Hey everyone,
it seems that I have a problem that other people have also encountered when using with free file sync. Unfortunately, no one has an explanation or solution to the problem. Or have I just not found it? I appreciate any tips!
Problem: my two (mirrored) identical hard drives show a difference in their free space. Both are "1TB WD Elements Portable".
The same problem is discussed in this thread:
viewtopic.php?t=5826
Kind regards
Marcus
mirrored identical hard drive but different free space
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Well that was fast - the long file paths might be it... thank you very much. I'll post what worked for me
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OS?
If Win10+, if a long path issue, you can enable long paths in 10+, which might alleviate the issue?
I might actually try to verify if
(As in, if I take a directory with a LFN in it - in Win7, Windows Explorer shows exactly the same number of bytes as I get with Everything (DIR & NDIR).
If Win10+, if a long path issue, you can enable long paths in 10+, which might alleviate the issue?
I might actually try to verify if
is still accurate - even in OS < 10?Windows Explorer is not able to handle file paths longer than 260 characters. Consequently, Explorer will not count files/folders with such long paths.
(As in, if I take a directory with a LFN in it - in Win7, Windows Explorer shows exactly the same number of bytes as I get with Everything (DIR & NDIR).
Hey everyone,
please excuse my very late reply. I have finally been able to look more intensively at the link from zenju, but unfortunately still have a difference of 1.4 GB in the hard drives.
As described here: https://freefilesync.org/faq.php#explorer-mismatch
1st possibility: Filter settings. I did clear them.
2nd possibility: Symlink settings. I added the "direct" and "follow" method. Sadly both didn't help me with my problem.
3rd possibility: Ignored errors. I only have this error and the option "ignore errors" is turned off.
4th possibility: Long file paths. I renamed all the paths that have been too long. I used the software "Path Length Checker". Now I don't have paths longer than 240 characters. Also I turned on the Long Path Support in Windows 10.
5th possibility: Bugs. I don't know what I can do about this...
Do you have any other suggestions for me that might help?
Thank you so very much and kind regards
Marcus
please excuse my very late reply. I have finally been able to look more intensively at the link from zenju, but unfortunately still have a difference of 1.4 GB in the hard drives.
- Difference.PNG (42.57 KiB) Viewed 917 times
1st possibility: Filter settings. I did clear them.
2nd possibility: Symlink settings. I added the "direct" and "follow" method. Sadly both didn't help me with my problem.
- Symbolic Links.PNG (30.19 KiB) Viewed 917 times
- Error.PNG (37.57 KiB) Viewed 917 times
- Path Length.PNG (26.3 KiB) Viewed 917 times
- Long Paths.PNG (22.06 KiB) Viewed 917 times
- Error.PNG (37.57 KiB) Viewed 917 times
Do you have any other suggestions for me that might help?
Thank you so very much and kind regards
Marcus
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FWIW the difference is probably NTFS file system overhead. Who knows what NTFS might be storing, e.g. undo information, admin data regarding volume shadow copy snapshots, etc, all depending on the specific file system operations that have occurred on this disk so far.
If you compare both drives with FreeFileSync (with symlinks set to "don't follow", cleared filter, and running elevated ("= as admin") to get access to all folders) and find no difference then the drives are 100% identical as far as files are considered.
If you look at the drive properties, not even the storage capacity is exactly the same:
If you compare both drives with FreeFileSync (with symlinks set to "don't follow", cleared filter, and running elevated ("= as admin") to get access to all folders) and find no difference then the drives are 100% identical as far as files are considered.
If you look at the drive properties, not even the storage capacity is exactly the same:
- storage-capacity.PNG (11.44 KiB) Viewed 897 times
All right. The most important thing is that the backup is correct. Thanks for your help.
Yes, I have also seen the difference, although this is unfortunately in no relation to 1.4 GB with 2MB.
Yes, I have also seen the difference, although this is unfortunately in no relation to 1.4 GB with 2MB.
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See also, viewtopic.php?t=9819#p36207.
Seems to me, your two WD Elements, while both are "1 TB", they do not have the same physical drives within. (That said, that shouldn't have any bearing on your 1.4 GB.)
What Windows may display, may be affected by permissions that you may or may not have.
Get a listing of all the files on both drives & compare them.
IMO, Everything (noted above) is the best thing for that.
Open Everything, do a search of: "D:"
Export that to a text file, perhaps, d_list.TXT
Do a search of: "E:"
Export that to a text file, perhaps, e_list.TXT
Compare d_list.TXT with e_list.TXT.
That should point out your file differences.
Or, in Everything 1.5 Alpha...
Open Everything, do a search of: D: | E:
(that is should display all your files on D: and E:)
Right-click the 'Name' column header
There is a context-menu item, 'Find Name Duplicates'
Right-click on that & select, 'Find Unique (Not Duplicated)'
That should point out all filename differences between D: & E:
Alpha, https://www.voidtools.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=9787
Seems to me, your two WD Elements, while both are "1 TB", they do not have the same physical drives within. (That said, that shouldn't have any bearing on your 1.4 GB.)
What Windows may display, may be affected by permissions that you may or may not have.
Get a listing of all the files on both drives & compare them.
IMO, Everything (noted above) is the best thing for that.
Open Everything, do a search of: "D:"
Export that to a text file, perhaps, d_list.TXT
Do a search of: "E:"
Export that to a text file, perhaps, e_list.TXT
Compare d_list.TXT with e_list.TXT.
That should point out your file differences.
Or, in Everything 1.5 Alpha...
Open Everything, do a search of: D: | E:
(that is should display all your files on D: and E:)
Right-click the 'Name' column header
There is a context-menu item, 'Find Name Duplicates'
Right-click on that & select, 'Find Unique (Not Duplicated)'
That should point out all filename differences between D: & E:
Alpha, https://www.voidtools.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=9787
Hello therube,
I must admit that I didn't fully consider your old tip and also didn't understand it (as english is not my mother tongue). But with your new post it was very understandable. Many many thanks for taking the time and explaining it so detailed.
Unfortunately the result with "Everything 1.5 Alpha" is "0 Objects". But the software works as it lists all the files on the hard drives...
Kind regards
Marcus
I must admit that I didn't fully consider your old tip and also didn't understand it (as english is not my mother tongue). But with your new post it was very understandable. Many many thanks for taking the time and explaining it so detailed.
Unfortunately the result with "Everything 1.5 Alpha" is "0 Objects". But the software works as it lists all the files on the hard drives...
- Everything 1.5 Alpha.png (53.77 KiB) Viewed 866 times
Marcus
Hello all,
maybe I found a reason and it helps others too. I have found files in my video backup folder that can no longer be played. If I want to delete the file I get the error: "The file was not found".
It could be that there was a synchronization error and the file, even if it should not be there, physically still consumes space on one hard disk. I don't know if this explanation makes sense, but for your information: you can find these unplayable files on both hard disks.
I will continue to look into this issue....
Many greetings
Marcus
Edit: damn, I can't get rid of these files... not even with admin rights or software like "bleach it". I think I have to dig deeper into this and maybe completly format my hard drive
Edit 2: I used xyplorer in admin mode and were able to rename them to .mp4 files and can now see the videos. So that wasn't it, what caused the difference of 1.4 GB...
maybe I found a reason and it helps others too. I have found files in my video backup folder that can no longer be played. If I want to delete the file I get the error: "The file was not found".
It could be that there was a synchronization error and the file, even if it should not be there, physically still consumes space on one hard disk. I don't know if this explanation makes sense, but for your information: you can find these unplayable files on both hard disks.
I will continue to look into this issue....
Many greetings
Marcus
- Element not found.PNG (62.71 KiB) Viewed 847 times
Edit 2: I used xyplorer in admin mode and were able to rename them to .mp4 files and can now see the videos. So that wasn't it, what caused the difference of 1.4 GB...
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Those filenames appear to end with a physical period (.), & while not "illegal" (in a file name), certainly unusual.
And that could very well be the reason that (Windows Explorer) was not able to delete (or rename) them.
(Where xyplorer, or even Everything, isn't so dumb, & simply says, "ah, a filename that ends in a period - big deal. And xyplorer likely didn't even need Admin mode, you just figured that it would.)
And that could very well be the reason that (Windows Explorer) was not able to delete (or rename) them.
(Where xyplorer, or even Everything, isn't so dumb, & simply says, "ah, a filename that ends in a period - big deal. And xyplorer likely didn't even need Admin mode, you just figured that it would.)
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Downloading SpaceSniffer and running as admin is always my goto for these discrepancies. It shows you visually where the space is and tends to be easier to spot differences
Thank you very much! SpaceSniffer seems to be a nice little tool... it shows that I have so called "unaccessible space" as follows on my hard drives:
E: 1,6 GB
D: 0,3 GB
But I can't see any other information. Do you know how I can make that space accessible again? It's good to know that this is the reason for the wrong free space on my hard drives. FreeFileSync works just fine :-)
Best regards
E: 1,6 GB
D: 0,3 GB
- Unaccessible.png (32.35 KiB) Viewed 819 times
Best regards
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Run a chkdsk on both of the volumes and see if it says there were errors that were fixed. Are you making sure you run SpaceSniffer as administrator?
I did run chkdsk on both hard drives, (sadly) no error. I did run the cmd as administrator and also SpaceSniffer as administrator. I also rebootet and tried again.
When I googled today, I found a post saying, that third party software maybe had used free space of my E: hard disk e.g. for backup files / restoring points / etc.
Since I know my software on my PC it's hard to image, but still possible. I'll go with a clean new partition on both hard drives and re-copy all the files on the weekend. I will also make sure to make two identical partitions, since the hardware of both drives doesn't seem to be identical and have slight differences in the size (as mentioned above).
Still, thank you very much for thinking about my problem and trying to help :-)
When I googled today, I found a post saying, that third party software maybe had used free space of my E: hard disk e.g. for backup files / restoring points / etc.
Since I know my software on my PC it's hard to image, but still possible. I'll go with a clean new partition on both hard drives and re-copy all the files on the weekend. I will also make sure to make two identical partitions, since the hardware of both drives doesn't seem to be identical and have slight differences in the size (as mentioned above).
Still, thank you very much for thinking about my problem and trying to help :-)
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See if Disk Management shows anything of interest?
There could be a "hidden" or "non-Windows" (oh, & I'm go to say it incorrect) "partition" on the disk.
It could even be how/when/what OS was used to format that disk originally.
Win7 will typically have a 100 MB "hidden" area.
Win10/11, not sure, but 1 GB (or even more) is certainly possible.
And as the drives are different, & if one was formatted under one OS, & the other under a different OS - even at different times, these hidden partitions could account for the differences you're seeing.
There could be a "hidden" or "non-Windows" (oh, & I'm go to say it incorrect) "partition" on the disk.
It could even be how/when/what OS was used to format that disk originally.
Win7 will typically have a 100 MB "hidden" area.
Win10/11, not sure, but 1 GB (or even more) is certainly possible.
And as the drives are different, & if one was formatted under one OS, & the other under a different OS - even at different times, these hidden partitions could account for the differences you're seeing.
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This wouldn't matter. SpaceSniffer only checks a single partition/volume, not the whole drive. That means the unaccessible space is in the volume with the discrepancySee if Disk Management shows anything of interest?
There could be a "hidden" or "non-Windows" (oh, & I'm go to say it incorrect) "partition" on the disk.
It could even be how/when/what OS was used to format that disk originally.
Win7 will typically have a 100 MB "hidden" area.
Win10/11, not sure, but 1 GB (or even more) is certainly possible.
And as the drives are different, & if one was formatted under one OS, & the other under a different OS - even at different times, these hidden partitions could account for the differences you're seeing. therube, 16 Dec 2022, 16:29
Quick Update: I reformatted both hard drives and adjusted the partitions so that the storage space is identical, even though the installed hardware may not be identical. After synchronizing again with free file sync, everything is now correct.
Thank you again everyone for helping me out here :-) I made a donation to FreeFileSync
Thank you again everyone for helping me out here :-) I made a donation to FreeFileSync
