PC crashed while tranfering large files between external HDDs

[deathbringer597]

I transferred approximately 3 TB from my 4 TB to my 8 TB drive over 16 hours. I then began to transfer my approximately 4 TB from another drive to my 8 TB drive I left to wait as my computer gave me an estimated time of 48 hrs I came back to check on it a couple hours later and my screen was black but the PC was still on with moderate to heavy fan use. I need to know what to do. I need the data from those drives and I am not sure if turning my computer off would corrupt them I need to know what to do and what I should expect to happen. My PC is pretty old probably from the late 2000s. I don't know much about he hardware of the computer itself.

 

[CharmsD]

The fan running is a good sign that it's doing work to keep the heat up. I think you should wait it out, if the copy doesn't finish, say 6-8 hours after the expected time restart the computer if it won't wake up.

If it finished the copy operation there should be no damage when you interrupt it -- But you stand a chance of losing 'some', possibly only one file. I'm not in favor of using these XL size drives on personal computers, think about splitting it up across smaller capacity drives. Spinning disks are cheap! Good luck!

 

[Cycloid Torus]

A couple of thoughts...if file system is FAT32, you might be limited to less than 8TB....if sleep/hibernate is 'on', you may want to turn them 'off'.

3TB plus 4TB. Umm, that's about 2,500 full length HD videos, right? Prodigious.

Have you considered a RAID array?

Backups vs. Redundancy: What's the Difference?

Backups and redundancy schemes are both data protection methods, but they are not interchangeable.

www.howtogeek.com

 

[DelJo63]

Have you considered a RAID array?

IMO, NTFS in 2TB groups would be more reliable, easier to defrag and to backup

 

[DelJo63]

BTW: it may not be obvious to all however

using the COPY on the source and PASTE to the target is never a good choice.​

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WHY? it requires TWICE the temp storage to prepare for the copy. The free space will never be sufficient when attempting this at the HD level.