Why is a 30GB phone backup on Windows 10 shows up as 50TB in size on my filesystem?

Question

I backed up my phone to my PC (photos and videos).

The size of the backup size on disk is 30GB, but the size apparently is 50TB?!?

It's important to know know that my hard drive has only 250GB, so I really don't understand what's going on.

I already updated Windows, because I Googled that it could one of Windows updates but it didn't fix it.

I also tried to open the files, but not possible. It's like they are corrupted now.

The process I used to backup:

I've connected my phone to my computer with USB.
Open DCMI folder of my phone with file explorer.
Copy content.
Paste it on my desktop.

Any idea what is happening?

What is the phone's OS and what process did you use to backup the files? — fixer1234, Jun 21 '19 at 21:05
Hello @Fixer1234: 1 - I've connected my phone to my computer with USB
2 - Open DCMI folder of my phone with file explorer

3 - Copy content

4 - Paste it on my desktop — Manu, Jun 21 '19 at 21:32
Possible duplicate of What is the difference between size and size on disk? — Dave, Jun 22 '19 at 07:34

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 21 '19 at 22:50

@manu, it's stated backwards, it should be "The size on disk is 30GB, but the size of the file is (theoretically).... 50TB"

The answer might be that Windows seems to calculate links as separate files. I've seen Windows Disk Cleanup, removing Windows.old, that claims it would save 20 TB on a disk with 500 GB.

Why is a 30GB phone backup on Windows 10 shows up as 50TB in size on my filesystem?

1 Answers1