BleepingComputer.com: Best Method for Moving Storage

I have 2 Seagate HDs. A 400GB and a 500GB. On both I have about 300GB worth of data that I would like to copy to a single 1 TB drive. But I got a few questions:

1. I was planning on just moving everything by drag'n'drop'ing to the new 1 TB HD. Is "copying" or "moving" any different? Is one better than the other?

2. What are some other methods I can use to move all my data from both drives to my 1 TB HD?

Thanks in advance.

P.S. I'm running Vista.

My guess would be that moving is faster...but it's probably the same.

Data must be read, copied and written in either procedure, I would not expect either to be "faster" than the other. From what I've seen, moving is really copying in some instances.

From what I read...it really depends on from where...to where.

That's my best non-answer , but take a look at the following:

http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w...1-c07b5a5467dc/

Maybe someone else can give you a better answer.

Louis

Edit: I meant to say this earlier. Directly connecting the drive to the motherboard will result in faster transfers than if you use network channels or USB...that much I know from my own trials with moving large files from drive to drive. Important when you have as large a quantity as you stated.

This post has been edited by hamluis: 28 January 2009 - 08:23 PM

Moving will move the file to the other drive and remove it from the first drive. Copying will make a copy and move that to the second drive leaving the original file in its original place.

This post has been edited by Sneakycyber: 28 January 2009 - 07:44 PM

You could use an application like True Image by Acronis or Ghost by Symantec.

hamluis, on Jan 28 2009, 05:21 PM, said:

Thanks. Ya I kinda figured it was the same, just thought maybe moving would be better somehow. In the past I've always used "drag'n drop" method and has never failed.

dc3, on Jan 29 2009, 01:45 AM, said:

I tried using one application similiar to those and it copied the whole partition as well. When it copied info it seemed to make an EXACT clone of the 200GB and left 200GB space unused. So basically the new 400GB just looked like my (full) 200GB. That kinda defeated the whole purpose of buy a bigger drive! Lol.

I thing copying is better because it's more secure.
First copy, then verify that everything has been copied properly, then delete unneeded copy.
Who knows what can happen while you are copying? Maybe you 1TB hdd crashes apparently, who knows. Hope it won't, best luck and happy copying! =)

This post has been edited by Konstantin: 30 January 2009 - 09:17 AM