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I have 2 HDDs, One 2TB empty and two 1TB full. I just want to copy everything from the 2 HDDs to the bigger one.
I tried using the "normal" windows copy but windows refused to copy some files due to the large file path?!
In the end only some data were transferred! I am looking for a robust solution to do the job. Really, is there any way to do this without disk images?
Luka
Posted 2014-02-28T13:17:24.660
Reputation: 155
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To just copy all files & folders use Microsoft's robocopy (robust file copy) command line utility.
Basic usage:
robocopy X:\ Y:\destination-dir\ /MIR
This will copy all contents of X:\ to Y:\destination-dir\ and also remove any data in destination-dir\ not existing in X:\, so use with caution. Run this command, customized to your drive letters, and use different destination directories or the first one gets deleted!
You might want to run this command as administrator to copy files you don't have access to.
More info about robocopy & it's usage: http://technet.microsoft.com/library/cc733145
nappo
Posted 2014-02-28T13:17:24.660
Reputation: 176
Emphatically yes. Copy and XCopy don't deal well with huge amounts of copying; Robocopy is explicitly designed for that purpose. Please don't ask me why Microsoft's basic copy commands have problems with this; I can't think of any possible excuse... but Robocopy also has a lot of additional options which make it particularly good for this kind of task, so it would be worth considering even if Microsoft's built-ins weren't Broken By Design. – keshlam – 2014-02-28T18:20:43.150
Did you try using command line? – Ashtray – 2014-02-28T13:19:40.780
what command exactly? – Luka – 2014-02-28T13:19:59.283
This is the limitation I talk about http://stackoverflow.com/questions/265769/maximum-filename-length-in-ntfs-windows-xp-and-windows-vista
– Luka – 2014-02-28T13:20:33.3171
I would recommend the command line utility "robocopy" (robust file copy, see http://technet.microsoft.com/library/cc733145). Are you using different filesystems?
– nappo – 2014-02-28T13:35:27.993No, I use NTFS. Thanks for the tool, I will check it out – Luka – 2014-02-28T13:45:15.833
I robocopy what does the option /J do? – Luka – 2014-02-28T13:58:07.377