copy of other post, just in case:
Be sure to turn of the inclusion of the Timestamp (default is on) by changing the linker properties and adding the following environment variable setting:
-EnvINCLUDETIME=OFF
Edit>[your tool] Settings>Target>Linker for [HC12|HC08]>Command Line Arguments
just add -EnvINCLUDETIME=OFF
This may help in the binary comparison. All the above comments are correct as well regarding space for the _DATE macro.
My suggestion is to try it first without the date macro, get that to compare consistently, and then work in your _DATE macro