Different sizes of two images of the one and same disk

[Kalkas]

Hello,

Curiously I compared size of two sparsebundle images of one and the same disk (main mac startup disk) which were located in the same partition, and they had different size. The difference between them was 7 GB; see the attached image which shows two sparsebundle images "current" and "testing." They are images of the same disk having the same content. "Testing" is a later image, made after "current," and there were no changes made on the original disk after "current" was made prior to creation of "testing."

Why is the difference in the size of these two images? Does it indicate that there is some error in the creation of one or both of these disks?

Kind regards,
Aleksandar

[dnanian]

You can't really make judgements based on the external file size of a given image... did you look at the actual size of the volume when you open the image file?

[Kalkas]

When images are opened, you get disks with different sizes, see attachment.

[Kalkas]

However, I have compared home directory in each volume, and they appear to be same, with the same size and the same number of items, see attachment.

So, it seems that images are ok. I just wonder why is there difference in sizes of volumes?

Kind regards,
Alex

[dnanian]

I don't know. I can only assume that there were significant differences on the source when these were made... but I just can't tell. There had to be *some* difference between these two copies.

[Kalkas]

The only difference I see with these two images is that "current" was smart updated four times, while "testing" was created once, without any subsequent smart updates. Both images have the same source disk.

Kind regards,
Alex