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vim147

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 14, 2011
236
1
Am trying to transfer 600GB of movies. (approx 400 movies) from one external drive to another but it keeps crashing saying unexpected error occurred half way through.

Is there a easier way to do this as its time consuming ?
 
Yes, there is an easier way.

A very simple way would be to try moving some of the files at a time.
You have 400 movies.
Try moving 20 at a time.
Perhaps you have some corrupted files "in there" somewhere.
If so, the finder may "choke" on those files, and halt the transfer.

When you move files in smaller "chunks", it becomes easier to detect corrupted files.
KEEP HANDWRITTEN NOTES as to what's been transferred, and what has not (yet).
This may not be "less time consuming", but it should get the job done.

ANOTHER WAY:
Download CarbonCopyCloner from here:
http://www.bombich.com/download.html
CCC is FREE to download, and it's FREE to use for the first 30 days.

Now...
Use CCC to clone the contents of your source drive to your backup (second) drive.
IF there are corrupted files, CCC will not halt the transfer (as will the finder).
Instead, CCC makes a note of the corrupted file in its log, and goes right on with the clone.
At the end of the process, CCC will present you with a list of what couldn't be copied.
Again, makes it easier to identify corrupted files.
 
What machine? Are you using external drives on the same USB bus? Are they bus-powered? What file formats? Etc.

But yeah, try moving a subset of the files first. You may have corrupted files or something.
 
As Fishrrman said, CCC is your best option or at least the first option you should try. Moving 20 at a time is going to be painful.

I did the same as what you are trying. I had a USB powered 1TB drive copying over to a FW800 Drive. I have more movies than you and 700GB in total. I did not use CCC but I was wondering if it would have been faster and less stress on the system. It took about 3 hours as the USB 2.0 drive is kind of slow. For me though, I was not cloning, but selecting a few big folders and I wasn't sure if CCC could do selective transfers.
 
LarryJoe wrote:
"I was not cloning, but selecting a few big folders and I wasn't sure if CCC could do selective transfers."

It can.
Very selective, if you wish.
 
I have a 4tb NAS drive connected to 2011 Mac mini via ethernet. Am transferring to a 4tb USB external that's connected to the NAS drive.


Transferring 200gb is saying 4hrs !

Would CCC Let me copy over a folder to a assigned folder in my external drive or would I need to clone absolutely everything that's on that drive to the other ?
 
Last edited:
use terminal. "sudo rsync -vaE --progress /volumes/NameOfDriveWithMovies /volumes/NameOfDriveWhereThingsGo"

I use this a lot in single user to back things up if a Mac won't boot, or there is corruption preventing the transfer. At the time I researched all the options, the -vaE part, and made a conscious decision to use them at the time, forget what the consequences of them are now. You can read the rsync man page if you'd like.

Anyway, this will skip over errors when encountered. This means files with corruption will not be transferred, but it does I believe tell you which ones they are at the end.
 
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