Best way to copy user's home areas onto a new drive

[Guest DHamer]

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 \(MVP\)]

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]

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]

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 \(MVP\)]

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]

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 \(MVP\)]

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.