0

I have data on 16 drives that I want to consolidate to one drive. The 16 drives are external with a firewire connection. Currently I have the one drive connected as an external drive on firewire. I can mount the target drive internally in my MacPro as an option. The total amount of data on the 16 drives is about 3TB. Four of the drives are 400GB the rest are smaller. Appreciate any help. I am in the process of copying one of the 400GB using Finder and it is estimating 15 hours and after 3 hours of copying, it looks like a fairly accurate estimate. Thanks for any help.

bmike
  • 235,889
PTNMSR
  • 1
  • Please redo the math because 4x400 GB + 12x~300 GB=5.2 TB – klanomath Oct 09 '15 at 20:14
  • 1
    Are the contents and directory structure of each drive unique or is some of it replicated in both content and directory structure? In an case I'd probably use rsync to consolidate the contents of the drives. – user3439894 Oct 09 '15 at 20:18
  • Hint: instead of using the Finder for massive file copies, (both in size and in numbers,) use the Terminal command cp. It bypasses all the needless GUI overhead Finder imposes, and is much quicker. This page has details. – IconDaemon Oct 09 '15 at 21:04
  • 1
    13TB is a lot of storage. What kind of device are you using to consolidate the files from these 16 Firewire drives? – IconDaemon Oct 09 '15 at 21:06
  • I'd at least start with the donor & receiver drives mounted internally - that will speed everything up... though I'm still not sure what you're putting 13TB onto, unless it's an external raid array – Tetsujin Oct 10 '15 at 06:49
  • There was a clerical error - it is not 13TB but 3TB. Sorry for the confusion. The contents of the drives does have some repetition, so rsync does sound like the way to go. Regarding the hint - why a hint? I am looking for an answer, so just be straightforward, such as, "Finder, due to the gui overhead, will be slower than using Terminal." It is not feasible to mount the drives internally and that is why I am using firewire. So far, out of all responses it would appear that using Terminal and rsync will increase the speed of transfering this information. Thank you. Are there switches to use? – PTNMSR Oct 10 '15 at 21:05

1 Answers1

1

Doing the math, you want an interruptible tool so use rsync over Finder unless you really don't mind losing a day of transfer if finder chokes or a cable gets disconnected.

Barring the ability or inclination to command line - get a tool like Transmit or Kaleidoscope to sync the two folders. You'll lose far more time mounting drives than just connecting them and going. He limiting factor is probably not iops and instead drive throughput and not CPU or adapter speed.

Community
  • 1
bmike
  • 235,889