Connect both computers over ethernet and rsync the data across. It will still take several hours over gigabit ethernet though.

Quickest -

1. Take the lid off the source PC put the HDD in it
2. Copy the stuff.
3. Pull it out
4. Put it the other PC,
5. Your done

Formatting the HDD my be optional.

Parallel port would be faster than serial, but if you’re using serial I’d go with Z modem for the compression and error correction.

1. Take the drive from PC 1 and attach to PC 2 => copy / paste

2. External drive

External usb hdd

Shouldn’t actually take too long… I’d just take a couple sata cables. I transferred 6tb in about 12 or 18 hours, idr.

What is the best method?

Sometimes the best method isn’t a transfer at all. Don’t forget transporting is an option.
Do you need to transfer the files? or could you just use an external you share between different PCs?
If an external works, but seems inconvenient, you can fix that by having the drive connected to a USB switch. When connected to a switch you can press a button or use a remote to change which PC the drive is connected to giving you instant access to the drive contents without having to sync/copy anything over.

Links below for examples of USB switches
https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-Sharing-Computers-Peripherals/dp/B083JKDNRJ/
https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Computers-Peripherals-Indicators-USB-SW30/dp/B074TYDJK2/

If you want the bare minimum fast transfer and both PC are in local network, use Dukto-R6. It’s super basic file copying, you just need to drag and drop.

For more advanced options,the others have already pointed it out.

robocopy or rsync if you can’t place the drive in the target or an external enclosure.

10 GbE. 17 minutes.

Of course you need disks that can read/write at that speed (1.25 GB/s). Should not be a problem for NVMe SSDs.

This post is an automated archive from a submission made on /r/DataHoarder, powered by Fediverser software running on alien.top. Responses to this submission will not be seen by the original author until they claim ownership of their alien.top account. Please consider reaching out to them let them know about this post and help them migrate to Lemmy.

Lemmy users: you are still very much encouraged to participate in the discussion. There are still many other subscribers on !datahoarder@selfhosted.forum that can benefit from your contribution and join in the conversation.

Reddit users: you can also join the fediverse right away by getting by visiting https://portal.alien.top. If you are looking for a Reddit alternative made for and by an independent community, check out Fediverser.

I’ve been sending 10TB from one PC to another on my network over the last 2 days, it’s nearly done. It’s a wired network, and while sometimes I use tools like robocopy for more granular control over the the copy settings and logging of any copy errors, I generally find the standard windows copy tool to be faster.

You could go over a wired network.

rsync over a wired network. That way, I can stop and resume at any time.

USB 3.1 Gen2 is hard to beat. 10Gbps. But for HDDs the HDDs themselves will be the bottleneck. For sustained file transfers, perhaps no more than up to 3Gbps, even if installed in the same PC. Good SATA SSDs may manage closer to 6Gbps. NVMe SSDs are likely to saturate USB 3.1 Gen2. Then PCI-e directly between installed drives is the fastest. Normal cabled network is only 1Gbps.

File transfers to/from external multibay USB DAS can be done in parallel, involving multiple HDDs, and come close to saturating 10Gbps USB3.1 Gen2 speeds.

Then there is thunderbolt.

Start a rsync transfer when you go to bed. In the morning it will most likely be done.