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Transferring data from one HDD to another.

cubercaleb
By cubercaleb
in Storage Devices
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Over the past year my secondary hard drive has been having issues with reading/writing and as of last week the drive is no longer able to be written to, yet can still be read from. Today my 2TB WD Black has arrived and I plan on moving over most the data before the drive dies completely. Seems simple, but it isn't. My current computer only has two SATA port headers on it which means I can only have two drives plugged in at once, and since neither of these drives have an OS on them I need to have either an SSD of a bootable flash drive plugged in. I only have 4GB flash drives around, although if necessary I can pick up a 16GB drive to install and OS. So here are my questions.

 

1. What version of Linux should i put on the bootable flash drive (preferably one that will fit on a 4GB flash drive)

2. In the Linux OS booted from the flash drive can I transfer the files from the one drive to the other and will all the files be shown in the file browser (will files be hidden because Linux can't deal with certain files)?

3. How do I go about installing Linux on a flash drive for portable use?

 

Another concern I have regards partitioning. I know that the outer parts of a hard drive which are written to first tend to be faster than the parts towards of the center. With my old drive my last partition seemed slower than my first partition, but not by much since I was only using it to store pictures and other various files, not programs. Is this the case with the 2TB WD Black, or is the difference in performance negligible? If so, how should I deal with that, if at all. Lastly, I don't want to make partitions that are to big or too small, like I did before and want to be able to change the sizes of the partitions in the future, is it possible to do that? Thanks!

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1. What version of Linux should i put on the bootable flash drive (preferably one that will fit on a 4GB flash drive)

2. In the Linux OS booted from the flash drive can I transfer the files from the one drive to the other and will all the files be shown in the file browser (will files be hidden because Linux can't deal with certain files)?

3. How do I go about installing Linux on a flash drive for portable use?

1. Ubuntu would be the easiest and most user friendly.

2. Yep. Linux might not be able to deal with certain files but it will copy them fine.

3. http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/create-a-usb-stick-on-windows

"Rawr XD"

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1. Ubuntu would be the easiest and most user friendly.

2. Yep. Linux might not be able to deal with certain files but it will copy them fine.

3. http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/create-a-usb-stick-on-windows

 

Thanks, I was going to use Mint, would that also work fine?

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Ok, and when I'm in Linux can I partition that drive and still see those partitions in Windows, or should | partition the drive in Windows first then move the data.

Not sure abount Mint but Ubuntu comes with gParted which is a lot better then the partition utility then the one in Windows, but it's more complicated. 

 

Either way will work, flip a coin.

"Rawr XD"

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Not sure abount Mint but Ubuntu comes with gParted which is a lot better then the partition utility then the one in Windows, but it's more complicated. 

 

Either way will work, flip a coin.

Ok, in the future if I have my first partition (for steam games) filled up and the next partition is full can the first one be expanded without loosing data using a third party software such as partition master?

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Ok, in the future if I have my first partition (for steam games) filled up and the next partition is full can the first one be expanded without loosing data using a third party software such as partition master?

Just find another place to keep installing games xD

"Rawr XD"

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I would just use an acronis CD or one of the many other disk cloning tools and clone one drive to the other instead of dealing with a full OS.

That would be nice if I had more than two SATA ports, but as I stated in the OP (which clearly you didn't read) I only have two and therefore I'm forced to run an OS off a boot drive.

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That would be nice if I had more than two SATA ports, but as I stated in the OP (which clearly you didn't read) I only have two and therefore I'm forced to run an OS off a boot drive.

Ok... so you put acronis, or one of the many other disk cloning software, onto a USB drive...

Might want to take a read through this: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/install-and-boot-ultimate-boot-cd-ubcd-from-a-usb-device/

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