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How to Transfer a Large Amount of Data Between Two Windows 10 Computers

The best way to transfer a large amount of data (say 500 GB) from one Windows 10 computer to another is to use network a connection between the two computers, and the use Robocopy, a utility that is part of every Windows operating system since Windows 7.

Ether set up the two computers as a Homegroup, or connect both computers to your router. If possible, use network cables to connect both computers to the router instead of using wireless because WiFi is slower, less secure, and less reliable. You'll need Cat.5 cable. If one or both computers is a laptop, plug it into AC power and disable sleep mode.

Share the folder on the source computer that contains the large amount of data so that the destination computer can access it over the network. Here's how to set up sharing:

1. right-click on the folder you wish to share
2. click on "Properties"
3. click on the "Sharing" tab
4. click on the "Advanced Sharing" button
5. click on the "Share this folder" button
6. click "OK"

Confirm that sharing works by opening Windows Explorer on the destination computer and navigating to the source computer's shared folder. You do not want to use Windows Explorer to copy the large amount of data because it would take too long for Windows to inventory the files and track progress. The best option is to use a network share and Windows' built-in Robocopy file transfer utility.

Robocopy is a free utility that exists on both computers and is part of every Windows operating system since Windows 7. You should run Robocopy on the data source computer. Whenever you use a file transfer utility such as Robocopy, it must always be run on the destination computer, not from the one where the share resides, so that it is able to access to both hard drives.

Access Robocopy by opening a Command Prompt and typing robocopy, followed by some additional parameters that tell it what you want it to do. Here is the command you need:

robocopy /e "source file path" "destination file path" /r:0

After the transfer is complete, for security reasons, you should disable the network share.


Learn more at amazon.com

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