Migrating drives

[roland.g]

I am updating my external media and backup set up.

Currently I have 1.2 TB on an external FW800 drive and want to migrate that to a USB 3.0 drive. The FW800 is 2TB and the USB 3.0 is 3TB.

I have a new USB 3.0 that is 4TB that I will use to backup the Media drive and internal drive for offsite.

For the migration process is it better for the drives that I copy the files in sections and give the drives time to "cool/rest" in between vs. a wholesale copy or using Carbon Copy Cloner?

I've never migrated that much data before and don't know what strain that will put on the drive to go for that long.

Thanks.

 

[Weaselboy]

Nah... there is no need to "cool down" or anything. Just copy it all at once.

 

[roland.g]

Nah... there is no need to "cool down" or anything. Just copy it all at once.

Won't it be a 4 to 8 hour copy process?

Not sure what the read speed will be as the USB 3.0 drive shouldn't be the bottleneck.

 

[Weaselboy]

Won't it be a 4 to 8 hour copy process?

Not sure what the read speed will be as the USB 3.0 drive shouldn't be the bottleneck.

Easily that long. The FW800 will be the bottleneck for sure. Just set the computer to never sleep and let it run overnight is what I would do.

 

[talmy]

Often it's the drives themselves which are the bottleneck. USB3 is much faster than a hard drive and FW800 is a pretty good match for typical drive speeds.

One good thing is that the FW reads and USB writes can occur simultaneously. Most external drives, at least the ones I use, are designed to run fully loaded without overheating. If you are concerned, just give them air space to radiate the heat (don't cover them with a blanket!)

 

[roland.g]

Thanks and Thanks!

 

[Fishrrman]

My suggestion is to use CarbonCopyCloner to do the job, and in each case, let things "run until done".