Confused About Backup Space

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Can someone shed light on this problem for me? I am backing up all my Iphotos and documents onto a flash drive. When I go into 'Get Info' for my Documents folder, the size says it's 17.5 G, and my Itunes Library comes in at 6.75 G. When I transferred everything over to the 32g USB, only 4g of space has been used on it. I checked and all my photos and documents were transferred successfully. Did I miss something? Why did all of this add up to only 4g when it should have been about 24g?

Thanks!
 
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Simple!!!

Because it's not copying the files to the usb thumb stick mac os x maverick loves to create shortcuts to items you have to right click the item select copy then go to the usb stick and select paste is the lame work around for this its also a pain in the %$#@ when you want to copy stuff.
 

pigoo3

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@OP: Ya know... One of these days you're going to be a Mac-Expert. Then that Mac-Forums username isn't going to make any sense!!!;)lol

- Nick
 
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Do you want to know why mine is johnodd4.

My name is John

My favorite game is Oddworld series on playstation

so just because someone chooses mac moron as there name doesn't mean there a moron nor stupid means there learning so i don't find it funny.

everyone begins somewhere and ends somewhere
 
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@OP: Ya know... One of these days you're going to be a Mac-Expert. Then that Mac-Forums username isn't going to make any sense!!!;)lol

- Nick


No, I seriously doubt it!!

I'm not understanding what John said about shortcuts. When I click on one of the files I put on the USB, it opens just fine and I put it into my media player and everything is on there as well. I'm doing all this backup because my hard drive is failing and needs to be replaced. So do these "shortcuts" mean that if I get a new drive and try to transfer everything from the USB's (like 25 of them!), the files I put on them won't be there? Really not getting what the "shortcut" is supposed to be if I can view everything.:Confused:
 
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Do you want to know why mine is johnodd4.

My name is John

My favorite game is Oddworld series on playstation

so just because someone chooses mac moron as there name doesn't mean there a moron nor stupid means there learning so i don't find it funny.

everyone begins somewhere and ends somewhere


Actually, John? I'm pretty stupid ;D At least when it comes to Mac!
 

pigoo3

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so just because someone chooses mac moron as there name doesn't mean there a moron nor stupid means there learning so i don't find it funny.

everyone begins somewhere and ends somewhere

You need to "lighten up" John! I was only teasing the OP about their username (didn't you see the "smiley" icon and the "lol"??

My comment was also meant as a "future complement" to macmoron.:) Eventually "macmoron" may be a Mac-Expert...and folks seeing that username will be confused!;)

- Nick
 
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the file is opening because the shortcut leads to the file on the hard drive the shortcut is on the usb thumb stick if you plug the thumb stick into another mac it will not open.

You right click the file select copy.

Then you select the usb drive open it and right click again and select paste
 
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the file is opening because the shortcut leads to the file on the hard drive the shortcut is on the usb thumb stick if you plug the thumb stick into another mac it will not open.

You right click the file select copy.

Then you select the usb drive open it and right click again and select paste



God, that sucks. Interesting that the pictures on the USB open when I plug it into my media player, but oh well, I don't want to lose anything so I guess I gotta spend my day copying and pasting. Oy vey . . .
 

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@macmoron Humor me a bit and let's see fir sure if Mavericks copied the files or shortcuts (aliases) to the stick drive, Insert the stick drive and look carefully at the icons for one or more files. Do they have a small arrow on the side of the icon? look at the lower left of this image for example
 
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@macmoron Humor me a bit and let's see fir sure if Mavericks copied the files or shortcuts (aliases) to the stick drive, Insert the stick drive and look carefully at the icons for one or more files. Do they have a small arrow on the side of the icon? look at the lower left of this image for example

Hi Sly,

No, the folders in the USB don't have that little arrow. I'll try to attach a screenshot of what's in the USB. I should also say I don't know what 'Mavericks' is. (I have Snow Leopard if that means anything). I started to copy and paste some documents but they don't seem to be taking any more space up that way than when I just dragged and dropped them. So I'm confused . . .

usb.jpg
 

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I was checking johnodd4's previous suggestion that the files on the drive were shortcuts (aliases).
the file is opening because the shortcut leads to the file on the hard drive the shortcut is on the usb thumb stick if you plug the thumb stick into another mac it will not open.

You right click the file select copy.

Then you select the usb drive open it and right click again and select paste

That's not what's happening here. Both the copy methods you used produced the same result essentially. I'm gonna have to do a little more digging. I wonder if a block size difference between the two drives makes up the difference.
 
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Thanks a lot, I appreciate anything you can come up with! I'd hate to take the Mac in and get a new HD just to end up losing everything. I can't even put any of my documents, videos, photos or Itunes onto cd's because the burner won't work, so flash drives were my last option.

You know what else is interesting here - the two 32g USB's I put my Itunes library on - over 6500 songs - took up almost 60-some gigs, again by just dropping and dragging the tunes into folders on the USB without 'copy and paste' and the tunes play fine on my media player (through the tv). So it's a mystery why so little space was used up on the 32g document/iphoto USB.
 
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MacInWin

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Try this: Right click on one of the items on the USB stick and then choose Get Info. (Selecting an icon and then CMD-I will do the same thing). If it's an alias, it will say so in the resulting window.
 
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Try this: Right click on one of the items on the USB stick and then choose Get Info. (Selecting an icon and then CMD-I will do the same thing). If it's an alias, it will say so in the resulting window.


Okay, so I did that - here's a screenshot of one of the documents I dragged and dropped. I don't see anything that says 'alias' so is it good to go? Was the file copied?

usb 2.jpg
 
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MacInWin

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That item looks like a good document in RTF format. While a sample of one is pretty small, I'd say it looks pretty good. I'd check a few more. If it is an alias, it will show that in the "Kind:" area. Aliases are shown as "Alias," logically.
 
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That item looks like a good document in RTF format. While a sample of one is pretty small, I'd say it looks pretty good. I'd check a few more. If it is an alias, it will show that in the "Kind:" area. Aliases are shown as "Alias," logically.



Ok, so just so I have this straight - an 'alias' would mean a shortcut and that would mean the file only exists on this computer? If I get a new hard drive installed, an alias wouldn't show up on the USB on the new hard drive?
 
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MacInWin

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"Alias" is the Apple (and Unix) term for what Windows called "shortcuts." It's basically a pointer to where the REAL file is located. So when you CMD-I an Alias, it shows as alias in the information box. I tried to attach an image to show you but for some reason the forum has been rejecting anything I post from Dropbox lately. As for your last sentence, I'm not sure what it means, but if you install a new drive and then copy files from the USB to the HD, if they are only aliases, you won't have the actual files. The Alias on the USB stick will change to a "?" because it no longer points to an actual file, but the alias is there until you delete it from the USB stick. It's hard to explain without the ability to post a picture.
 
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Here, just go here and look at the picture of an alias I created on my desktop:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/t1nugvea873romt/2014-09-08 05.11.01 pm.tif?dl=0

Hi Jake,

So it looks like all the documents and photos I dragged and dropped into the USB are not saying 'alias', so I'm assuming everything's cool. When I take my Mac in, I'll have the genius look at it and confirm everything's cool. But it still begs the original question: what I don't get is why only about 5g have been used up on the 32g USB when all of my Iphotos and documents should have added up to about 24g. Under Get Info for documents, the size says 17.5g and Iphoto should be 6.75, yet there's still 28g left on the USB after transferring everything. Any thoughts about why?
 

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