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View Full Version : Simple tool to copy large amount of files


ShyBoy
18-03-2007, 08:57 PM
Hiya.

Getting two new hard drives on monday, both 160gb 16mb cache for superfast raid0 performance.

Atm I have 2 250gb just in there, no raid.

So, it's going to go like this:

1. Put in the 2 new hard drives for raid. [lets call it array1]
2. Create partitions on the array1.
3. copy data (roughly 200gb worth) to array1
4. set up data hard drives in raid array [lets call it array2] (not sure whether 0 or JBOD is better really for data, but got annoyed at having two partitions and not having enough space in my movies bit, but having 30gigs free in my games bit. So gonna clump it all together)
5. copy data from array1 to array2, array2 being partitioned as one big thing in NTFS to make it Vista friendly (it's not too keen on Fat32)
6. repartition array1, install OS/es (not sure whether I cba to dual boot yet, haven't used XP for donkeys now!)

so yea, that's it in a nutshell. But wondering, aroud step 5, am I going to need to install a small OS *Just* for copying data, because after the data has moved off array1, then I will repartition it depending on my OS needs :-).

Will end up with:
Array1 (raid0) - 2 x 160gb raid edition hdd with OS/s and program files on
Array2 (raid0 / jbod - need the storage too much for raid1) - 2 x 250gb hdd 1/2 full with data

I bet I could do it with a linux live cd, but they seem really fiddly, as you have to mount drives before you can use them and everything. If there was some small app I could run from a usb stick / cd that was a command line thing, and basically copied all data from one partition to another, without the need for an OS being installed, that would be much better. Linux blows :p.

Finally, the annoying issue, is that I want to fiddle with the controllers a bit. So, data might have to go from:

data hdd -> new hard drive(s)
set up old hard drives on the slower controller
copy data over
set up new hard drives on the faster controller

Only thing I'm a bit miffed about, is in theory the 2 x 250 will be faster, but I need the storage space, and you can't win everything! It should still be pretty fast.

Mist
18-03-2007, 09:21 PM
Dunno. But don't use RAID 0, unless you're prepared to lose everything when one of the drives dies.

ShyBoy
18-03-2007, 09:34 PM
I will be using raid0 for the os partition. All my apps are either on CDs, but most are now stored on HDD for convenience. The only reason I suggested raid0 for the second (data) array was because I want both the drives to show up as one (i.e. D: ), rather than two, because I organise my files into folders, and right now DataB is 90% full and dataA is 50%. Could also use JBOD, but doesn't seem worth it..

The fact that porn is on DataB is purely coincidental

Replicant
18-03-2007, 09:49 PM
The fact that porn is on DataB is purely coincidental

:lol:

I'm afraid I've no idea...

just found out my hard drive's nearly full! :(
not that it's that big by today's standards, 114GB. I've uninstalled all the big apps that I'm not using any more, and CCleaned it. hmmm :chin: time to cull the music and films I guess.

ShyBoy
18-03-2007, 09:50 PM
I need to tidy up my HDDs, which I wil do tomorrow :)

DG
19-03-2007, 06:16 PM
that first post was too long for me to read ..lol

but based on the title google - YCOPY

Rich-E
20-03-2007, 09:59 AM
that first post was too long for me to read ..lol

but based on the title google - YCOPY

YCOPY? Don't you mean XCOPY?

Edit: Just googled it, ahhhhhh.

ShyBoy
20-03-2007, 01:05 PM
It's alright, I just took the plunge and installed vista to do the transfer. Vista installed in about 20 minutes anyway, and the file copying took / is taking about 1h20, so probably better to do it in Vista where I can see what is going on better :).

My HDD cage is really heavy now though :( 4 HDD!!