0

I’m trying to figure out why in the properties of a folder the “size” of the folder is different than the “size on disk”. According to the other posts I’ve read (for example "What is the difference between “Size” and “Size on disk?" (5 answers), the "size on disk" will always be greater than the "size", which is eventually the actual size of the folder. But my AppData folder reports a greater "size" than the "size on disk".

Can someone answer why?

AppData Properties

Entropy
  • 126
  • My guess ... compression – Jaromanda X Mar 14 '23 at 09:45
  • 2
    According to the other posts I’ve read (for example "What is the difference between “Size” and “Size on disk?" (5 answers), the "size on disk" will always be greater than the "size" – Read all the good answers to the linked duplicate. At least compression and hardlinks are mentioned, they make "size on disk" smaller. I admit the answers may be improved, so it's clear which phenomenon changes the difference in which direction. – Kamil Maciorowski Mar 14 '23 at 10:15
  • I’m sorry. I read only the first upvoted answer and I wrongly assumed that all other would be related. This confused me: “So the size on disk is the space of all those sectors in which the file is saved. That means, usually, the size on disk is always greater than the actual size.” – Entropy Mar 14 '23 at 10:26
  • Files can only be allocated on disk using full blocks. As a result a 1KB file might take up 4KB on disk even though its size is 1KB. That's the first option. The second option is that two files want to always be exactly the same but in different locations, this is where we use a "link". You might have two 16KB files linked to the same disk blocks, hence the files total size is 32KB but their size on disk is 16KB total. The third option is compression. The filesystem might compress the file down from 30 to 16KB. The file size is 30KB but the size on disk is 16KB. – Mokubai Mar 14 '23 at 10:31
  • The better and more complete answer is this one: https://superuser.com/a/347216/19943 – Mokubai Mar 14 '23 at 10:40
  • There are two answers in the linked duplicate noting reasons why Size on Disk may be smaller. This remains a duplicate. – music2myear Mar 15 '23 at 03:51

0 Answers0