Question Different free space on identical HDDs with identical content

[marvindash]

Hi all. I have two identical external 5TB HDDs, both with 4.54TB capacity. They have the same content. And yet one is showing 92.7GB of free space and the other is showing 362GB of free space. I'm aware that discrepancies aren't uncommon, but this is a very big discrepancy (c. 269GB). I've checked all folders and they're the same. All I could think of is perhaps there's a corrupt recycle bin on one of them, but I've accessed the drives' recycle bins and they're empty. Other than that, I'm not particularly knowledgeable on technical matters. Does anyone have any ideas as to what could be causing such a big discrepancy?

 

[USAFRet]

There is almost certainly some content that is hidden.

Do this for both drives:
Install and run either WinDirStat, or WizTree.

Run as Administrator, selecting only the drive in question.
Post a screencap here.

Also, a screencap of your Disk Management window.



Also, was one of these an 'in use' drive, and the other just a copy?
If so, fragmentation may come into play with this.

 

[marvindash]

There is almost certainly some content that is hidden.

Do this for both drives:
Install and run either WinDirStat, or WizTree.

Run as Administrator, selecting only the drive in question.
Post a screencap here.

Also, a screencap of your Disk Management window.



Also, was one of these an 'in use' drive, and the other just a copy?
If so, fragmentation may come into play with this.

I'll try this in a couple of days (switching Internet provider tomorrow). What's the privacy like on WinDirStat and WizTree? I use these drives to back up work files and have contracts with clients that say I'll do everything (read: including the virtually impossible) to secure the work I do for them.

The first external HDD is a backup for my PC's data disk. I update it about once a week. The second is a backup for the backup. I update it about once a month.

 

[USAFRet]

WinDirStat is totally local.
It sends nothing elsewhere.

I use it regularly.


How do you do these backups?

 

[Ralston18]

Regarding:

"And yet one is showing 92.7GB of free space and the other is showing 362GB of free space."

Curious - what is being used to show the free space?

 

[marvindash]

Regarding:

"And yet one is showing 92.7GB of free space and the other is showing 362GB of free space."

Curious - what is being used to show the free space?

Just Windows Explorer.

 

[marvindash]

WinDirStat is totally local.
It sends nothing elsewhere.

I use it regularly.


How do you do these backups?

Used WinDirStat and found that despite the Recycle Bin on the drives being ostensibly empty, they contained invisible files (invisible even with show hidden files and folders enabled) and once I deleted these recycle bin folders the free space on the two drives is approximately the same.

Many thanks for your assistance, though. Much appreciated!

 

[Grobe]

Used WinDirStat and found that despite the Recycle Bin on the drives being ostensibly empty, they contained invisible files (invisible even with show hidden files and folders enabled) and once I deleted these recycle bin folders the free space on the two drives is approximately the same.

This tends to happens when you move the disk between different computers. When a file are deleted when connected on computer1, it won't show in recycle bin at computer2 because windows threat it as being deleted by 2 different users.