Duplicate copies are not the same size
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Thread: Duplicate copies are not the same size

  1. #1
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    Duplicate copies are not the same size

    How come when I stick in my external hard drives in the same computer and do a direct copy the second copy is short Gigabyte size different by like 6 GB? All the programs look like they are copied though. The two drives are 500 GB. One is a normal mechanical hard drive and the other is a SSD drive.
    Note: My questions may be to help others
    Thanks, JB

  2. #2
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    Is the copy version smaller?
    Will update soon

  3. #3
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    What do you mean by "direct copy"? Are you copying data files? What are you using to copy/compare files?

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Midknyte View Post
    What do you mean by "direct copy"? Are you copying data files? What are you using to copy/compare files?
    I think johnnyb was saying copying the files over to the new drive as a "straight copy", and that there's about a 6 gigabyte difference in total file size and the drives are the same GB size...
    Will update soon

  5. #5
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    So yes I plug in both drives and I take the original and do a select all, Copy, drag and drop onto the second drive. Then I clicked on the drive letter and all the folders look exact. When I click on properties of the drive is when I see the difference. The second backup copy is smaller.
    Note: My questions may be to help others
    Thanks, JB

  6. #6
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    So yes I plug in both drives and I take the original and do a select all, Copy, drag and drop onto the second drive.
    So that's just a normal copy.

    I think you need to use a compare or sync program to see the differences.

    If you just want to compare, you can try this: http://winmerge.org/
    If you want to compare, and then sync, try this: https://www.freefilesync.org/

  7. #7
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    Thanks. I actually have only 6 folders in both drives so I hit properties on all of the folders separately that they showed exact sizes of each other. Only when I hit properties of the hard drives themselves that they show a difference. So it was a 5.19 GB difference. See photo:Compare.JPG
    Last edited by jonnyb; April 1st, 2018 at 09:37 PM. Reason: Adding photo
    Note: My questions may be to help others
    Thanks, JB

  8. #8
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    Then it's probably hidden files. Did you try the comparison apps I mentioned? They should be able to show all folders/files, including hidden ones.

  9. #9
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    are the two drive even though same size, are they the same make and model?
    Will update soon

  10. #10
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    One is a 512 SSD Western Digital and the mechanical drive is a Toshiba and is 500 GB. I ran Winmerge and it showed a recycle bin of 4.3 GB on the Toshiba. I ran the Winmerge and copied from one to the other and now they are about a gig different. Both are NTFS. I ran disk cleanup on both and the recycle bins say 0 bytes on both. Strange.
    Note: My questions may be to help others
    Thanks, JB

  11. #11
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    no boot manager on the original?
    Will update soon

  12. #12
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    Do you see hidden folders in both? If all the visible files/folders match up, then it's probably something like hidden system folders.

  13. #13
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    Also check that System Restore is OFF for the external drives.

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by Midknyte View Post
    Also check that System Restore is OFF for the external drives.
    The original is only used for storage only. No boot manager. I have opened them up and disk cleanup and set them for no restore points. One is a SSD and one is a normal hard drive though. I don't know if that matters. I am not that worried about it because I saw all my files and I did the merge left to right and right to left. As long as all my stuff works like programs, music, pictures, docs, etc. then I am OK with it. Just wondered why the big difference. Thought I was missing something. They are just for back ups. The SSD that backed up the spinning hard drive is one that I keep in my computer bag for jobs. It's just a back up of my back up.
    Just something new to learn for the future.
    Last edited by jonnyb; April 3rd, 2018 at 04:56 PM.
    Note: My questions may be to help others
    Thanks, JB

  15. #15
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    I'm not sure for this. can you please elaborate it with some example.

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