Cloned drives consuming additional space
Cloned drives consuming additional space
I just completed cloning my boot drive from a 500gb SSD to a 2tb SSD and observed the space usage varied between the drives after booting from the clone. I followed the instructions in a YouTube tutorial by ThisBytesForYou (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8omB4pFLlA). The source drive showed 442gb used while the target held 561gb. I’m curious about the difference. Pc Specs: Windows 10 64-bit, Ryzen 5 1600, 32GB DDR4 (2x16GB), 3000MHz, Gigabyte a320m-s2h, motherboard 430W EVGA PSU, GTX 1050ti. Source Drive: 500gb Kingston Target Drive: 2tb Crucial
Are you aware of the allocation unit dimensions on each device? Setting the larger drive to utilize a bigger allocation unit can boost data size, especially when dealing with numerous small files.
Uncertain about identifying the allocation unit. The scan indicating more files on Drive C versus Drive F also confirms it's a clone. I checked for malware using Malwarebytes to rule out any infections during the cloning process.
When preparing for cloning, it's wise to use Disk Cleanup as an administrator to remove unnecessary files such as cached thumbnails, restore points, log files, Windows Update data, and empty the recycle bin. Next, run Defrag as an administrator to clean up the source drive. Proceed with the cloning process. Once done, repeat Defrag and TRIM the destination drive. Finally, compare the two drives to see if the space difference stems from Windows adjusting the MFT and Swap file sizes based on capacity variations. Shadow Volume Copy could also contribute to the larger size.