Massive File Transferring

[Guest]

I need to transfer all of my files to one computer because my drive is about to die, how should I go about doing this? Should I just use a network cable via ethernet and transfer the massive files or is there a better way of doing this? 

[Godlygamer23]

Well, that is the most direct route.

[Lolucoca]

Just clone the drive?

[Guest]

Well, that is the most direct route.

I mean like they're extremely important files, is there a way to make sure nothing will be messed up during the process? 

[Guest]

Just clone the drive?

I don't know how to do that, I think you need a kit or something which I don't have 

[TheAmazingCookieFromSquare]

I don't know how to do that, I think you need a kit or something which I don't have 

No you don't you just need another storage drive-

[RammerBee]

Just clone the drive?

So turns out im intetesed on this too. But idk how cloning is done.

[Godlygamer23]

I mean like they're extremely important files, is there a way to make sure nothing will be messed up during the process? 

If you're just copying them, then the original should remain untouched. If something is messed up along the way, then you just copy it again - and just so we're clear....errors can pop up at any time when transferring large files.

[Lolucoca]

@Yames There are some programs to boot of and clone the drive, like Clonezilla or HDClone...

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

I mean like they're extremely important files, is there a way to make sure nothing will be messed up during the process?

 

If you're just copying them, then the original should remain untouched. If something is messed up along the way, then you just copy it again - and just so we're clear....errors can pop up at any time when transferring large files.

 

Errors can indeed pop up, but you won't always notice them before it's too late. That's why when dealing with large or important files, I use MD5 & SHA Checksum Utility.  

The free version should be good enough.  If any corruption occurs during transferring, the checksums from the original file and the copy won't match so you know something went wrong.

 

I took it to the next level.  Every zipped backup of important stuff, every ISO file, every movie, every episode of a series, basically every important or large file on my PC or NAS gets checksummed and I store all those checksums in text files in the same folder as the file itself.  That way I can even detect bitrot if it would ever happen.

[Guest]

-snip

It's a laptop hard drive and the laptop motherboard only accepts 1 sata connection so I can't have 2 in at once, what do i do

[Godlygamer23]

 Errors can indeed pop up, but you won't always notice them before it's too late. That's why when dealing with large or important files, I use MD5 & SHA Checksum Utility.  

The free version should be good enough.  If any corruption occurs during transferring, the checksums from the original file and the copy won't match so you know something went wrong.

Assuming the program itself doesn't mess up.

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

It's a laptop hard drive and the laptop motherboard only accepts 1 sata connection so I can't have 2 in at once, what do i do

Do you have a desktop with a couple of free SATA ports? If so, you can hotswap it into the desktop and clone it from there.

You could also get an identical capacity drive and a USB 3.0 enclosure. Put the drive in there and plug it into the USB port.

If the laptop has a USB3 port, you should be able to clone at full speed.

Afterwards just remove the drive from the enclosure and put it in the laptop.

Be careful when buying an enclosure with a drive in there already for this purpose. In most cases these use regular SATA drives, but some have bespoke drives that have the USB port built into the PCB.

I can only verify that the Seagate "Expansion" enclosures use regular drives, no idea on what other models or brands use what drives. I did come across one of the USB-only drives before, so I know they do exist. I just can't remember which one that was.

EDIT :

Assuming the program itself doesn't mess up.

Unlikely to happen, these checksum calculations are all standardized. There are multiple programs for them and program can verify chacksums done with any other program. These are standards that have been around for years, it's just that not many regular users go through the effort of checksumming their stuff.