transferring data from one external to another

[kenscanon]

I have a particular technical question about computers in general.

When one transfers data from one external hard drive to a second external hard drive, both of which are connected to the same computer, does the data that is being transferred ever get written to the computer's internal hard drive?

I am basically wondering if transferring data between two externals is going to put a bunch of read/writes onto my MBA's internal SSD during the process.

thanks!

 

[Weaselboy]

I have a particular technical question about computers in general.

When one transfers data from one external hard drive to a second external hard drive, both of which are connected to the same computer, does the data that is being transferred ever get written to the computer's internal hard drive?

I am basically wondering if transferring data between two externals is going to put a bunch of read/writes onto my MBA's internal SSD during the process.

thanks!

No it does not.

 

[kenscanon]

No it does not.

Cool, that is what I thought but I wasn't sure. So data is transferred directly from one drive to the other, through the computer's bus(?). I'm not too familiar with the entirety of a computer's innards.

 

[Weaselboy]

Cool, that is what I thought but I wasn't sure. So data is transferred directly from one drive to the other, through the computer's bus(?). I'm not too familiar with the entirety of a computer's innards.

Yep... exactly.

 

[kenscanon]

Are the "Data Read, Data written" values under the disk activity tab in Activity Monitor pulled from all disk activity (internal drives and external drives)?

Both values are increasing at over 1 GB per minute or so, a very fast rate.

 

[Weaselboy]

Are the "Data Read, Data written" values under the disk activity tab in Activity Monitor pulled from all disk activity (internal drives and external drives)?

Both values are increasing at over 1 GB per minute or so, a very fast rate.

Yes, that includes read/write to all drives.

 

[old-wiz]

Cool, that is what I thought but I wasn't sure. So data is transferred directly from one drive to the other, through the computer's bus(?). I'm not too familiar with the entirety of a computer's innards.

to be exact, the OS reads it into internal buffers before it writes it out on the other drive. It does not go directly over the bus.

 

[kenscanon]

to be exact, the OS reads it into internal buffers before it writes it out on the other drive. It does not go directly over the bus.

Internal buffers on the SSD?

 

[old-wiz]

no... The device transfers data into the computer's buffer in internal RAM, then the software transfers to another buffer and writes it out to the other device. The data still has to go into internal ram before it can be written to another device.

 

[kenscanon]

no... The device transfers data into the computer's buffer in internal RAM, then the software transfers to another buffer and writes it out to the other device. The data still has to go into internal ram before it can be written to another device.

Ok cool, thanks for your reply. I had to move some files around, but I was wanting to try to minimize or avoid wear on the SSD since it was a large amount of data.