Question about files saved from Macs & Windows

[Turnpike]

Since this is a combination of Windows and Mac files issue, I think this is the most closely related forum for what I'm looking to find out, so maybe someone here knows why this is happening...

I took my 1TB hard drive and moved all the folders (while it was plugged into a Windows 7 Dell desktop) and moved the files (which actually makes a copy in the new location, leaving the old photos where they are) from my old 1TB to my new 2.5TB external hard drive which was also plugged into the Dell desktop at the same time.

My question is this: When I checked the size of both, to make sure everything copied, the size of the folders on the one was 842GB with 128,983 files and 3,161 folders but the size of the moved info on the new hard drive was only 768GB and contained 120,214 files with 2,953 folders.

A LOT of photos were saved from online, and many folders were complete empty-ing of iPhones I had over the years... as well as other files that were saved on a Mac originally.


Would the new moved data which appears to be less and/or smaller, be the result of compressing or junk that was from old computers, or is it almost certain that some files didn't copy, and would anyone know which files or what kind of files (MOV, .stl, jpg, whatever) don't always copy or move? They are a huge mix of pictures, videos, and files saved from Macs, Windows, and iDevices over the years.

Thanks in advance for your time...

 

[Turnpike]

I only posted the question after DAYS of searching... but I just found a reason why the total size of a moved batch of folders on an old external hard drive will show as smaller on a newer external hard drive... it's nothing to do with the files coming from Apple and/or Windows sources... it's about how the newer external hard drive measures space taken up. To quote the source where I found it...

"A file that takes up 100 Mb exactly on a 500 Gb HD with 4k sectors will not take up the same space on a 1Tb Hd with 8k sectors. There may be a slight varience between the two because of the sector size if for example the las bit of info (it could be as little as 1 byte) is placed in a 8k sector it will often say it used the whole sector."

So consider my question answered, and I posted this in case someone else was wondering the same thing, and came across my post. It was not an easy thing to find the answer, even with Google.

Also, the page where I found the answer, and also more info about error checking....

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...e/7a7630c2-8f62-4661-8239-6a1429330a3e?auth=1