i'm having trouble understanding why the following is happening. I have 2 identical external HDD drives. both from the same manufacturer. Same capacity, same model etc. 

One is for storage, the second one is just a backup of the first one. so i just basically copied over everything using windows explorer copy / paste . nothing fancy. 

every time I add something to the original drive, i add the same thing to the backup drive as well. put it in the same location within a folder etc. etc. 

 

now the weird part is that windows is showing me different remaining capacities on these 2 drives even though they have the same files etc. as described.  

 

any ideas? 

 

thanks 

 

[Oshino Shinobu]

Made sure to empty recycle bin?

 

Have a look in Disk Management to see if one has been partitioned. 

Also, defrag both and run a disk cleanup program on both. 

[WereCatf]

Pretty sure the difference is just simply fragmented files.

[samcool55]

10 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

Pretty sure the difference is just simply fragmented files.

Not exactly. If it would the "Size:" would be exactly the same which isn't the case.

The difference between "Size:" and "Size on disk:" is a good indication of how fragmented it could be and tbh it looks quite good. (they are rarely exactly the same because you always have files that don't completely fill up the sectors it uses).

 

Anyway, check the drives with WinDirStat. There's probably more than you can see.

Personally (might be just me) but the explorer in windows is quite retarded.

[Norbert V]

2 hours ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

Made sure to empty recycle bin?

 

Have a look in Disk Management to see if one has been partitioned. 

Also, defrag both and run a disk cleanup program on both. 

disk cleanup shows 0 bites to clean up on both drives. 

just ran defrag on both.  still showing the same values as before. 

[Norbert V]

any other ideas guys ? 

[inthebrilliantblue]

21 hours ago, Norbert V said:

any other ideas guys ? 

Did you empty the recycle bin? The only other thing I would think is happening is that there is a file or files that are different versions that have different file sizes. Like say a database data file that grew some after a copy was made to the other disk. What kind of content is being kept on these disks? Would it be anything that could grow in size during usage?

[Norbert V]

On 7/10/2018 at 5:38 PM, inthebrilliantblue said:

Did you empty the recycle bin? The only other thing I would think is happening is that there is a file or files that are different versions that have different file sizes. Like say a database data file that grew some after a copy was made to the other disk. What kind of content is being kept on these disks? Would it be anything that could grow in size during usage?

mainly photos and videos, about 90%. rest is random files but not something that could grow over time. also i access these disks quire rarely. once every 4-6 months. 

 

also checked recycle bin for both. they're empty. 

 

now that I'm getting close to full on both (as they are 1:1 copies) this difference is getting more and more annoying especially that there's quite a big difference... :/

 

[Norbert V]

any other ideas fellas? 

[Norbert V]

still having the same problem. luckily with covid and stuff we've been out travelling less so the drives are full but i didn't need to buy new ones yet. any ideas maybe on what's happening? 

[kokosnh]

cluster size? like can we start from the bottom?

I did once run into similiar problem, the problem on my side was with the MAX_PATH, which is defined as 260 characters (windows). 
Only after using robocopy (and that is a scary command, that can wipe your data) I did manage to solve it.     
And depending on the mounting path, the files size did change. 
And my friend did wipe one of his HDD, even after I especially inform him to be careful with that command parameters.     

[Norbert V]

On 4/3/2022 at 12:58 AM, kokosnh said:

cluster size? like can we start from the bottom?

I did once run into similiar problem, the problem on my side was with the MAX_PATH, which is defined as 260 characters (windows). 
Only after using robocopy (and that is a scary command, that can wipe your data) I did manage to solve it.     
And depending on the mounting path, the files size did change. 
And my friend did wipe one of his HDD, even after I especially inform him to be careful with that command parameters.     

thnx.  i don't think cluser size differences would add up to 14 gb...   no idea what robocopy is but it sounds scrary.   

all in all, i'm in need of an upgrade, probably will buy 2 external drives, this time 4TB each and just use the same dumb copy paste onto each drive method just because i'm lazy to learn and cheap to invest in a more simple / robust solution.  i wish however i would discover what's the cause here so i can avoid it on my next two drives  

[Mark Kaine]

On 4/6/2022 at 8:30 PM, Norbert V said:

probably will buy 2 external drives, this time 4TB each and just use the same dumb copy paste onto each drive method just because i'm lazy to learn and cheap to invest in a more simple / robust solution.  i wish however i would discover what's the cause here so i can avoid it on my next two drives  

So if u get new drives… dont do the dumb copy thing, use clone… or just a simple/ incremental backup… i use macrium reflect , its free and works well…

 

as for the current issue… idk, but since its always ~14gb difference , it could be hidden partitions.

 

I only know 1 way to check that and thats with a windows installation drive… before install it will show u *all* partitions even hidden ones - it maybe risky, but if you dont format anything and just cancel after you checked nothing should happen (also u have a backup, just in case!)

 

 

[kokosnh]

looking at it again, if it was really cluster size, than the "Size" should be identical, and "Size on disk" should be different. I thing there are files that just can't be copied to the second drive, with the method you are using. 
If you would wipe the storage drive, and copy everything back to it from back (with the same tolls you use to copy to the backup) it should be identical.

But I would do that only afther I did backup it all to another drive. 
Ps. try using Freefilesync, I use it quite often, and it can copy almost everything.

[Norbert V]

On 4/10/2022 at 11:52 PM, Mark Kaine said:

So if u get new drives… dont do the dumb copy thing, use clone… or just a simple/ incremental backup… i use macrium reflect , its free and works well…

 

as for the current issue… idk, but since its always ~14gb difference , it could be hidden partitions.

 

I only know 1 way to check that and thats with a windows installation drive… before install it will show u *all* partitions even hidden ones - it maybe risky, but if you dont format anything and just cancel after you checked nothing should happen (also u have a backup, just in case!)

 

 

thnx.   yeah i know.. i started with the copy thing years and years back and stuck with it but with the new drives i'll use a software solution for sure. thnx for the tip

i doubt it's any hidden partition since both drives were new out of the box. never used them for anything else