Solved When copied files don't equal original files

My question is a bit complicated but I'll try to be as clear as I can. I highlighted 6276 files on drive one and copied them to drive 2, but the window says there are 5655 files in drive 2. Thinking I may have done something wrong I copied the 6276 again to drive 2. It even said all of the 6276 already existed but I said replace them. After the operation finished I still have 5655 as the file count in drive 2. That number is 696 less than the count in drive one. In both cases the files are coming from and going to new folders set up just for this operation. They are highlighted and drug to drive 2's window. I've spent hours trying to think of something that can cause the difference in the counts, especially after copying 6276 into drive 2 and not seeing the count change at all. Drive one is a Seagate Expansion external drive, drive 2 is USB 5T LaCie drive. Thanks for any help.

Oh the properties. Drive one is 42.6 GB 9340 files 123 folders. Drive two is 40.5 GB 8644 files 123 folders. That difference BTW is 696 the same as the difference between files counts in the folder windows. I'd think perhaps the copying just didn't happen for some reason excepts it says the 6276 files are already there in drive 2. Crazy.

@larrydonline

My first guess would be that you have 696 duplicate files on drive 1.

There are Duplicate file finder programs.
You could run one of those, pointed at drive 1, and see if it finds 696 duplicates.

I have 2 possible workarounds if you're unable to determine the missing files. Neither are an ideal solution but it beats having missing files on drive 2.

#1 There's an old Microsoft app called Synctoy which was discontinued a long time ago but it still works in Windows 11. I use it to synchronize folders between 2 external drives. You can still get it at Softonic. SyncToy

#2 If all the files are in the same master folder on drive 1, you can backup the folder using Macrium or another backup software, then restore the backup to its corresponding master folder on drive 2. Once on drive 2, you can move what files you want to the new folders you made and delete the rest.

The 6276 files must exist as individual items. They may have duplicate content but the OS won't allow for two files to have the same exact name in a folder. When copying them to drive 2 they say they already exist but they don't show up in the file count at the bottom of the window. Properties agrees with that.

larrydonline said:

The 6276 files must exist as individual items. They may have duplicate content but the OS won't allow for two files to have the same exact name in a folder. When copying them to drive 2 they say they already exist but they don't show up in the file count at the bottom of the window. Properties agrees with that.

Click to expand...

Duplicate files ARE counted on the properties sheet.
344 files with the dupes, 342 without the dupes.
And ofc they don't have identical names. But in 6K files... there may actually be dupes.
And if there's numbers in the file names... it would be even easier to miss dupes.

I have a script which might help. The script lists every folder & folder underneath two separate paths, and tells you what's missing.

But it will get confused if you have extra folders which aren't important to this discussion. Are you basically trying to clone drive 1 to drive 2, and there are no other folders to exclude?

Your insistence that it must involve duplicate files paid off. I found the duplicates on drive one had their file names recessed by one character. Instead of the names starting flush with the left border their titles began with a space then the title. The system knew they were the same as those that didn't have the space as the first letter. After deleting that bunch the counts match. Thanks for the help. I don't think I would have figured that out by myself.

larrydonline said:

Your insistence that it must involve duplicate files paid off. I found the duplicates on drive one had their file names recessed by one character. Instead of the names starting flush with the left border their titles began with a space then the title. The system knew they were the same as those that didn't have the space as the first letter. After deleting that bunch the counts match. Thanks for the help. I don't think I would have figured that out by myself.

Click to expand...

Good job.

@Ghot is sharp as a tack. I always take what he says as gospel. I'm still waiting on him to be wrong.
Glad you got it worked out.