I do backups on multiple hard drives, and i occasionally right click and check properties to make sure everything is 1:1 copied. I get them perfectly matching, yet every time i go back and check them after a few months there are discrepancies in different areas.

For instance if i right click on a folder, it will show 6 files and 132MB. When i right click on it's counterpart it shows 7 files and 132.7MB. Each folder only has 6 files, and they are all the same exact size... yet when i check the properties on one of them, it shows more files and data.

The option to view hidden files and folders is selected on each folder.

Here is a picture of both folder properties:
http://i.imgur.com/X0AQGdX.png

Here is a list of the contents of each folder:
http://i.imgur.com/oNHLfDM.png

As you can see, the contents are exactly the same, yet one folder shows more than the other.

Any idea as to why this is happening? I always end up deleting one of the folders and making a copy of the remaining one, because that's the only way i can get them to match 1:1. Would really like to find out why it keeps happening, because it gets tedious.

Win10

 

Do you have "hide protected and system files" checked? Try unchecking that. It may be a thumbnail file that the OS generates for a thumbnail view of the folder.

 

Are all the drives formatted to the same file system, say NTFS? I've seen size differences if I list the contents of a directory, in windows explorer & if I list them inside a command prompt. That's the same file, on the same drive.

The only time its a problem is if a virus attached itself to an exe. Then the size difference might mean something. Taking it a step beyond that, when you download something, you might be given a checksum, md5 or sha1. That way you can verify if someone tampered with it.

 

This is what it was. I had 'show hidden files' enabled, but not 'show protected operating files'. When i enabled operating files, the missing file showed up (a thumbs.db file).

I'm now disabling the creation of those thumb files, so this doesn't happen in the future.

Thanks.