What's the most efficient way to copy multiple terabytes of data TO a 7700?

I have about 3tb+ of data to move from several USB disks and internal IDE & SATA disks onto my N7700 which will be arriving on Monday and I'm wondering what it going to be the quickest and simplest way to get the data onto the N7700.

I'm thinking probably eSATA, but I've never used it before and i don't have any cables or anything for it.

can I just pick up an esata to sata connector in maplins or something?
can i copy data in from multiple USB drives at once without killing it?
would it be better to have the drives connected to a PC and copy it over the LAN interface instead?
is it easy to do without having all the data messed up?
is it easy to move data into sub-folders once they're on the 7700?

sorry for all the questions, i'm just getting excited. :)

A lot of questions :-)
I can only explain how I do it - I have USB and eSATA cases for Harddiscs and place the harddiscs in the cases.
Then I use the PHPFILEMGR module for mmoving data to the N7700 - theres also a USBCOPY module (thats a official thecus modul) available, but I have not tried it myself.
I would not start different copies in parallel - do it one by one.
Moving files between folders of the N7700 depends (assuming You use mounted shares):
if You move it between subfolders then it's easy and done locally, moving fuiles between top level folders (= shares) takes longer cause the data are read/write over the network.
br
Peter

thanks for the info peter, good to know, I'll make sure I do it one at a time then. :)

is there somewhere where I can get a list of the available (official & unofficial) modules that work with the n7700?

thanks again for the help.

You sound exactly like me, I just got done doing the exact same thing you're talking about. :)
What operating system are you using? First, I'd recommend connecting the n7700 and your computer through a gigabit (10/100/1000m) router, you'll get faster speeds that way. Second, if you're using windows, download TeraCopy. Basically, it replaces the crappy file transfer thingy in windows with one that actually works. then go into your Network Manager, in Windows 7 it's in the Start Menu, not sure about Vista or XP. N7700 should be listed under the computer menu. Double click that and it'll give you a list of folders, double click which ever folder you want to copy to. Then, all you have to do is cut and paste the files you want to transfer.
The TeraCopy window will pop up, right above the second progress bar, theres three options, select the middle one (Test). Once it's done copying the files over, before it deletes the originals, it runs a byte-by-byte comparison to make sure it transferred correctly. Feel free to copy all of them at once and let it transfer over night. I've never had a problem with it. :)

Official modules are available via the thecus home page, support section.
Unofficial - or better community - modules are mostly listed on the thecus wiki : http://www.onbeat.dk/thecus/index.php/Main_Page (this one is moved now step by step to the NAS Website : http://naswebsite.com/wiki/Main_Page )
A good source is also the thecus forum : http://www.thecusforum.eu
or the Thecus User Group : http://thecususergroup.proboards.com/index.cgi?
br
Peter

thanks guys, appreciate the advice.

I have a Windows (XP) laptop and a Linux (Mint 6) desktop as well as the g/f's Win7 netbook so it'll mostly be coming from the linux desktop. it's got gb ethernet onboard, but I only have a 10/100 router so I might try plugging it directly into the thecus during the copy operation for a bit more speed.