Please help - 2 Brand New SSDs - Different USED space

Portable SSD Extreme Portable SSD
1

Got these 2 today.
Both just have exactly the same setup files for Mac and Windows adding up to the same size (~15MB).
I haven’t added files to either one of them.

Why is it that one has 109MB used and the other nearly 200MB?

What accounts for the 100MB discrepancy? Is this expected? Why/Whynot?

Should I return the one with 200MB used and get a new one?

Thanks

Capture11
Capture11726×502 14.8 KB

2

Try examining the drive unhiding hidden and system files, also empty the recycle bin.

3

#SanDiskUserRewards

Hi yaoni95.

It’s not uncommon that when you write the very same bunch of files to two separate disks, they can be ordered and spread over the media differently. Especially when there are files that are smaller than the block size of the format on those drives. It also depends on the type of format (exFat, Fat32, NTFS) (from the pics I assume you’re using Windows)… They all have their specific strategy and architecture. On an SSD it’s even different as data would be scattered all over the drive. With TRIM (by default) enabled for SSD in modern versions of Windows, it should balance out eventually. Windows will also Optimize SSD’s on a scheduled interval. You can tell it to go Optimize, but I’m not near a Windows machine at the moment and can’t tell you how to get there.

Another plausible cause for the difference among the drives may lay in the Indexing. I’m not sure if this is turned on or off by default, but if Windows has completed Indexing on one and not the other, there will be a substantial difference too. If the drive that was written to first uses the most space, it could be hinting in that direction.

Were both drives treated equally, or was there one that had files written and deleted before or after copying the set of files you mentioned. It sure makes a difference. Not only if there are files in the garbage bin, but also in the physical spot on the drive (memory bins) where the data is stored. As long as there is space files are not being stored on the same spot so to say. This helps longevity of the drive as there is eventually a limit of how many times data can be written to a memory bin.

If the total size would differ substantially when writing a few big files on a new and clean drive, I would start to be suspicious too or at least curious. Then 100MB sure is substantial.

I’m by no means an expert on the matter, but I hope my “two cents” will help you understand that there’s a lot going on under the hood and that there are quite some variables in the mechanism when storing a bunch of bits.

5

Exfat is for thumbdrives, but I guess you need that mac compatibility. The difference can be due to cluster size chosen during the exfat format. And yes show hidden files, mac time machine is notoriously a thing.

#SanDiskUserRewards

6

If two brand new SSDs show different used space, it could be due to variations in the formatting process, the presence of hidden system files, or the inclusion of pre-installed software on one of the SSDs. Check the formatting and file system of both SSDs and compare the visible files to determine the cause of the difference in used space.

If you need to recover lost data, consider using EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard