Moving data from 500GB external HDD to my PC

[aegisrose]

Hello Forum,
I have an old 500bg external hard drive. The thing works great, but over the last 3 years between my massive music collection, and photo hobby, it's almost maxed out. So I bought a 1.5 TB external hard drive...

What I plan on doing: Move the files from the old HD, to my PC (which has 1 TB of space available), then using backup software to keep those files backed up on the shiny new 1.5 TB external.

My question: how do I safely move that data from the old External HD to my PC?
In the past, when I first moved 350+ GB's from my then-PC, to the External HD, it not only took FOREVER, but I ran into some file corruption (some files didn't open, and I lost some music somehow). Now that I have close to 500 gb's, I'm scared that I'll run into trouble with just doing simple copy/paste.

Any advice? Thx in advance! :grinthumb

 

[lopdog]

Maybe you should try Teracopy.

TeraCopy is a compact program designed to copy and move files at the maximum possible speed. It verifies files were copied correctly with a checksum. TeraCopy uses dynamically adjusted buffers to reduce seek times. Asynchronous copy speeds up file transfer between two physical hard drives. You can pause copy process at any time to free up system resources and continue with a single click.

I haven't tried the program myself, but it's free, and if it does what it says it should be just what you're looking for.

There are also other alternative file copiers.

BTW, the speed depends on how you connect your hdd's, and how many/how big files you have. Many small files take a lot more time to copy than few big files.

 

[aegisrose]

Thanks for the suggestion lopdog. I'll take a look at TeraCopy for sure... that HD is made of of HUNDREDS (probably thousands) of small files. Pictures, music, and school papers / presentations / pdfs. Sooo much junk! Good thing I'm only a digital pack rat. And a pretty organized one at that.

 

[MrThomas369]

Copy as shortcut, it will be easier.

 

[Arris]

It's possible depending on the type of external drive that it could be removed from its enclosure and then connected internally to your PC(if you have a desktop PC and not a laptop). Internal sata connection would allow for a quicker copy than doing it over USB 2.0. That would be the first thing I would look at if the speed of the copy is a concern.