HACKER Q&A
📣 dmbche

Trying to move large amounts of files


Hi - I'm no dev, but I'm thinking this is the time for me to learn scripting. This is on windows but I can setup linux easily if necessary.

I have terrabytes of files on drives (raw video), that have been sorted using an editor (resolve and premiere) into both timelines and bins. I'm looking to move only the files that have been sorted onto a newer drive - it's much less than the total files on the drive. I also need to keep the same file tree on the new drive.

So far, I've used xcopy to copy the file tree without any files in, and I'm manually transfering the files from one disk to the next by referencing the bins in my editor.

I'm able to export my project into AAF, XML and a couple other formats.

I'm expecting that there's a somewhat simple way to look into the AAF (or other format), read the files, and move them to the identical spot in the new drive.

Could anyone give me a hand to know where to start looking? Or should I just hire someone on fiverr?

Thanks!


  👤 elmerfud Accepted Answer ✓
If you can export a list of files then using rsync would be what I do. I'm not familiar with xcopy, but rsync will resume, do partial copies etc... It's my go to for for copying big file trees.