drive copying software?

[nageov3t]

so, I'm combining my 2 x 750gb drives onto a 2TB drive... given that it's a ton of data, is there a faster/more reliable way to transfer the data than just drag and dropping within windows? (neither drive has any operating system files on it)

freeware would be preferable, since this is only a 1-time operation.

 

[yinan]

robocopy

 

[lsv]

I bought Total Commander http://www.ghisler.com/

I find the method TC uses to copy/rename/move/etc is superb even for these large jobs. Windows is a pure joke that won't tell you what's copying, exact speeds, exact ETA's based on average AND current data transfer speeds.

It's also a wonderful NT based file manager.

For extended jobs like complete data back ups or image back ups I use Arcronis True Image.

 

[tweakboy]

so, I'm combining my 2 x 750gb drives onto a 2TB drive... given that it's a ton of data, is there a faster/more reliable way to transfer the data than just drag and dropping within windows? (neither drive has any operating system files on it)

freeware would be preferable, since this is only a 1-time operation.

Try

HD Clone

It can do physical copy to copy or partition to partition. It takes long time 6 hours or more.

HD Clone Professional which my friend bought me takes 45 min. I think it was 15 or 20 bucks.. anyhow..

 

[Auric]

Firstly, (assuming Windows) I recommend running chkdsk on the source drives and the manufacturer's complete diagnostics and a full format on the target drive, before copying the data with a proggy including some sort of verification. TeraCopy is free and can do a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) for each file.

 

[nageov3t]

I ended up using robocopy, which did 90% of the heavy lifting before getting stuck on a system file (I setup the copy, let it run for several hours, and when I eventually came back and checked the logs, it had been retrying the same system file every 30 seconds for like an hour).

killed the process and moved the rest of the data with a good old copy and paste, since there were only 2 directories left.

 

[dpodblood]

Shweet. I would have recommended TeraCopy as well, but sounds like Robocopy did the trick.

 

[Emulex]

teracopy has CRC verify - because things don't always copy 100% the same.

 

[Auric]

Could now use FreeFileSync 'compare content'.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

If you don't NEED to copy at the file and folder level, or if you WANT to simply clone some partitions or volumes to a new, single physical disk and still keep the same drive-letter and labeling scheme on your system, I'd recommend Macrium Reflect Free. The difference between Free and Home is only that Home will do incremental imaging backups, and Free only offers full and differential.

You should be able to resize those partitions, but you will have to image the disk first, then specify target volume size when restoring them. The restoration allows you to specify on-the-fly target volume sizes.

Or you could simply image the old volumes and disks, remove the source disk or disks, replace with the larger disk mentioned in the original post, and then restore the image to whatever set of respective physical locations you choose.

 

[grimpr]

FastCopy, imho the best and fastest copier for Windows.

https://ipmsg.org/tools/fastcopy.html.en

 

[w3rd]

I miss Directory Opus... and my Amiga.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

FastCopy, imho the best and fastest copier for Windows.

https://ipmsg.org/tools/fastcopy.html.en

Thanks for sharing. Fast or not-so-fast, Macrium has "saved my ass" twice in about 9 days, just for managing an image that can be effortlessly restored -- additional TBW on the SSD notwithstanding.

 

[Phynaz]

Bonzai, you revived a six year old thread. You know better.

 

[corkyg]

No, the Duck responded to a spammer that was deleted.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

No, the Duck responded to a spammer that was deleted.

Dang! So that's what happened!