Guest DHamer Posted March 22, 2008 Posted March 22, 2008 We have just purchased a new faster storage systen, and need to move files for the user's home areas onto it. Current we have SERVER1 connected to a dell storage array which only has one bank populated. The array is shared as \\server1\home So each user's home area is set as \\server1\home\username What we need to do is move all the users home areas onto a new set of faster drives going into the same unit (i.e the same server). Firstly, how could I copy the files accross and retain all the ownerships and permissions? Bearing in mind we are talking about 1TB + of data so I dont want to have to keep on confirming. Secondly, once the copy job is done, would I be ok to just rename the old share to HOMEOLD and name the new one to HOME? Bearing in the mind the file structure will be the same, should all users home areas etc still work? Thanks if anyone has experience of doing this.
Guest Pegasus \(MVP\) Posted March 22, 2008 Posted March 22, 2008 Re: Best way to copy user's home areas onto a new drive "DHamer" <d.hamer@blackburn.ac.uk> wrote in message news:d0da1da0-4310-430f-b7c0-e0f01326c82b@e39g2000hsf.googlegroups.com... > We have just purchased a new faster storage systen, and need to move > files for the user's home areas onto it. > > Current we have SERVER1 connected to a dell storage array which only > has one bank populated. The array is shared as \\server1\home > > So each user's home area is set as \\server1\home\username > > What we need to do is move all the users home areas onto a new set of > faster drives going into the same unit (i.e the same server). > > Firstly, how could I copy the files accross and retain all the > ownerships and permissions? Bearing in mind we are talking about 1TB + > of data so I dont want to have to keep on confirming. > > Secondly, once the copy job is done, would I be ok to just rename the > old share to HOMEOLD and name the new one to HOME? Bearing in the mind > the file structure will be the same, should all users home areas etc > still work? > > Thanks if anyone has experience of doing this. Both xcopy.exe and robocopy.exe have switches to copy ownership details, to continue when errors occur and to proceed without user confirmations. If you're not familiar with these commands, do a practice run before moving on to the big stuff. The same applies to the share renaming: Give it a try and see what happens!
Guest Tiffany Posted March 22, 2008 Posted March 22, 2008 Re: Best way to copy user's home areas onto a new drive I prefer a free program called XXCopy. It has a /CLONE switch which allows me to run it once and then run it agaon later to sync up any changes since the last run. This works great when you have lots of data and you want to get any last minute changes.. It also has a /SC switch to copy the security info too... This is what I do: XXCOPY \\oldserver\d$\SharesFiles\ \\newserver\d$\SharedFiles /clone /SC It may take all day to copy but I don't care. It may also skip files in use but I'll get those in a minute. Just before I get ready to do the final copy, I shut off all file shares (except d$) and reboot the original server so that I know that NO files are open. Then I run the same command again XXCOPY \\oldserver\d$\SharesFiles\ \\newserver\d$\SharedFiles /clone /SC This will sync up anything missed the first time, it will even delete any files that may have been deleted since the first run. Then I run it one last time to see if it skips any files at all. When it's done, I like to get a properties listing on the SharedFiles folder on the old server and new server so that I can compare # of files, directories and bytes. Then I set up the shares on my new server. Usually as a final step, I rename the old server to sever-old and then I rename the new server to whatever the old one was. The users never even know they are on a new server. (use caution when using the /Clone command because it WILL delete files from the destination location if they don't match the source. just make sure your destination is correct) "Pegasus (MVP)" <I.can@fly.com.oz> wrote in message news:uxnD$DAjIHA.6092@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl... > > "DHamer" <d.hamer@blackburn.ac.uk> wrote in message > news:d0da1da0-4310-430f-b7c0-e0f01326c82b@e39g2000hsf.googlegroups.com... >> We have just purchased a new faster storage systen, and need to move >> files for the user's home areas onto it. >> >> Current we have SERVER1 connected to a dell storage array which only >> has one bank populated. The array is shared as \\server1\home >> >> So each user's home area is set as \\server1\home\username >> >> What we need to do is move all the users home areas onto a new set of >> faster drives going into the same unit (i.e the same server). >> >> Firstly, how could I copy the files accross and retain all the >> ownerships and permissions? Bearing in mind we are talking about 1TB + >> of data so I dont want to have to keep on confirming. >> >> Secondly, once the copy job is done, would I be ok to just rename the >> old share to HOMEOLD and name the new one to HOME? Bearing in the mind >> the file structure will be the same, should all users home areas etc >> still work? >> >> Thanks if anyone has experience of doing this. > > Both xcopy.exe and robocopy.exe have switches to copy > ownership details, to continue when errors occur and to > proceed without user confirmations. If you're not familiar > with these commands, do a practice run before moving on > to the big stuff. The same applies to the share renaming: > Give it a try and see what happens! >
Guest Anteaus Posted March 23, 2008 Posted March 23, 2008 RE: Best way to copy user's home areas onto a new drive I find that this kind of bulk copy is rarely straightforward. Windows' own tools simply don't measure-up to this kind of job. XCOPY will almost invariably fall-over eventually if presented with multiple GB of data. All this requires is one file with an over-long name,or invalid characters in the name, and ka-blam, it bugs-out faster than if it had been handed a hot tattie. Explorer is even worse, in that it reports no error but stops short of doing the whole job, leaving you THINKING it's worked... :-/ I tend to use Servant Salamander 2.5 for bulk copies. I'm not sure what its limits are, but I've used it on a 140,000-document collection with complete success. There was one bad file in this collection which it duly reported and skipped. http://www.altap.cz - Commercial but very reasonably priced. (Tip; to copy permissions press F5 instread of drag-and-drop, F5 will show the copy options, of which this is one) Another tool with good reports is XXCOPY. "DHamer" wrote: > What we need to do is move all the users home areas onto a new set of > faster drives going into the same unit (i.e the same server). > > Firstly, how could I copy the files accross and retain all the > ownerships and permissions? Bearing in mind we are talking about 1TB + > of data so I dont want to have to keep on confirming.
Guest Pegasus \(MVP\) Posted March 23, 2008 Posted March 23, 2008 Re: Best way to copy user's home areas onto a new drive xxcopy.exe is a souped up version of xcopy.exe. It has many additional features but where xcopy.exe fails, xxcopy.exe will probably fail too. I recommend you try robocopy.exe. It has most of the features of xxcopy.exe but is far more robust. Furthermore it is a native Windows command, downloadable with the Windows Resource Kit. "Anteaus" <Anteaus@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:62E85ED1-6451-436D-9A32-F8DDD7B12497@microsoft.com... >I find that this kind of bulk copy is rarely straightforward. Windows' own > tools simply don't measure-up to this kind of job. > > XCOPY will almost invariably fall-over eventually if presented with > multiple > GB of data. All this requires is one file with an over-long name,or > invalid > characters in the name, and ka-blam, it bugs-out faster than if it had > been > handed a hot tattie. > > Explorer is even worse, in that it reports no error but stops short of > doing > the whole job, leaving you THINKING it's worked... :-/ > > I tend to use Servant Salamander 2.5 for bulk copies. I'm not sure what > its > limits are, but I've used it on a 140,000-document collection with > complete > success. There was one bad file in this collection which it duly reported > and > skipped. > > http://www.altap.cz - Commercial but very reasonably priced. > > (Tip; to copy permissions press F5 instread of drag-and-drop, F5 will show > the copy options, of which this is one) > > Another tool with good reports is XXCOPY. > > > "DHamer" wrote: > >> What we need to do is move all the users home areas onto a new set of >> faster drives going into the same unit (i.e the same server). >> >> Firstly, how could I copy the files accross and retain all the >> ownerships and permissions? Bearing in mind we are talking about 1TB + >> of data so I dont want to have to keep on confirming. > >
Guest Anteaus Posted March 23, 2008 Posted March 23, 2008 Re: Best way to copy user's home areas onto a new drive "Pegasus (MVP)" wrote: > I recommend you try robocopy.exe. It has most of the features > of xxcopy.exe but is far more robust. Never actually tried that, will give it a look when I get a chance. Been doing a bit of coding myself, on an xcopy replacement with at least a 10^6 file capability without out-of-memory issues, freedom from the trip-up problems which xcopy suffers, and with hierarchical backup, i.e. up to ten historical copies of each file. So far the core process is working quite nicely and is blisteringly fast. Yet to add the regex filters, etc. to make it a complete tool. One thing I'd really like to do is to find a way to copy the registry hives, so a complete backup could be made of of a userprofile without having to re-logon as a different user. This would be extremely handy for machine or HD replacement, etc. Not sure how to achieve it, though. I have a method which works for open .mdb files (and ensures a valid copy) but even this won't work for the hives.
Guest Pegasus \(MVP\) Posted March 23, 2008 Posted March 23, 2008 Re: Best way to copy user's home areas onto a new drive "Anteaus" <Anteaus@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:D83D70A4-9BBA-4853-9247-B54181534F1F@microsoft.com... > > "Pegasus (MVP)" wrote: > > >> I recommend you try robocopy.exe. It has most of the features >> of xxcopy.exe but is far more robust. > > Never actually tried that, will give it a look when I get a chance. > > Been doing a bit of coding myself, on an xcopy replacement with at least a > 10^6 file capability without out-of-memory issues, freedom from the > trip-up > problems which xcopy suffers, and with hierarchical backup, i.e. up to ten > historical copies of each file. So far the core process is working quite > nicely and is blisteringly fast. Yet to add the regex filters, etc. to > make > it a complete tool. > > One thing I'd really like to do is to find a way to copy the registry > hives, > so a complete backup could be made of of a userprofile without having to > re-logon as a different user. This would be extremely handy for machine or > HD > replacement, etc. Not sure how to achieve it, though. I have a method > which > works for open .mdb files (and ensures a valid copy) but even this won't > work for the hives. > > Regback.exe will back up your registry hives to individual files which you can then copy to wherever you like. Backing up the system hives is straightforward. Backing up user hives requires a little bit of scripting.
Recommended Posts