Large HDD: Defrag Or Copy-Paste To Fill Gaps After Deleting Half The Files

Hello. 

If I've a 5TB USB external HDD that's at 95% capacity with large files (backup rips of DVDs and Blu-rays) and 100% defragmented, then move roughly half the files to a new drive, which would be less stressful and-or time consuming: to fill the newly created gaps on the drive with a defrag program or to format the drive then use a second, identical drive (redundancy) to copy-paste the files?  Is there a rule of thumb regarding percentage of total drive capacity when it comes to a decision such as this?

Thanks for any help .

You need at least 15% free space in order to do a defrag. Once you have the required free space I would simply do a defrag.

https://www.howtogeek.com/324956/how-much-free-space-should-you-leave-on-your-windows-pc/

JohnC_21:  Thank you for your reply.

You're Welcome.