Transfer ~2TB of files to 3TB drive

[jfp555]

Hello.

I'd like to know whats the optimal software solution/method to transfer approximately 2tb of files (camera vide files, text files, large video files, images) from a portable USB3 drive to a 3 TB drive encased in an eSATA enclosure, all connected to a laptop.

I would like to ensure that the process carries out smoothly and make sure that data integrity is preserved.

Ideally I would like a solution that does not require the process to be done without being physically present throughout.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

So you have an eSATA drive and a USB drive, and you want to copy data from one to the other.

The laptop will have to be on and connected to power the entire time. If you have a USB power cable to provide additional power to the USB3 drive, I would use it. Sometimes the USB current isn't sufficient for sustained maximum read/write and the drives shut themselves off.

Otherwise, the built in Windows file copy (drag-n-drop) will probably work alright, although something like RoboCopy may be faster, and will also give you more options for recovering from a failure, skipping over bad files, retrying failed files, doing incremental copies, and so forth.

If CLIs aren't your thing, "RichCopy" and "RoboCopy GUI" are the unofficial GUI front-ends for Robocopy, except they're both a bit long in the tooth. I'd expect them to work fine under Win7 or Win8 though, if that's what you're using still.

 

[PliotronX]

Check out Fastcopy, its kind of like a gui with robocopy functionality. Check the box to verify and let it run.

 

[stlc8tr]

If you want to be paranoid, you can also generate a hash for each file so you can verify that it copied OK.

There are a lot of different tools to do this but this one is easy to use and very fast.

http://corz.org/windows/software/checksum/

 

[ch33zw1z]

i tend to use Create Synchronicity for stuff like this.

but will look at Fast copy too.

 

[stlc8tr]

i tend to use Create Synchronicity for stuff like this.

Cool. I didn't know about Create Synchronicity but it looks like a freeware version of Beyond Compare.

One thing that I like about Checksum is that it creates hash files in the directories. This way, you can verify that the files themselves haven't changed due to things like bit-rot.

 

[grimpr]

Check out Fastcopy, its kind of like a gui with robocopy functionality. Check the box to verify and let it run.

This, from my exprerience its the most reliable and fast copier for Windows.

 

[jfp555]

Great suggestions. I will look into this and try out both fastcopy for one drive and create synchronicity with another.

 

[William Gaatjes]

If it is for backup purposes, Syncback free does a good job.
Very fast in comparing and copying.
You can make a profile for every folder you want to backup or synchronize.
You can schedule backups to let syncback do it automatically.

http://www.2brightsparks.com/freeware/index.html