CCC backup is much smaller than the destination files?

[robodelfy]

I'm just using Carbon Copy Cloner for the first time. I've cloned my 1tb internal SSD to a 2tb external HDD

Now if I click 'get info' on MacintoshHD (the destination) it says 690gb

And if I do the same on my CCC backup drive it says 560gb

How can there be such a big difference, something is surely wrong?

The strange thing is if I go into the root folder then the 4 folders inside are the same size, Applications, Library, System, Users

So where is all that other size coming from!

Sorry if its a silly questions
Thanks

 

[Weaselboy]

https://bombich.com/kb/ccc5/some-files-and-folders-are-automatically-excluded-from-backup-task

There are some cache folders and such that CCC skips, so that is normal. Here is a support article on it.

 

[robodelfy]

https://bombich.com/kb/ccc5/some-files-and-folders-are-automatically-excluded-from-backup-task

There are some cache folders and such that CCC skips, so that is normal. Here is a support article on it.

Thanks, but surely not 130gb worth! It seems like way too much. Its confusing

 

[Weaselboy]

Thanks, but surely not 130gb worth! It seems like way too much. Its confusing

It could be...

Run this in Terminal and it will show all those hidden and system files along with their size in GB, so you can spot check from the CCC support document.

sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g /

 

[robodelfy]

It could be...

Run this in Terminal and it will show all those hidden and system files along with their size in GB, so you can spot check from the CCC support document.

sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g /

It doesn't appear to show any sizes?

 

[Weaselboy]

It doesn't appear to show any sizes?

Those numbers to the left are size in GB. For example, your /Applications folder is using 46GB.

 

[robodelfy]

Those numbers to the left are size in GB. For example, your /Applications folder is using 46GB.

Thanks, but it still doesn't explain whats going on. If you have a look at the screenshots, you can see that when I 'get info' the amount of used space is vastly different. But when I look at the main folders side by side, its the same!

Any ideas?

 

[Weaselboy]

That Finder view is not showing all the hidden folders I mentioned. You also may have Time Machine on and that creates local snapshots that don't get moved over.

 

[robodelfy]

That Finder view is not showing all the hidden folders I mentioned. You also may have Time Machine on and that creates local snapshots that don't get moved over.

I do have time machine one. But could the difference be over 150GB. Its a huge amount of space to not really know whats taking it up

 

[Weaselboy]

I do have time machine one. But could the difference be over 150GB. Its a huge amount of space to not really know whats taking it up

It can be if you have deleted a lot of files recently.

Run this in Terminal and it will remove all the local snapshots.

tmutil  listlocalsnapshotdates / |grep 20|while read f; do tmutil deletelocalsnapshots $f; done

You also have a 445GB users folder. Does that sound abut right? You may have some large cache files in there CCC is skipping.

You can run that list command again on the users folder to drill down a little.

sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g ~/

 

[robodelfy]

It can be if you have deleted a lot of files recently.

Run this in Terminal and it will remove all the local snapshots.

tmutil  listlocalsnapshotdates / |grep 20|while read f; do tmutil deletelocalsnapshots $f; done

You also have a 445GB users folder. Does that sound abut right? You may have some large cache files in there CCC is skipping.

You can run that list command again on the users folder to drill down a little.

sudo du -d 1 -x -c -g ~/

Is it ok to delete all the local snapshots?

Yes I think the users folder is around that, and the same on my CCC backup.

 

[Weaselboy]

Is it ok to delete all the local snapshots?

Yes... won't hurt a thing.

 

[robodelfy]

Yes... won't hurt a thing.

So that appears to have got rid of some. But there is still a difference of 60gb depending on whether I click 'get info' on Macintosh HD, or if I select the 4 folders within it and 'get info' on them.

 

[BrianBaughn]

I suppose you read this before asking here?

 

[Rodan52]

Thanks, but surely not 130gb worth! It seems like way too much. Its confusing

Assuming your backup is bootable (and it should be) you can try running your device from the backup. I think you will find that everything is there as it should be but over time it will grow in total size. My wife discovered this when her old HDD failed and she had to run her MBP for three weeks from her CCC backup while awaiting a new SSD.