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Byte size discrepancy in Copy
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Sep 2000
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Hello!
I just made a backup of my home folder by simply dragging it to another (external) drive. Now, both report the same size in GBs, but the byte size is not the same in both.
Both drives are the same size and formatted with HFS+. I encountered no error messages or permission problems. So, what could be causing this discrepancy? Shouldn't both copies be exactly the same size?
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: New York, NY
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Your home folder is constantly being updated as you use it, i.e. prefs, caches, etc. So, descrepency between the folders is likely and will grow as time goes by.
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Vandelay Industries
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Sep 2000
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Originally posted by Art Vandelay:
Your home folder is constantly being updated as you use it, i.e. prefs, caches, etc. So, descrepency between the folders is likely and will grow as time goes by.
I understand that, but is it common even when comparing the folders right after copying?
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: New York, NY
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Originally posted by Gabriel Morales:
I understand that, but is it common even when comparing the folders right after copying?
It can be. The simple act of copying makes changes to the Finder prefs. Other processes can be making changes to prefs, caches, etc. too even during the copy.
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Vandelay Industries
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Admin Emeritus  Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
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1. Invisible files.
2. Are you comparing the "on disk" size or the size in parentheses? The first value is variable depending on the block size of the drive.
tooki
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Sep 2000
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Originally posted by tooki:
1. Invisible files.
2. Are you comparing the "on disk" size or the size in parentheses? The first value is variable depending on the block size of the drive.
tooki
Right. As I said, the drives seem to be of exactly the same capacity and both are formatted in HFS+. So, both drives should have the same block size, right? Or, are there other variables here I haven't accounted for?
Perhaps its just what Art says, and it was just an updated file or two.
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Admin Emeritus Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
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It could be that, or could be invisible files. I'm not yet sure what the Finder's behavior is when copying folders that contain invisible files.
tooki
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: New York, NY
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Originally posted by tooki:
It could be that, or could be invisible files. I'm not yet sure what the Finder's behavior is when copying folders that contain invisible files.
tooki
It copies all files within folders, including invisible files.
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Vandelay Industries
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Tasmania, Australia
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Having two disks of the same size with the same partition map, and each partition having the same filesystem type (eg, HFS+) does not necessarily mean the same block size.
Chances are that if they were both formatted using defaults, then they will have the same block size. The block size, number of iNodes, superblocks (in UFS, at least), etc, are set when the filesystem is created, and is not necessarily related to the size of the disk (although the defaults for HFS+ are usually determined according to the size of the disk by Apple).
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