Consolidating hard drives

[Ace1965]

I've got 3 maybe 4 1TB hard drives that I first started using a few years ago. I'm thinking about getting a single 3TB drive and moving however much will fit from those drives over to it. I think one reason I don't look at them as much is that they are single drives and if everything was on one drive it would make it easier to use.

Last night I was looking at my very first 1TB drive and some of the video files as I was watching them would stop and say something like "can't play, or doesn't support this format" but I would get out and go right back into them and they played fine. These older drives were made off of a Windows 7 system and now I've got Windows 10 if that has anything to do with it.

It's these little glitches that are giving me a little concern about moving 3TB worth of videos from 3 separate drives over to a single drive. I don't know if it's going to hit one of those videos with the error message then stop the whole transfer or what else could happen.

A few months ago I transferred several hundred gigs worth of pictures from an older drive over to a new WD Passport drive with no issues except for the images that were eaten by the Windows Photo Viewer already which apparently you can't do anything about anyway. Also every time I fill a drive up I transfer my Amateur Video file over to the new drive with no issues either.

I might just be paranoid about this process but since these drives are older if something happens to these files I'll never be able to find these videos again.

Maybe instead of transferring the files make the new bigger drive a backup so that way I still have the originals on the old drives?

[zxmar05]

I recommend a RAID configuration with mirrored drives, so that a single drive failure would not result in immediate data loss.

Buy a simple two drive NAS system, they all support such a configuration.

You could also look into cloud backups. I'm using Idrive with a 5 TB space, price is acceptable nowadays.

[pharoahegypt]

Personally, I'd never use any WD hdd, as I've had too many problems with them over the years. While working in a computer repair shop I had 3 out of 3 brand new 1TB WD hdd's fail on me within weeks of installation, leading me to in future always chose other brands. It's not only the inconvenience of a failed hdd, but as you say, the loss of data that is often irreplaceable. Like when someone steals your phone with early pix of your kids on; that you'll never be able to get back.

Also, like suggested, I'd copy the files to your new drive, for two reasons. First so that you have a back-up that you can store safely just in case anything occurs with the new drive, and secondly, so that if any gremlins occur during transfer you can then go back & retrieve the original files, as well as compare comparative sizes to check all has been copied in full. Just my advice from personal experience.

[halvar]

Originally Posted by pharoahegypt

Personally, I'd never use any WD hdd, as I've had too many problems with them over the years. While working in a computer repair shop I had 3 out of 3 brand new 1TB WD hdd's fail on me within weeks of installation,

I have a couple of WDs in use with no problem whatsoever. 3x6TB WD Red in my NAS and a couple of 4TB Red and Green used as external backup drives.

My last hard drive failure was more than 15 years ago with the infamous IBM disks. You could literally here them breaking down. Since then I did not have any problems with either Samsung, Seagate nor WD. Last week I bought two 10TB Seagate Skyhawk Surveillance to backup my NAS.

But your mileage may vary.

[Ace1965]

Originally Posted by pharoahegypt

Personally, I'd never use any WD hdd, as I've had too many problems with them over the years. While working in a computer repair shop I had 3 out of 3 brand new 1TB WD hdd's fail on me within weeks of installation, leading me to in future always chose other brands. It's not only the inconvenience of a failed hdd, but as you say, the loss of data that is often irreplaceable. Like when someone steals your phone with early pix of your kids on; that you'll never be able to get back.

Also, like suggested, I'd copy the files to your new drive, for two reasons. First so that you have a back-up that you can store safely just in case anything occurs with the new drive, and secondly, so that if any gremlins occur during transfer you can then go back & retrieve the original files, as well as compare comparative sizes to check all has been copied in full. Just my advice from personal experience.

Believe it or not I've never backed up anything or copied, just transferred. Well I have copied a single image to download it to a host. Hold down the cursor on it while pushing the Cntrl button and slide it over and that makes a copy.

But how do I copy an entire 1TB file with one command?

Originally Posted by halvar

I have a couple of WDs in use with no problem whatsoever. 3x6TB WD Red in my NAS and a couple of 4TB Red and Green used as external backup drives.

My last hard drive failure was more than 15 years ago with the infamous IBM disks. You could literally here them breaking down. Since then I did not have any problems with either Samsung, Seagate nor WD. Last week I bought two 10TB Seagate Skyhawk Surveillance to backup my NAS.

But your mileage may vary.

I've never had a WD drive fail either (knock wood) and I've got about 8 of them now. I had a 4TB Seagate SATA drive brick though with about 3TB worth of stuff on it.

[pharoahegypt]

Originally Posted by Ace1965

But how do I copy an entire 1TB file with one command?
.

Same way as any other file.... Drag your mouse over the folder/files, right-click, copy; then right-click on the destination drive & paste.

If you choose to 'cut' & 'paste' though you'll lose the original file from the original drive, and it's something I never risk. Easy to delete that file after you've checked it's copied properly to your new drive.

[bowlinggreen]

I would not risk storing all your stuff on any single drive.

If you are going the portable storage route, the best thing would be to buy 4 2TB portable drives, copy everything onto 1 set of 2 drives and make a duplicate of all that data on the other 2 drives.

This will cost you north of $350 US, which is a bit pricey, but if it's irreplaceable stuff, you have to decide how much you want to spend to preserve it.

One secret to portable drive longevity it to use them ONLY for backups, like it was a giant iomega zip cartridge from the "olden days". People are constantly swapping them in and out like they are USB sticks, using them every day as a substitute for the main internal HD, and then complaining when they fail. Well, they are simply not as robust as the HD in the internal bay in your PC, and that's all there is to it.

I will let "new porn" build up on my computer, and then every few weeks transfer it all to backup drives. That's the extent to which they get used. Stuff you look at regularly you should just keep on your main PC drive, and if you get the itch to look at something tasty from your archives, plug in your portable HD, COPY it over to your main PC, and look at it from there. Delete it when you are bored with it, and want something else.

[BustyWomenLovr]

Also bad luck with WD drives. Trying to use Toshiba, but now have a Seagate which has developed a glitch. Shoulda stuck with Toshiba...

[solarbear]

i Use a cheap hard drive docking station, plugs in and works great like a USB stick. mine is a thermaltake black widow single slot. Too many horror stories about external hd for me to plunge with those.

and as for windows 10, well expect angst

Videos are kind of a marvel, So many things could make them unplayable, including hardware, OS, Player settings etc. I remember one video, it was a good one, kasey warner.. that was blue screening my PC,,, it turns out it came down to a needed BIOS update affecting codec the video needed to play. unforgettable....

[pharoahegypt]

Originally Posted by solarbear

i Use a cheap hard drive docking station, plugs in and works great like a USB stick. mine is a thermaltake black widow single slot. Too many horror stories about external hd for me to plunge with those.

I too now favour a docking station. Use a Login USB3.0 All in 1 HDD Docking Station, that has both IDE & SATA ports as standard. You can turn it on/off when needed, or switch between mounted HDDs with the simple flick of a switch, putting far less strain on the HDDs it runs.