Efficient way to create an image of millions of files for transfer

Question

I have a folder with about 45 million small zip files in subfolders, totalling about 1.5TB

I need to transfer this folder to another windows machine.

Does anybody have any good ideas on the fastest way to create a single archive or image file for transfer that I can restore on the target machine?

Answer 1

Do you really think a single 1.5TB file will be easier to copy over than the individual files? Especially considering you then have to split them up again. Also it requires twice as must disk space at both ends to hold both the archive and the small files.

I recommend using a tool with backup and resume support such as robocopy to replicate the individual files to the target machine.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc733145.aspx