Solved Copy all contents from external USB HDD to another?

ceecilt

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I have purchased a new 2TB external HDD. I want to backup my old one (also 2TB) by copying everything to the new one. It's about 1.6TB.

I assume a Copy/Paste transfer would not work (I always seem to encounter one error or another, when I try to Copy more than 40 or 50GB at a time). And I'd rather not babysit it for hours, copying chunk by chunk.

They're both NTFS by default, if that's important.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
When you say copy, do you mean the copy in the picture ?

screenshot_245.jpg
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Gateway
    CPU
    AMD K140 Cores 2 Threads 2 Name AMD K140 Package Socket FT1 BGA Technology 40nm
    Motherboard
    Manufacturer Gateway Model SX2110G (P0)
    Memory
    Type DDR3 Size 8192 MBytes DRAM Frequency 532.3 MHz
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Well I use Rightclick > Copy, or Ctrl+C. Not sure if the Copy To button is the same function?

(I don't trust Explorer to copy everything at once. It always seems to freeze or fail eventually.)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
Well I use Rightclick > Copy, or Ctrl+C. Not sure if the Copy To button is the same function?

(I don't trust Explorer to copy everything at once. It always seems to freeze or fail eventually.)

I use it to copy to USB drives.
It works good for me.

screenshot_245.jpg

Unless you you try it you will not know if it works or not.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Gateway
    CPU
    AMD K140 Cores 2 Threads 2 Name AMD K140 Package Socket FT1 BGA Technology 40nm
    Motherboard
    Manufacturer Gateway Model SX2110G (P0)
    Memory
    Type DDR3 Size 8192 MBytes DRAM Frequency 532.3 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics
    Sound Card
    AMD High Definition Audio Device Realtek High Definition Audio USB Audio Device
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Name 1950W on AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x76
    Screen Resolution
    Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x768 pixels
    Hard Drives
    AMD K140
    Cores 2
    Threads 2
    Name AMD K140
    Package Socket FT1 BGA
    Technology 40nm
    Specification AMD E1-1200 APU with Radeon HD Graphics
    Family F
    Extended Family 14
    Model 2
    Extended Model 2
    Stepping 0
    Revision ON-C0
    Instruction
    Browser
    Opera 24.0
    Antivirus
    Avast Internet Security

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Gateway
    CPU
    AMD K140 Cores 2 Threads 2 Name AMD K140 Package Socket FT1 BGA Technology 40nm
    Motherboard
    Manufacturer Gateway Model SX2110G (P0)
    Memory
    Type DDR3 Size 8192 MBytes DRAM Frequency 532.3 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics
    Sound Card
    AMD High Definition Audio Device Realtek High Definition Audio USB Audio Device
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Name 1950W on AMD Radeon HD 7310 Graphics Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x76
    Screen Resolution
    Current Resolution 1366x768 pixels Work Resolution 1366x768 pixels
    Hard Drives
    AMD K140
    Cores 2
    Threads 2
    Name AMD K140
    Package Socket FT1 BGA
    Technology 40nm
    Specification AMD E1-1200 APU with Radeon HD Graphics
    Family F
    Extended Family 14
    Model 2
    Extended Model 2
    Stepping 0
    Revision ON-C0
    Instruction
    Browser
    Opera 24.0
    Antivirus
    Avast Internet Security
I would use ROBOCOPY from a cmd prompt:

robocopy d:\ e:\ /MIR

You can find more information on Robocopy here: http://www.computerhope.com/robocopy.htm

OR you can always use a disk copy utility to do the copy too.

Hope this helps.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro
    System Manufacturer/Model
    ASRock 990FX Killer
    CPU
    AMD FX 8320
    Motherboard
    ASRock 990 FX Killer
    Memory
    32gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte GTX 750i
    Sound Card
    Realtek (Stock on MB)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    ASUS 27 HD Monitor & a 37" LCD HD TV Screen (For movies)
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    1 250 GB SS hard drive for OS
    1 1TB hard drive for data / mirrored to a second 1 TB hd.
    PSU
    650W
    Case
    No name tower
    Cooling
    Enermax Liqtech 240
    Keyboard
    Logitech
    Mouse
    Logitech
    Internet Speed
    Dnload 10.48 Upload .48
    Browser
    IE 11 and Chrome when IE doesn't work
    Antivirus
    F-PROT
When you say copy - are you meaning CLONE the old disk?
Or are you looking to make a backup of the old disk?

why you want everything from old disk on new disk? as backup? or to replace old disk with new?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 3.1 > Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS 8700
    CPU
    I7
    Memory
    24 GB
Update: I decided to try using Explorer's Copy function as D Bailey suggested. Decided to just try one folder (~650GB) first, and it's still running and no signs of impending failure (previously, when I tried to copy large amounts at a time, the speed would gradually decrease until it reached 1Kb/s, and then I'd get an Explorer message, Operation Failed or something). So far so good.

KYHI: I don't understand the distinction between cloning and copying, but, basically I am just doing a 1-time backup. The old HDD will serve as long-term storage, and the new one (a nice lightweight SSD) will be a convenient day-to-day copy.

play2mefish
:
Thanks, this was the advice I was actually trying to ask for. If I run into problems with Explorer I'll switch to robocopy (thanks for linking to the guide), and if that fails, I'll try the disk copy utility that came with my new drive. Much appreciated.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
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