Simple daft question

[nc_killie]

What is the ‘best’ way to copy an external hard drive to another? Is it highlight the drive and right click, copy or…….
TIA

 

[Sky]

You can copy the contents that way, but it won't be a copy of the disk if it's bootable. You'll need to use special software to do that and there are lots to choose from.

One I've used in the past is Macrium Reflect.

 

[AndrewFlannigan]

One I've used in the past is Macrium Reflect.

I agree.

Macrium is pretty good for Windows work, Carbon Copy Cloner is good for Macs. If you're happy on the command line, rsync will work on any Unix/Linux machine (including the versions on both Apple and later versions of Windows).

 

[LC2]

DOS
xcopy {source drive}:\ {target drive}:\ /s /e /h /i /c /y

Linux
Assuming Source = /dev/sda and target = /dev/sdb (you'll have to work those out for yourself
(as root)
dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb

But obviously use these commands at your own risk if you've never used them before.
Read the help/man files.

 

[nc_killie]

Thank you

 

[cuthbert]

I’d use robocopy to do this (it’s a built in command)

robocopy X:\ Y:\ /MIR /COPYALL /R:0 /W:0 /DCOPY:T

Just replace X:\ (src) and Y:\ (dest) with your drive letters.

Find out more, here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/robocopy