best way to copy large directories (400-800 gb)?

[wonslung]

basically the topic is my question.

What is the best way to copy large amounts of data from one drive to another.

I don't think dump is an option because it's an ext2 drive and i am copying it to a zfs mount point

i know about cp, cpio and tar. just wondering which is best or if there is another option that is better

thanks

 

[vivek]

rsync?

 

[wonslung]

rsync?

for a one time copy?
i don't know anything about rsync...i thought it was for structured backups....how would you use it to move data from one folder to another easily?

 

[vivek]

rsync can do local and remote backups:

rsync -a src dest

If there is any change next time it will only copy changed file thus saying time. You can also use mirrordir.