Copying data to a new NAS?

[roger06]

Hi

I've upgraded my MyBookWorld to a MyBookLive. I want to copy all the data to the new one, starting with a 90gb iTunes library.

Obviously I don't want to do this via my Mac by copying between two mounted drives, as this will take forever, I just want to copy between the NAS drives.

ssh is already enabled on the orignal NAS and I've enabled it on the new one. Using scp I started a copy from one to the other so could then close my MacBook.

I left it overnight as it would still take a while but this morning the copy had stopped and only about 5% had been copied.

Any ideas? Is there a better way to do it? Did one or both drives just go to sleep?

Thanks

 

[bigboss]

Is your NAS designed to go to sleep after a period of time? You'll have to disable that (in both units).

 

[roger06]

Hi BB - thought you'd relpy!

Yes, certainly on the new NAS power saving is on - I assumed with a copy process running it wouldn't kick in... I'll try it with it off.

 

[bigboss]

For some reason, these units don't recognise copying as an activity. I had a similar problem when copying data onto my NAS.

 

[roger06]

OK - good to know you've had the same problem. I'll try again tonight with energy saver turned off...

 

[roger06]

Also - have you used the WD2go app?

I can access my files (the few that did copy) - they're in Apple Lossless and WD2Go can't play them. Any suggestions?

thanks

 

[AnotherJoe]

Using a PC to copy the files from one NAS to the other over wired connections will be quickest way in the case of the WD's.

The WD Live supposedly supports write speeds of around 10MB/s so it should take around 2.5 hours to copy 90GB.

 

[roger06]

Thanks Joe, but are you sure?

Surely using a PC (Mac in my case) to copy between two mounted network drives means all the data is read from the source, to the PC / Mac then written to the destination - doesn't it?

Surely NAS to NAS direct when both on the same gigabit switch will be way quicker?

I tried it yesterday the way you suggest. It intially stated it would take 'about a day'. I stopped it and plugged my Mac into wired ehternet and tried again - and it told be 'about two days' !! :roll:

 

[professorhat]

If you can, use FTP to copy between the NAS devices - should be quicker than SCP.

EDIT - though make sure to disable FTP once you're done to keep things secure.

 

[roger06]

Thanks Prof

I know there are FTP servers on the NAS drives - I assume they have clients as well? I'll give it a go as it hasn't got to handle the 'secure' bit of scp. I've found ftp quite flakey at times but perhaps that's just when using it on the Internet...

 

[AnotherJoe]

Slow network file transfers look like a known Mac problem.

Do you not have a windows pc? It'll be a heck of a lot quicker.

Failing that logging onto the NAS and using something like RSYNC might be your best bet.

(If I copy from 1 NAS to another using a windows pc it copies at the full speed of my network ~125MB/s)

 

[roger06]

Slow network file transfers look like a known Mac problem.

Well I've never come across that in 13 years as a Mac user. OS X is Unix underneath, a network operating system...

 

[roger06]

If you can, use FTP to copy between the NAS devices - should be quicker than SCP.

EDIT - though make sure to disable FTP once you're done to keep things secure.

Sadly neither NAS has an FTP client - only a server...

 

[AnotherJoe]

The most likely cause from what I read is Apple's poor SMB replacement after they dropped SMB support when the licence moved from GPL2 to GPL3.

Try enabling NFS on both WD's, mount the NFS shares on your MAC and do the file copy using that.