Clone copy is half the size of the source
Frank Barnako
I have been a paid user of Carbon Copy Cloner for more than a year. I am stumped, however, by its behavior.
I have two iMacs. One we will call “Virginia,” the other we’ll call “Maine”.
Virginia is the primary machine. It is backed up every night, and at last look it measured about 435 GB; I have a 1 TB disk in the Virginia iMac.
When we relocate to Maine, I take the clone backup disk (which is also 1 TB), and instruct Copy Cloner to dupe the clone to the Maine machine, which was last used six months previous and is formatted and has files.
After I complete that ‘cloning’, I find that the Maine machine is now 874GB … twice the “source”, i.e. Virginia.
I have run disk duplicate programs and Tidy Up and What Size and I find nothing that indicates somehow I have a ‘hidden disk’ or what is taking up all that room.
Bottom line: The ‘clone” measures 467 GB, even though the Maine hard disk measures 874 GB and, nightly, backs up to the ‘clone’ disk. In other words, a clone of the Maine HD ends up being half the size.
Man, am I confused. What’s going on? The Source MUST have a bunch of unnecessary stuff, a duplicate 'ghost' install or something.
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Support Staff 2 Posted by Mike Bombich on 16 Aug, 2012 04:42 PM
Hi Frank:
We'll get this figured out. Can you submit your logs to me for review so I can see what settings you used and the state of the source and destination volumes prior to the backup? The easiest way to do this is from within CCC:
Thanks,
Mike
3 Posted by Frank Barnako on 16 Aug, 2012 05:02 PM
I have submitted the logs. Also tried to get new registration code, your system didn't like either of the email addresses i submitted, i checked microsoft money to see when i paid, can't find any record so ... i'll buy a new license. Keep up the good work. You're fantastic.
Frank
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Support Staff 4 Posted by Mike Bombich on 16 Aug, 2012 09:25 PM
Hi Frank:
Looking at your task history, this Mac has had between 840-870GB of data on it since all the way back to June. Every task indicates a disk usage in that range on the source, here's the value from June 23:
==================== Carbon Copy Cloner v. 3.4.4 (575): 2012-06-23 20:34:00 -0400 ====================
Source: Wiscasset iMac
Capacity: 999.86 GB Used: 876.65 GB Available: 123.21 GB
That's as far back as the log goes, so I don't know when the problem started. Interestingly, CCC finds only 566.72 GB in the data set, which means that 310GB of data is tucked away in folders that CCC excludes by default. The 566GB value corresponds directly to the value reported for the destination volume, so the "problem" is limited to the source volume.
There are two places I'd look for the problem first:
If neither of those explain the discrepancy, you could try running the tool described at the bottom of this section of the documentation:
"The disk usage on the destination doesn't match the source -- did CCC miss some files?"
That tool will use elevated privileges to enumerate the contents of every folder on a particular volume, then print out a report at the end. You can run this for both the source and destination, then compare the results to see where the discrepancy lies.
Mike
5 Posted by Frank on 16 Aug, 2012 09:39 PM
Very impressive email.
June 5 or so is when we got here and I used copied the virgina clone to the maine machine.
I'll pursue your suggestions now.
Thank you.
Frank Barnako
Barnako.com
On Aug 16, 2012, at 5:25 PM, "Mike Bombich"<[email blocked]> wrote:
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6 Posted by Frank Barnako on 17 Aug, 2012 12:30 PM
Dear Mike:
Attached is a .tiff screenshot of what I found after i disconnected the Clone HD and searched for /Volumes.
The first column looks OK. But then there is that grayed out "Volumes" at the bottom of the column. When I click it, I see the second column showing an alias to the Wiscasset iMac ('Maine'), and clicking that gives me the third column ... with the Volume alias again, and each time I clock the alias the same columns appear.
Clicking the alias gives me a directory just like that in the first column. So, as in col. 1 I have an Applications folder, I have the same (and same size) in column 3. And so on .
The Volumes alias is only 6K, so I don't think this has led me to a duplicated cluster of files and programs.
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7 Posted by Frank Barnako on 17 Aug, 2012 06:25 PM
Dear Mike:
It is now 220pm and I ran the utility you suggested, to compare the disks.
I find a .Trash file with 284GB in it. That looks like a problem. Is that really stuff I thought I've been deleting, but the machine wasn't?
If I run Trash It!, is that OK?
Frank
-------]
Dear Mike:
Attached is a .tiff screenshot of what I found after i disconnected the Clone HD and searched for /Volumes.
The first column looks OK. But then there is that grayed out "Volumes" at the bottom of the column. When I click it, I see the second column showing an alias to the Wiscasset iMac ('Maine'), and clicking that gives me the third column ... with the Volume alias again, and each time I clock the alias the same columns appear.
Clicking the alias gives me a directory just like that in the first column. So, as in col. 1 I have an Applications folder, I have the same (and same size) in column 3. And so on .
The Volumes alias is only 6K, so I don't think this has led me to a duplicated cluster of files and programs.
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Support Staff 8 Posted by Mike Bombich on 18 Aug, 2012 01:17 AM
Hi Frank:
I think the Trash is the culprit. You don't need a third-party app to deal with that, just choose "Empty Trash" from the Finder's File menu.
I annotated your screenshot to explain the Volumes folder, all of that is normal.
Mike
9 Posted by Frank Barnako on 18 Aug, 2012 02:18 AM
Well, emptying trash from the finder changed nothing.
The iMac is named "Barnako's iMac" and the Maine machine is "Wiscasset iMac".
I wonder if the trash file i'm seeing in the .tiff is in fact the trash file from "Barnako's iMac" which is back in Va.
Can I nuke it here, using that third party software without also losing everything Ive got?
Frank
On Aug 17, 2012, at 9:17 PM, Mike Bombich wrote:
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Support Staff 10 Posted by Mike Bombich on 18 Aug, 2012 02:31 AM
Hi Frank:
Mac OS X's Trash is kind of an interesting folder. There are actually several Trash folders on your Mac -- one for each volume (and one per user for each volume), and one in every user's home folder. When you empty the Trash in the Finder, you're emptying the Trash folders that your account has access to. The other Trash folders remain unchanged. You can either log in to your other accounts to empty the Trash, or you can use that third-party application you mentioned to take care of it.
Mike
11 Posted by Frank on 18 Aug, 2012 02:41 AM
Hmmmmmmm .... So I have emptied the Maine machine. The Virginia machine is not emptied. I can't directly access "Virginia" because it's not here. And searching for it on Maine doesn't find it. I guess I can try and third/party nuke it and pray, or wait four weeks when back in va. Where I might conceivably have the same problem, but with the maine machine.
Good thing I have a reliable clone Pgm.
How come you don't back up Trash?
Frank Barnako
On Aug 17, 2012, at 10:31 PM, "Mike Bombich"<[email blocked]> wrote:
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Support Staff 12 Posted by Mike Bombich on 18 Aug, 2012 02:49 AM
I don't know whether the issue exists on the VA machine, I can only see the log from the ME Mac right now.
Where was that .Trash folder?
Heh, because it's trash! :-) It's really historical more than anything at this point. I started excluding the Trash long ago because it seemed to make sense at the time, and I very rarely get complaints or requests to back it up. CCC 3.5 actually includes a feature that allows you to change that rule, though, so if you did want to back up the Trash, we could fix that pretty easily.
Mike
13 Posted by Frank Barnako on 05 Sep, 2012 04:34 PM
Just registered!
Thank you for your help.
Frank
On Aug 16, 2012, at 12:42 PM, Mike Bombich wrote:
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Mike Bombich closed this discussion on 28 Sep, 2012 01:28 AM.