Best Way to Transfer Data from Old Computer's Hard Drive to New Computer

thisusernameistaken on 21/01/2023 - 00:00

I need to transfer data from an old computer's hard drive to the new one. I have no problem with connecting the hard drive or bringing up the files. The issue is that the hard drive is old and could fail at anytime and I need to move almost a terabyte of data to the new computer.

The old computer had the data stored in a RAID 1 and I've just connected one of the drives to the new computer. While the second drive is a redundant copy that could be used in case the first drive fails, I'd rather not rely on it.

My question is, how can I best migrate the data and ensure it is copied properly with no corruption.

Should I just use Windows 10's built-in file transfer or use a third-party program?

Would it be best to copy each folder (or a small group of folders) individually or just copy the entire contents of the hard drive and paste it in one go?

Is there an easy way of checking how close the drive is to failing?

Lastly but not overly important, I'd rather not copy the operating system or program files that do not contain user data as they are unnecessary.

Thank you!

Computing

Comments

  • Hybroid on 21/01/2023 - 00:07
    +1

    TeraCopy is recommended for sensitive data you want to make sure is copied across and doesn't fail or get corrupted on the way. Give it a go.

    https://www.codesector.com/teracopy

  • scrimshaw on 21/01/2023 - 01:28
    +2

    Isn't it better to keep the array as-is and copy the files from the mirrored drives simultaneously? By doing so you

    • Spread the load evenly between the 2 drives
    • You finish the task in half the time since each drive is doing half the work (although the target drive would have to be a SATA3 SSD)
    • In the (very unlikely) event that one drive actually kicks the bucket during the read operation, your data copying operation won't fail in the middle (causing you to have to restart the file copying again) since the failover should be instantaneous.

    and most file copying software (Teracopy, RoboCopy, Unstoppable copy) should have file integrity check at the end of each task.

    • thisusernameistaken on 21/01/2023 - 01:30

      That's a good idea although the old computer no longer works so I'm not sure how best to transfer the RAID or if it has been broken?

      • Switchblade88 on 21/01/2023 - 12:23

        Motherboard RAID? I've only heard horror stories about anything hardware based since if the controller dies you're stuck. If it does read in the new PC then that's a stroke of luck.

        Hence the reason I'm using Windows Storage Spaces - I've moved my array between three different PC builds without any hiccups, no setup - it just works.

        • thisusernameistaken on 21/01/2023 - 17:16

          I believe it was a motherboard RAID although it was an Intel motherboard and I do recall some Intel software so maybe it was software based. I can open the files fine so I should be okay?

          • Switchblade88 on 21/01/2023 - 17:45

            @thisusernameistaken: That's a great sign!! In that case use any of the software above to do your copying, then make sure you use the 3-2-1 backup solution to create proper backups of your data. RAID isn't a backup solution, as you've discovered.

            You can also do SMART testing with something like HDSentinel to check over the drives, but if it was something separate that died like the CPU then the HDDs (and contained data files) are likely fine anyway.

  • Mechz on 21/01/2023 - 14:05

    Just copy pasta and use 7zip to do a checksum if you think your data is really that important.

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