Solved Second issue: why does a copy operation take up more space?

[KeyFox]

I have two identical Seagate Barracuda 2 TB drives (1.81 TB usable space). One is failing, so I am trying to get the data off of it onto the other. However, when i try just a simple copy and paste, or move operation, the data winds up being around 2009 GB. What gives? Is there any way to get around this issue? I've tried RichCopy, FastCopy, Windows Backup & Restore, Acronis Disk Director to clone the disk - nothing works. The cloning fails chkdsk I assume because of the failure of the source drive. Help?

 

[Ztruker]

Try copying in small chunks?

 

[FuturDreamz]

Is it possible you have some hardlinks that are confusing windows?

 

[KeyFox]

I'm currently trying copying in smaller bits and to different drives before then copying to the replacement drive. I don't know about any hardlinks?

 

[Alejandro85]

Is by any chance any disk formated in FAT32? With such a large drive, cluster size effect on tons of small files will cause a big waste of space, no matter of how do you copy them. If so, try reformatting in NTFS.

 

[AddRAM]

Was there data already on the drive before you started copying to it ?

Did you take that into account ?

 

[KeyFox]

There was no data on the second drive, it is a replacement and empty. Both are NTFS. Cloning the drive failed, presumably due to bad clusters on the original drive. I did a chkdsk /f /r on the original drive which ran out of space during the process and failed with an error. I am attempting to copy the folder in which the failure occurred to the new drive and doing a chkdsk on it to see if it will clean up the clusters.

 

[f14tomcat]

Is by any chance any disk formated in FAT32? With such a large drive, cluster size effect on tons of small files will cause a big waste of space, no matter of how do you copy them. If so, try reformatting in NTFS.

Check the cluster size on new drive. If not the same, i.e. larger on new driive, small files WILL chew up more space. Also, I did a test..... I took a large folder, copied it to my desktop, changed properties to compress folder and all sub dirs. Then, moved it to my external drive. Original on desktop was 1.07GB and .76GB compressed, but when I moved it to external, it created it as UN-compressed and orig size of 1.07GB. Do you have any compressed folder/files you are trying to clone? Could be an answer....

Tomcat...
:huh:

 

[KeyFox]

Cluster size was the same, but yes, apparently compression was on. Thank you, I never would have thought to look for that! Solved!

 

[AddRAM]

Never compress data, make sure compression is turned off on all your machines.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
OT but you might be able to "Rescue" the "failing disk.

If it's an EXTERNAL disk sometimes the electronics that converts the SATA===>USB connection gets hosed up and you are told often incorrectly that the disk is defective.

You can often "Rescue" these disks.

a) convert them to "Internal drives".
1) open the external case and remove the disk -- disconnect the physical disk from the electronics USB connector.
You'll see now a "Bog standard" SATA disk drive.
2) Connect to a spare SATA connector on your MOBO. - Note if you don't have enough SATA power connectors but plenty of the old 4 pin IDE connectors you can get very cheaply an IDE==>SATA power adapter -- screenshot enc.

3) Re-format the disk (FULL) -- and you should be good to go with a "New Disk".

b) If it's an INTERNAL disk.

The chances are that it probably is broken -- however swap the drive to another SATA slot and re-format (full) again -- or IMO a better solution try testing it with a SATA==>USB adapter and re-format via your computers USB port.

Many times disks can be "repaired" this way. In my experience disks rarely go "Partly defective". They either break or work and it's quite rare believe it or not for HDD's to go bust --not impossible but doesn't happen nearly as often as one might think.

In any case whatever you do - or whatever the state of your HDD's ALWAYS--ALWAYS have plenty of backup for important data. This can't be repeated often enough. --The OS can always be re-installed - but user data can me a NIGHTMARE to retrieve --even if it's possible -- I'd hate for example to have to re-rip 5,000 old CD's again !!!!!.

Cheers
jimbo