How many GB at a time is safe to transfer from my computer to an external HD? If I transfer 50+ gb at one time is that safe? Will it cause "wear and tear" or damage the external HD in any way to transfer large multiple GB at one time?
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” - Kierkegaard 2684 Posts 8/09
Posted - Mar 30 2014 : 6:56AM
You should be fine cause I do it every day and millions do it and I have yet to see an bad copy. If you get an error message during the copy it's not a good copy, but if you don't see one, then it copied good. I use a copier program called TeraCopy for speed and checking after a job that used many important data files I had to do large data dumps in many places (SANS and servers). If you really are worried, you can use this type of program cause it does a check-sum or CRC for each file and compares the original file you selected to copy to the copied filed and make sure their equal exact copy. It doesn't use a SHA, but it's good enough for me and it's fast although the program adds extra steps that are kinda annoying. Edited by - BYOB_Kenobi on 3/30/2014 7:00:45 AM
Wear is inescapable, however doing large file transfers doesn't cause more wear than transferring the same amount of data over a longer period of time. Having said that, the possibility does exist that your new hard drive has a manufacturing flaw, so you shouldn't make it the sole repository of any data you can't afford to lose.
"You have sacrificed nothing and no one." 3689 Posts 8/10
Posted - Mar 30 2014 : 3:36PM
FWIW, if your new external hard-drive is still empty, I would strongly encourage you to do a full-format before moving any files to it. If it has any glitches, a full-format will take care of it. Also, if a full-format decides a disk has too many issues to prepare properly, it will let you know that, too. I do this with EVERY drive I put into use -- especially drives that will have "archival" use. Sure, it may take a few hours, but it is time and effort well-spent. I've actually caught two new drives that were defective (i.e. too many bad sectors to be fully and properly formatted). Another drive I had, which was purchased as a new drive, suspiciously appeared to have been written all over previously. In other words, the vendor stuck me with a refurb even though I had paid for a new drive. Doing the full-format cleaned the whole thing up beautifully (so I just decided to simmer over the fact that I had been ripped-off).
If it's a new external hard drive, I would copy the files from the internal drive to the external drive and leave the original on your internal hard drive for a few weeks, before deleting them. This way, if it turns out that you got a "lemon" for an external drive, you won't lose your files. There is no reason why you can't copy as many files as you want all at once. Copying multiple smaller chunks is no different than copying it all at once.
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” - Kierkegaard 2684 Posts 8/09
Posted - Mar 30 2014 : 11:46PM
Cloudburst, Hardware's post is good to always remember and many people think if they make a single backup, they are fine. Although rule of thumb is N+1, optical storage is so cheap, you can easily have 3 copies, source file, a backup on a external Hard Drive (HD) and 1 on optical drive. You can also can use programs like Crystal Disk Info (free) that does SMART checks on HDs and tells you HDs health. Although a HD can crash/die spontaneously out of the blue (they due a lot) and these programs can't tell you if a HD is going to die, they can measure certain parameters that signify degradation HDs and risk of dying HDs. But it's not full-proof by any means. But as far as transferring, I used to do batch data files of 300-500GB at a time and retrieved later with no corruption.
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Cloudburst Deactivated User
392 Posts 1/14
Posted - Mar 31 2014 : 3:39AM
So if my external HD makes it past a few weeks will it most likely be OK and not crash or anything sooner than the typical lifespan of an external (which apparently is around 5-6 years according to some google searches I did)?? P.S. thanks everyone for any info you provided.
Edited by - Cloudburst on 3/31/2014 3:42:39 AM
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Cloudburst Deactivated User
392 Posts 1/14
Posted - Mar 31 2014 : 3:44AM
Wow that's pretty scary. Can I ask how many new external HD's you have purchased so far? Edited by - Cloudburst on 3/31/2014 3:46:08 AM
"You have sacrificed nothing and no one." 3689 Posts 8/10
Posted - Mar 31 2014 : 7:40AM
All told about 40 hard drives (half internal/half external). The two defective drives I received were both internal drives. It is my strong belief that the vender shipped me drives that other customers had previously returned. I've never received a bad external drive, although the "getting stuck with a refurb drive when I had paid for new" example I described was on an external drive. Again, doing a full-format on your new drive, before putting it into service, is your best practice.
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Cloudburst Deactivated User
392 Posts 1/14
Posted - Apr 4 2014 : 8:32PM
When I turned my Seagate external HDD on the other day for the first time in 4 months it did not appear when I clicked "My Computer". I then turned off my PC and unplugged the external, then plugged it back in and turned the PC back on. When I clicked on My Computer again the external drive now showed up and everything seems okay. Just want to ask if it is normal for an external drive to not show up in My Computer when first plugged in or should I be concerned? Thank you.
"You have sacrificed nothing and no one." 3689 Posts 8/10
Posted - Apr 4 2014 : 8:51PM
^ Sometimes, external drives go to sleep (say after 10 minutes of not being accessed), and they sometimes don't show-up and/or respond. Since it showed-up after a restart, I wouldn't get too concerned. What OS are you running? Also, to verify the drive... In Windows 7: Start > right-click Computer > select Manage > expand Storage (click on the +) > select Disk Management > right-click on the drive in question and select Properties > select Tools > select Check now This will verify the drive and automatically fix any errors it finds. It won't hurt anything. You probably have nothing wrong, but let's verify the disk and know this to a certainty going forward :)
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Cloudburst Deactivated User
392 Posts 1/14
Posted - Apr 5 2014 : 12:02AM
Goldstein thank you for the advice but I'm little paranioid. I already transferred some important files onto the external HD, are you sure verifying the disk won't affect or corrupt them in any way? Thanks. Edited by - Cloudburst on 4/5/2014 12:04:10 AM
There is no guarantee of anything in life. If you're really worried about it, make multiple copies in different physical locations. Hard drives, flash drives, CD/DVD-Roms, cloud, whatever. Checking your drives every so often is smart practice. It won't destroy something that's good, but it will find things that are bad. If your file is corrupted already, you're screwed already. I've had two hard drives die on my and take everything with them (including one external), and one that died slowly enough that I was able to retrieve important stuff before it finally expired (though in truth I think it was the controller on the motherboard, not the actual HD, that was giving up the ghost). Make multiple copies and keep them separate. It's a PITA but it works. Also, FWiW: care and feeding of external hard drives. Keep them where they're well ventilated (heat is your enemy), away from little electric motors that create magnetic fields that can possibly wreak havoc (unlikely but possible. I won't let hand-held vacuum cleaners anywhere near my computer), but do keep them dusted and clean--particularly the vent holes near the p/s (that gets back to heat).
