Files have the same date but a different size

Posts: 12 · regis_1 2 Mar 2016, 19:42

I keep getting the message that "Files have the same date but a different size". The files have not been touched in years. Why does this message appear?

Posts: 7282 · Zenju 2 Mar 2016, 19:48

Probably related to Daylight Saving Time.

Posts: 12 · regis_1 2 Mar 2016, 20:03

But FreeFileSync is saying that the file SIZE is different while the date and time are the same. The files have not been modified. This synchronization is from NTFS to NTFS.

Posts: 7282 · Zenju 3 Mar 2016, 10:45

Does FFS show a different size than Explorer? If not, then the files really have a different observable size, that's all FFS knows.

Posts: 12 · regis_1 4 Mar 2016, 14:37

The file properties in File Explorer show a different "Size" but identical "Size on disk". This is all very odd because the source file had not been changed by a user and the created and modified dates and times are identical on both the source and the target. Only the size is different, and I can't understand why or how the size could have been altered, especially without changing the file date and time. This is occurring for many files.

Posts: 7282 · Zenju 4 Mar 2016, 14:59

The obvious next step is to do a binary comparison and see which bytes differ. This could give a clue to what application did the changes.