Fedora 34. Is there a Linux terminal command that can copy the contents of one external drive to another? When I copy a large number of files using a GUI File Manager it’s VERY slow. I need the files copied in native format (not compressed).
The command would be cp. External drives are mounted to a path under / so the copy command cp would work as if they were local. I’ve not tried this but believe it to be true.
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OK. Thanks. I’m now also looking into rsync.
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rsync is a common command that is used for your stated purpose. In the terminal enter the following command to read all about it:
- man rsync
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OK thanks. I discovered that rsync saves files in native format which is what I need.
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cp is great but I use mc (Midnight Commander) if I want to copy large files from my external drive to my hard disk and vice versa. It is an ncurses file manager included in every distro’s repository.
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Noah used to have a great rsync command here that I always referred to, but it’s not lading now. It was a quick one-liner for rsync. Last time I did it I did rsync -aAXv --dry-run /External/Drive1/ /External/Drive2/ to see what it would do first. Then just remove that --dry-run to run it for real
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Internet archive FTW
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I installed MC and will start to play around with it. Thx for the tip! So MC should operate faster than plain copy and paste of large directories?
PS: I ditched Fedora (what a nightmare! 
) and I’m now on Ubuntu 21.04. So far it’s easier to use with no weird hassles.
I discovered Grsync. Wow. It’s exactly what I was looking for. Much better for me than messing with rsync commands in the terminal. It’s very similar to Karen’s Replicator on Windows which I loved and used all the time.
Anyway to mark this thread as resolved?
Done. Has to be done by a member with those privileges.
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Thx… ,
I never measured the speed but mc feels faster than using a GUI and watching at the progress dialog that never ends.
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I installed it and will start playing around with it soon. Thx.