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Size of files/folders vs "size on disk" MASSIVELY different?
Hi there, I'm on my NVX via a windows 8.1 machine, just going through some image folders and tidying up a little, when I realised there is a simply massive disparity between the "size" and the "size o...
- I ran again the volume consistency check manually and it found volume scan was needed, so rebooted with the vol scan, it reported fixed problems...re-ran the scrub - that finished good in approx 7hrs. Problem still there on file count....so I installed TreeSize Pro - to find out in the 100+ folders - which one tripped the size, and low & behold - found the single file showing 16TB in size (yes, impossible on a NAS with only 2.6TB). It was a quickbooks file. Zero clue how, but I opened the file, backed it up, resaved and now the file size reports normal at 58mb. Whew!!! TG for treesize pro finding exactly what file. The wonders of why or how this can happen, but guess any corrupt file can produce strange results.
I am sure CP now will be happy I am not trying to push 17.1TB of data ...thru our unlimited data plan. :)
ReadyAS wrote: 1. Under Windows 8:
Size: 328 GB (352 863 936 767)
Size on disk: 328 GB (352 903 155 712)
2. Under Windows 8.1:
Size: 328 GB (352 863 936 767)
Size on disk: 331 GB (355 647 881 216)
So still there is difference in size on disk. Could you explain me why, please?
The smallest unit of space that can be allocated on your drives is called a "cluster" or "allocation unit". The size of a cluster varies from one drive to another, although it is typically around 4K bytes.
With a 4KB cluster size, even a one-byte file will require 4KB of disk space. You can see this for yourself: Create a text file containming a single character, then look at its properties in Windows. It'll be shown as something like "Size: 1, Size on disk: 4096". That "size on disk" indicates that a full cluster was allocated even though only one byte of storage was needed.
What you're seeing with your NAS is that Windows 8 assumes one cluster size for its "Size on disk" display and Windows 8.1 assumes another. I don't know what sizes they're using, but if I had to guess from your numbers I would say that Windows 8 is assuming 4K cluster sizes and Windows 8.1 is assuming 256K cluster sizes. If you tell me how many files are on the disk, I can give you a more certain answer.
ReadyAS wrote: Whereas I use 'du -b' command in the system shell I can see another size than Windows presents:
352 868 872 447
That size is the same as is displayed by Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 on the "Size:" line.
ReadyAS wrote: We have 2014 and such basic problems with calculate the size of files??? It's very irritating. Now we can't be sure wchich value out of the above is correct.
It depends on what you mean by "correct". If you want to know the sum of the actual file sizes of all your files, the Windows "Size:" value (for both Win8 and Win8.1) is the correct one. If you want to know exactly how much space on disk is being used, the Windows 8 number is probably correct.
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