Question What is the fastest way to transfer data ?

[dan99t]

Hi,
I am getting a new Workstation & I have lots of data on many Sata 3, 3.5 inch 3TB HDDs & 3.5 inch 500GB HDDs.

I am not sure if I can just put these HDDs in one of the slots in New workstation & copy - Paste the data or not because of newer & different controllers in new system.

Good news is that there are plenty of latest ports like DP, USB 3.2 Gen2 & USB 3.2 Type C Gen2 on the new system but it has three 512GB NVMe and Three 4TB Sata 3 5400rpm drives. And I need to transfer data from old HDDs to these new drives.

So can you guys suggest the type of adapter cable that I can use to connect to one of these ports & old Sata 3 HDDs that would allow me to transfer data much faster by copy paste ? I am confused with all kinds of such adapters available in the market so I need your expertise.

Many Thanks

 

[Tech Junky]

I use one of these when I don't feel like mounting a drive inside the case.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071GRCGF4/

Being a 10gbps cable there should be no bottlenecks to contend with when using the drives externally.

Now, to get peak performance from your new system you need to potentially consider adding a 4th spinner to make a Raid out of them to get a boost in speed. I use a Raid 10 w/ 4 disks and get over 400MB/s out of them in this configuration for R/W. Nothing compared to the NVME's but, also, on the NVME side you get more speed out of 1TB and larger drives along with longer durability / TBW. So, personally I would order the system w/o drives and add them myself since it's cheaper to do it that way rather than pay the inflated prices OEM's charge for storage.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

I am getting a new Workstation & I have lots of data on many Sata 3, 3.5 inch 3TB HDDs & 3.5 inch 500GB HDDs.

You'll be limited by the drives long before you're limited by the interface. Even plain 5Gbit USB3 is capable of 400-450MB/s w/UASP.

You'll also need to be patient. Getting data off older drives can take a good while no matter what you do. Particularly if it's a lot of small files like images.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071GRCGF4/

I was about to write that that kind of adaptor only works with 2.5" drives, since 3.5" drives require a 12V power supply. But that one has a 12V adaptor included, so never mind.

 

[Tech Junky]

@Insert_Nickname Yup, 12V PS brick is needed for 3.5's which is a bit of a PITA but, it works well. The cord is a bit short though if you're sitting with a laptop moving data it's a real PITA due to the length. In a desktop situation tough it should be fine.

A 3.5 drive though should be able to be bus powered like a 2.5 but, for whatever reason they don't make them. I suppose if you put a 2.5 in a 3.5 adapter sled though you could still go bus powered. It will be nice to have all bus powered devices in the future to not have to deal with power adapters all of the time.

Even looking at TB4 there's a wide variance from 27W to 100W PD being supplied depending on the card being used. There's no real standard across OEMs when it comes to power. At the 27W level you're getting just enough to power a couple of monitors and the other end you could keep a laptop fueled up.

 

[dan99t]

Many Thanks Guys. Once I get the system in couple of days I will have a better idea.

 

[sdifox]

Any reason you cannot just copy across the network? Or do you just have a colection of HDDs and not an old sysytem? External hdd dock would do in that case.

 

[mindless1]

^ Yeah that was my thought as well... just use lan if you have GbE or better. Takes a little longer but don't have to bother shuffling drives around.