Copying Huge File To External USB Drive

[Mortimer Schnerd, RN]

I've been in the process of backing up both my C and D drives for the last
couple of days using Norton's Ghost. At first, I tried backing up directly from
C to my H (USB external drive) but found it was incredibly slow. I ended up
creating the backup file of the C drive onto the D drive, which took about 1.5
hours... not too bad. It took several hours to copy the resulting backup file
from the D drive to the H drive but I finally got it done.

Time to tackle backing up the D drive, which is where all my video files, etc
reside. So I tried doing the same thing: I deleted the copy of the C drive off
the D drive, then had Norton's Ghost create a backup of the D drive on the C
drive. Got all that?

Now I'm copying the copy of the D drive to the H drive. I started last night
and it's still going on. The file is 68,880,512 kb according to Windows
Explorer. I note the file (of that size) on the C drive in Windows Explorer. I
also note the file (of the same size) on the H drive in Windows Explorer.

Here's the problem: the copying icon with the progress bar shows only about 2/3
of the transfer has taken place. This has been going on for almost 20 hours
now... I think I've seen progress but I'm not sure. Now I find there's a file
of the desired size already on the H drive. Is it safe to delete the progress
bar or is the transfer actually still in fact going on?

 

[Ghostrider]

I've been in the process of backing up both my C and D drives for the last
couple of days using Norton's Ghost. At first, I tried backing up directly from
C to my H (USB external drive) but found it was incredibly slow. I ended up
creating the backup file of the C drive onto the D drive, which took about 1.5
hours... not too bad. It took several hours to copy the resulting backup file
from the D drive to the H drive but I finally got it done.

Time to tackle backing up the D drive, which is where all my video files, etc
reside. So I tried doing the same thing: I deleted the copy of the C drive off
the D drive, then had Norton's Ghost create a backup of the D drive on the C
drive. Got all that?

Now I'm copying the copy of the D drive to the H drive. I started last night
and it's still going on. The file is 68,880,512 kb according to Windows
Explorer. I note the file (of that size) on the C drive in Windows Explorer. I
also note the file (of the same size) on the H drive in Windows Explorer.

Here's the problem: the copying icon with the progress bar shows only about 2/3
of the transfer has taken place. This has been going on for almost 20 hours
now... I think I've seen progress but I'm not sure. Now I find there's a file
of the desired size already on the H drive. Is it safe to delete the progress
bar or is the transfer actually still in fact going on?

There is not enough information here. Just how large is Drive C and
Drive H? Unlike data or information files, video files do not readily
compress although they need to pass through the compression stages
when using a backup or imaging application. If I interpolate the file
size properly, 68 GB represents a very large file and for a file type
with perhaps less than 5% compressibility, the file could need perhaps
60 GB more hard drive space just to process. And it will take time for
it to process if there is insufficient free space on the hard drive(s)
that are involved.

Sometimes, the best way to back up very large files is to copy them in
their native state directly to backup medium of adequate size. In fact,
the available backup media and supplies (viz., external USB/Fireware
HD's) are so plentiful, convenient and inexpensive that one does not
really need to use Ghost or TrueImage for backing up files unless a
sector-by-sector duplication is required, such as for a bootable system
partition or to maintain copy protection and user's rights, etc.

 

[Mortimer Schnerd, RN]

There is not enough information here. Just how large is Drive C and
Drive H?

Drive C properties shows 149 GB with about 9 GB still free. Drive H is 298 GB
with about 81GB still free. Once I finally get this copied over to the H drive
and delete the source file on the C drive, it's be back to about 75% unused.

And I think I've answered my own question. I actually measured the progress
bar, then went back and measured it again a couple of hours later. It appears
to still be moving across the screen. What I don't understand is why does the H
drive already show the D drive backup file as existing and of the proper size?
Why wouldn't it just show the number of kb that's actually transferred?

So for the short term I'm going to let it continue.

 

[Paul Randall]

Drive C properties shows 149 GB with about 9 GB still free. Drive H is
298 GB with about 81GB still free. Once I finally get this copied over to
the H drive and delete the source file on the C drive, it's be back to
about 75% unused.

And I think I've answered my own question. I actually measured the
progress bar, then went back and measured it again a couple of hours
later. It appears to still be moving across the screen. What I don't
understand is why does the H drive already show the D drive backup file as
existing and of the proper size? Why wouldn't it just show the number of
kb that's actually transferred?

So for the short term I'm going to let it continue.

Mortimer Schnerd, RN
mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com

I agree with most of what Ghostrider said, but I want to add my 2 cents.
Video files are typically huge, not very compressible, and are orgainzed in
nicely named folders. Also, you typically only back them up once, because
they don't change. Using a package like Ghost is nice in that you can test
the validity of the backup at any time in the future. If you had an easy
way to perform that test and be able to restore, all without the use of the
Ghost software, and not have to mess with a 68 GB file, I think would be a
big plus.

Why not download DVDSig.exe from
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~nulifetv/freezip/freeware/.
Paste a copy of it in each of your movie folders.
Run DVDSig from each of those folders, one at a time, choosing SCAN. This
will read everything in that folder and its subfolders and make a list of
every non-zero-byte file and its associated MD5 checksum.
Copy each of those folders to H: drive
On H: drive, run DVDsig from each of the folders, one at a time, choosing
VERIFY. There should be no missing files and no incorrect checksums.

-Paul Randall

 

[Noncompliant]

I agree with most of what Ghostrider said, but I want to add my 2 cents.
Video files are typically huge, not very compressible, and are orgainzed
in nicely named folders. Also, you typically only back them up once,
because they don't change. Using a package like Ghost is nice in that you
can test the validity of the backup at any time in the future. If you had
an easy way to perform that test and be able to restore, all without the
use of the Ghost software, and not have to mess with a 68 GB file, I think
would be a big plus.

Why not download DVDSig.exe from
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~nulifetv/freezip/freeware/.
Paste a copy of it in each of your movie folders.
Run DVDSig from each of those folders, one at a time, choosing SCAN. This
will read everything in that folder and its subfolders and make a list of
every non-zero-byte file and its associated MD5 checksum.
Copy each of those folders to H: drive
On H: drive, run DVDsig from each of the folders, one at a time, choosing
VERIFY. There should be no missing files and no incorrect checksums.

-Paul Randall

You should be using the export function of Ghost image explorer, not a
direct copy using windows explorer to copy an image file(s). If not, the
resulting image file(s) may be botched. Even though windows explorer will
show no errors upon completion of such a copy.