Source Disk Contains MUCH More Data than backup

[mind.e]

Hello,

I have been using SuperDuper! for about 1 year now. I am running an Intel iMac with OSX 10.4.11. Overall, SuperDuper! has been good to me. I run SmartUpdate once per week with no issues. I am backing up a 750g internal drive to a 750g external FireWire800 drive, no partitions, both formated as HFS+ Journaled. Both drives are bootable and identical after a copy. All programs run on the back-up, etc. Everything seems great.

However, for some reason the source disk contains about 80g more data than the backup. I have looked all over for where this mysterious data is, but can not find it. There is no way there would be 80gb of hidden stuff on the source disk. When I look at the two drives in Disk Utility, the source contains 878,000 files and 314g compared to the backup which contains 597,000 files and only 234g. The 80gb difference has remained constant as both drives have grown over the past months, but performance seems fine. Recently I "Erased and Copied All Files" to the back-up to "start fresh," then reverted to SmartUpdate weekly, but the issue persists.

I have been tempted to erase and reformat the source, then restore from the back-up to try to fix the discrepancy, but since everything runs smooth, I am reluctant to try this.

Have you ever seen this before? What is causing this and how might I fix it?

Thanks,

mind.e

[dnanian]

Use Finder's "Go To Folder" command to open the hidden

/Volumes

folder. Do you see any folders -- not links/aliases -- in there?

[mind.e]

Thank you. Actually, yes. In addition to 2 aliases (one of my source disk and one of the back up drive), there IS a folder called "Backup" that seems to contain something of a copy of some stuff on my drive. It happens to be 80.62gb, which would explain the discrepancy between my two drives.

However, what is that folder? do I need it? and why does it seem to stay the same size over time, even as I add a significant amount to high quality audio to my iTunes? Your advice on what I should do with it would be welcome.

Thanks,

mind.e (Mark)

[dnanian]

Delete the folder; it's a remnant of a previous copy operation gone wrong (e.g. external drive unplugged while copying, etc).

[mind.e]

Thanks! I've been struggling to figure that one out. Much obliged. Mark