How can I copy a folder with many files with integrity check?

Question

I just got a new hard drive and want to move many of the folders from the old hard drive to the new one, but I want to make sure everything is copied over correctly.

I tried using md5summer to generate md5 sums of the original files, copied files over and then tried to compare md5 sums of both sets of files. This took ages because there are many large video files.

Is there any software I can use to make this process as painless as possible? I just need basic file integrity checking.

Answer 1

Use the utility TeraCopy, free and efficient.

TeraCopy uses CRC and automatically checks all files for integrity.

Answer 2

Not free, but, IMHO, cheap and worth it, Beyond Compare will allow you to do a CRC comparison (which should be a lot faster than MD5) or even a full binary comparison if you want.

When comparing folders and sub folders, you can set a filter to only display mismatches, so if you have a large number of file and folders, you can quickly determine if any are wrong or missing.

It can also do the copying/synchronizing for you.

I used it recently to copy several thousand files and folders to a ftp site and then do a comparison to ensure that all the files were uploaded correctly. With internet disconnections, some of the files were not uploaded correctly but it was very easy to determine which ones and upload then again.

Answer 3

FreeFileSync is a tool which lets you copy entire folders from one location to another, with different options for integrity check (filesize, timestamps or content check). It is also free to download and use - https://freefilesync.org/download.php

Answer 4

Just to add another product, I use SyncBack and love the options it has. I wont drag on but it has what you are looking for and more.

Answer 5

I've recently had to perform the same operation to move some files over from an old machine to a new machine and I used Microsoft Sync Toy. It takes forever to run unfortunately but if you can leave the machine running overnight it does seem to work. (You might need a different version for XP but there are older versions available to download)

Microsoft Sync Toy

You could also use XCOPY from the command line with a format similar to this:

XCOPY "C:\Users\Richard\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music" "X:\Music" /v /s /z 

/v = verify, /s = subdirectories, /z = network restartable mode (more robust)