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I've using robocopy to copy a 300GB files from one Windows Server to another Windows server over the WAN. However, I keep getting errors after copied several GBs and retrying from start. (for example, Error 317).

Are there any tools/scripts (prefer the built-in ones or "green" executables) which can resume copying if error occurs? I don't have physical access to the servers so sneakernet is not an option.

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  • I"m VTC'ing (vote to close) this as "Primarily Opinion Based". Nick, what you should do is modify this question to ask about fixing your specific Robocopy question and errors you are getting. Otherwise "best way to transfer huge files across network" is simply asking for opinions as "best" is highly subjective and varies across environments/needs.
    – TheCleaner
    Jan 2, 2014 at 21:03

3 Answers 3

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Robocopy supports resuming copying on error with the /Z switch. You can also specify number of retries and the amount of time between them with the /r and /w switches.

I personally think sneakernet is the best tool for copying huge files. Barring that, I've had success with using something like 7zip to split the file into smaller pieces, robocopy /Z them, and pasting them back together on the remote end.

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You can also use BITS if the server has an HTTP server running. BITS will adaptively limit bandwidth and retry upon failures.

Both bitsadmin and New-FileTransfer can be used on the client side.

You can use any HTTP server on the server side. The client is installed by default on all windows clients since XP SP2.

You can also use the BITS client to upload files if you have a server running BITS. Both IIS and the BITS Compact Server support uploads and available as features on 2008 and above.

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Receiving errors during a file copy operation between 2 servers on the same network is indicative of some serious problems.

Either a harddrive (source or destination) is bad or, more likely, there is a failing device in the network layer.

That failing piece could be the network card (source or destination), the wires, or even the router/switch that is between the two.

In this case your best bet is simply to plug a thumb drive into the server and copy the file to that.

However you should run some diagnostics to see where the fault really is because a bad network component can really screw up a lot of things.

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