The time it takes to copy or move the data from one drive to another depends on the drive’s speed. If one of the drives, whether source or target, is slower than the other, it will hamper the total time it takes to move that data. For example, even if your Gen 5.0 NVMe is capable of a 13GB/s sequential write speed, if the data is coming from a slower hard drive, the speed will remain slower. So, this file copy time estimator can help you understand how long it is going to take to move any data from any drive to another.

How does this tool work?

1. Enter the data size you need to transfer (in MB, GB, or TB).
2. Select your source and target drives — choose from common HDD/SSD options, or enter a custom speed.
3. Get instant time estimates, shown in hours, minutes, and seconds.
4. Share or save the results with handy export buttons.

We have tried to keep this tool as simple as possible while keeping it helpful for our users. When you choose your drive’s specifications, we use the theoretical specifications but you are free to enter custom speeds for both read and write scenarios. In case you are working with random data, you can enter those numbers as well in the custom fields.

Example Use Cases

• Planning how long a backup or disk clone will take
• Deciding whether it’s worth upgrading your drive
• Estimating transfer time for a large dataset or video archive
• Comparing drive performance before purchase

Drive Types Supported

• HDD: 5400, 7200, 10K, 15K RPM
• SSD: SATA SSDs and PCIe 3.0–5.0 NVMe drives
• Custom Speeds: Input any MB/s value you want

Disclaimer: The results provided by this tool are Realistic transfer speed estimates based on common drive types and RPM/PCIe specs. However, these are estimations and the real performance can vary depending on many factors.