Fastest way to copy\backup data from one usb hd to another

Scruff

Running out of space on my 1TB ext usb HD so i bought a 2TB one. Plugged the 2 in and proceeded to copy all the files from the 1TB to the 2TB. I knew it would take a long time so let it run overnight. 9 hrs later it was only about 1\3 the way through!
Is there a faster way to copy the data that just drag and drop of the folders?
Its a mixed bag of data: thousands of photos, 100's of videos, back up data from pcs, etc

advertsfox

The problem is the files go from 1TB -> PC HDD -> 2TB so there's a big overhead with data travelling over 3 hard drives, esp. if it's 1TB full.

You could clone the 1TB image to the 2TB using Imaging Software, then expand the partition size but that would require 1TB free space on your PC - which I'm guessing you don't have since you have an external one in the first place Without buying extra hardware to sync (such as a NAS) your better off leaving it be to complete.

CreepingDeath

USB 2 is the bottleneck.

If you could mount both hard disks directly into a PATA/SATA connection on the motherboard, the data transfer would be higher.

Or ensure both external drives are USB 3.

Torqay

Scruff wrote: »

Running out of space on my 1TB ext usb HD so i bought a 2TB one. Plugged the 2 in and proceeded to copy all the files from the 1TB to the 2TB. I knew it would take a long time so let it run overnight. 9 hrs later it was only about 1\3 the way through!

That's about right...

I recently backed up a full 1 TB USB disk to a 4 TB drive, took about 21 hours (via USB 2.0). Now those were all movies (i.e. large files), if we're talking about smaller files (photos, music, documents), it can take substantially longer, in this case I recommend TeraCopy, which will speed up the process.

Scruff

doh! will try that teracopy and see if it helps.
Thanks

Gadgetman496

Sync the 1TB to the 2TB using Allwaysync When finished just wipe the 1TB