Best way to do a huge data migration?

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coolyr

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May 19, 2015
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Does moving a bunch of files (data migration) slow down or hurt the a HDD or SSD in any way? I believe I recall hearing that reading/writing a lot to a disk causes it to fragment.

If data migration does impact a SSD or HDD, what is the best way to move every file from one drive to another with minimal damage?
 
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nukemaster
SSD's manage writes differently than hard drives. You never have to defrag them. They will look fragmented, but only the controller truly knows the data locations and it moves data around as needed to keep as many free cells as it can and to use all cells evenly(this extends the SSDs life).

When moving files one after the other, file fragmentation should not be an issue. Fragmentation happens more often when using a system drive for one thing and making many writes. For instance having Windows media center recording TV while using a computer for other things can fragment things pretty good, but recording to a dedicated drive does not get nearly as much.

If the drive does not have enough free space to write a file it can also fragment...
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nukemaster

nukemaster

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SSD's manage writes differently than hard drives. You never have to defrag them. They will look fragmented, but only the controller truly knows the data locations and it moves data around as needed to keep as many free cells as it can and to use all cells evenly(this extends the SSDs life).

When moving files one after the other, file fragmentation should not be an issue. Fragmentation happens more often when using a system drive for one thing and making many writes. For instance having Windows media center recording TV while using a computer for other things can fragment things pretty good, but recording to a dedicated drive does not get nearly as much.

If the drive does not have enough free space to write a file it can also fragment the file.

Either way, this should not hurt the drive.

Are you trying to copy your OS or just files? If it is just files, the built in robocopy(it is a command line tool) may be a bit faster(file attributes/security settings/date modified/ect if required.).

For moving the OS and all Reflect works pretty well.
http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx
 
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coolyr

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May 19, 2015
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I'm spreading a drive with 3TBs of data across 2 HDDs and an SSD. From the sound of things, if I just run the defragmenter on my HDDs weekly, it would repair any damage from excessive disk writing. Right?
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Oh good grief....that's not 'huge', by any standards.
Just let the OS defrag run on the HDD's. Built in, it will do it automagically on a schedule.
 
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nukemaster

nukemaster

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Fragmentation is not damage. It is just a file broken into parts. Software will still read the file as intended, it just may take a small bit more time.

Either way, You can just defrag if you have/want to.

Depending on your needs, just copy and paste the files from drive to drive. It is the most easy way. You will still have to image or clone to get the OS(and its required system reserved/uefi partitions) over to another drive.
 
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coolyr

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May 19, 2015
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Thank you kind sir. I'll be putting my OS and frequently used/startup programs on my SSD, files on one HDD, and games on the other HDD. Thank you for helping a noob out, I appreciate it man.
 
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