Moving 100GB of data to external HDD. Need software 2 do it?

[nails00]

Hi

I'm planning on buying a external USB HDD to store all my multimedia on, about 100GB worth and i need to know the safest way to get this data from my old HDD to the new one without running ANY risk of corruption or hangs during the process. I've thought of a simple cut-n-paste, would that work? I've never made a cut-n-paste of this size nor do i want to try without knowing for sure.

I've read up on Norton Ghost, it seems to talk about backing up an entire drive/partition from what i've read. Is it also capable of individually copying over certain portions of a drive instead of the entire thing :confused:

Thanks :)

[rio_bugarin]

cut-n-paste
not a good idea. I would prefer COPY-n-paste.In this case you will still have backup copy of the files and test it before actually deleting the original files.

I had an experience of moving a 10mb file to a new partition. I used cut-n-paste. In the middle of the move, wooshhh.. power interruption... When I restarted, I already have a corrupted file and I had to download again....using dial up.

[Paul Komski]

For large data transfers there's a lot to be said for using an imaging program such as Ghost or the www.TerabyteUnlimited.com utilities ImageForDOS (runs from a bootable floppy or CD) or BootItNG. TU also provide a small free utility called tbiview which enables you to view the image files in Windows Explorer and recover/restore individual files folders from the image file. Image files like this can be verified after creation to check the integrity of the data transfer. Image files are also compressed or compressible and thus take up less storage space than the original. You do, of course, need to copy/image a whole partition and not individual files/folders. I agree with copying rather than cutting as the safer option, when using Windows Explorer/My Computer.

[jlreich]

I agree with the copy and paste as well. Also I would do it in smaller increments. Maybe 10GB or so at a time. That way it limits the chance of something going wrong in the middle of a 100GB copy, like a power surge or brownout or someone walking by and pulling the USB cord out by accident, and having to start over again. It will definitely take considerable time to transfer that much data to a USB drive.

[classicsoftware]

The best program out there bar none is Second Copy (http://www.centered.com/) and it is well worth the $29.95 you pay for it.

[Paul Komski]

Second Copy sounds very like Power Quest's DataKeeper that used to and maybe still does bundle with Partition Magic and is/was "second to none" as well.

Such software usually makes incremental backups and has to constantly monitor the changes to the source data. This can very rapidly result in you running out of room on the backup area if you are creating then deleting or just editing the source data - when the source data is large multimedia files. This is fine for a "normal" quantity of user data but I would be sceptical about it being ideal for the 100gig involved here. Happy to be proved wrong but if peeps have PM they may find they already have such a program, often without realising it.

[classicsoftware]

Second copy can be setup to do anything you want. Just make a profile and run it once if you want or run it every day at 2AM and keep the last five copies if you want. It has multiple options, is easy to install and easy to use. It does not require any kind of compression so it works really well....

[PrntRhd]

5-star ratings for Second Copy, a really good program.

[Paul Komski]

I've downloaded the trial and second copy does seem both useful and easy to use. I do retain my scepticism for backing-up 100gig via USB. Nor will I be buying it since I get all the backup I need from DataKeeper or from other free software and that doesnt mean I think it is rubbish. We all have our favourite applications and what suits one doesnt suit another.

PS Im not sure why compression (or the lack of it) should make a difference to its functionality. Compression just saves space if that is at a premium. And I also see that the advanced properties do allow compression into zip files if that is chosen.

[PrntRhd]

We all have our favourite applications and what suits one doesnt suit another.
Yep, and we all learn new applications are out there when someone posts like in this thread. Nothing wrong with free applications if they get the job done.
:D

[classicsoftware]

The reason I like non-compressed hard drive backup is I can place it any machine and read it. Many of these backup programs use proprietary software and you need their software to restore from the backup.

I presently use an 80GB USB hard drive as my data backup with half for backup and 1/2 for multiple copies of files. So Second Copy backs up to my S drive and keeps 5 additional copies of each file on the X drive. I can pull one file off with no problem. This comes in very handy when my kids are working on a term papaer and I have up to 5 versions available for easy retrieval.