I usually have the H crossed, but not sure, can redo, but what about the symlink error ?

As root,
ls -R 26*26 > file gives a filesize of 15kB,
ls -R 40*40 > file gives a filesize of 8 kB,
the same with the "copies" give 2kB less !!

Re: symlink ,I don't know (yet) what that means.
Can you give me some info about what happens to such during "cp" ?