What is the fastest way of transfering files from 2tb to 4tb HD

The only way tyo know for sure is to run some tests.
I'd say Teracopy but testing is the way to know for sure.

I used Teracopy back when I was using XP. I see reports of some people not having any problems using it with Win 7 but I've also have seen some people, including me, who have had problems with it.

When I need to transfer the entire contents of a drive to another one, I use Macrium Reflect Free to clone (not image) the drive. The default setting for cloning is Intelligent Sector Cloning, which means it will copy over only sectors that contain data. That way it can easily clone from a smaller drive to a larger one and, as long as the data will fit, even from a larger drive to a smaller one.

Brds7t7 said:

There's a few good options. As Lady Fitzgerald said, Macrium Free is an excellent tool for copying whole partitions.
Another good one I use for just copying files is FreeFileSync. Does a great job if you use the Mirror option.
Also Robocopy if you don't mind using commands instead of a GUI.

FreeFileSync is a good option for copying over select folders and files but, for a first time user and when copying an entire drive, cloning is simpler. I use FreeFileSync primarily for backing up my data but have used it when moving a large number of files from one drive to another.

Imaging seems to be the fastest way (I've found) to copy the entire contents of one HDD to another.

lehnerus2000 said:

Imaging seems to be the fastest way (I've found) to copy the entire contents of one HDD to another.

Imaging requires a place to put the image, usually an intermediary drive. Cloning and folder file syncing (FreeFileSync) work directly from one drive to another.

This isn't to say imaging doesn't have its uses but it is too inefficient for just moving large blocks of data.

Lady Fitzgerald said:

lehnerus2000 said:

Imaging seems to be the fastest way (I've found) to copy the entire contents of one HDD to another.

Imaging requires a place to put the image, usually an intermediary drive. Cloning and folder file syncing (FreeFileSync) work directly from one drive to another.

This isn't to say imaging doesn't have its uses but it is too inefficient for just moving large blocks of data.

The benefit of doing it the "long way" is you have a backup image of the data.
I normally reformat the source drive once I've copied the data from it.

Usually when I'm doing that sort of operation it's because I've just got a new HDD and I want to change my partition layout (e.g. resize).

I've only tried cloning once and it went horribly wrong.
I ended up having to create backup images of my partitions and using them to do the transfer.

I use a program called Mirror Folder for file backup along with imaging. It's not free ($39 US) but I've been using it for a long time and it handles things like this perfectly. There are free file sync programs that do this as well.

The beauty of using a sync program is once you set it up, you can forget about it except to monitor and make sure it's working correctly. It runs in the background and will take as long as necessary to copy the files to the mirror/backup location. Once done then only new or changes files will be mirrored.

I have mine setup to check every two hours for active folders and every four for less used folders.

lehnerus2000 said:

Lady Fitzgerald said:

lehnerus2000 said:

Imaging seems to be the fastest way (I've found) to copy the entire contents of one HDD to another.

Imaging requires a place to put the image, usually an intermediary drive. Cloning and folder file syncing (FreeFileSync) work directly from one drive to another.

This isn't to say imaging doesn't have its uses but it is too inefficient for just moving large blocks of data.

The benefit of doing it the "long way" is you have a backup image of the data.
I normally reformat the source drive once I've copied the data from it.

Usually when I'm doing that sort of operation it's because I've just got a new HDD and I want to change my partition layout (e.g. resize).

I've only tried cloning once and it went horribly wrong.
I ended up having to create backup images of my partitions and using them to do the transfer.

You should have already had a backup in place before the need for cloning came up. What were you using to do the clone? I've had only one clone fail using Macrium Reflect and that was because the source drive was corrupted. Fortunately, I already had multiple backups in place and one of them saved my bacon data.

Imaging, although essential for backing up System files, is an extremely inefficient way to backup data. Every time you make an image, unless you are using incremental or differential imaging, both of which can be problematic (many people, including me, recommend only making full images because of the potential for problems), you have to image everything on the disk or partition you are imaging. Also, full images need a lot of room if you want to have more than one image. A folder/file syncing program, on the other hand, only has to work with files that were added, changed, or deleted since the previous backup. Less space is required and updates to a backup are much, much faster.