Copying files. Slow copying of files To do this, it was necessary to move, copy and delete files on different sections of two hard drives

Even when they first saw the updated file copy dialog, they really liked the changes that Microsoft made to their new operating systems. After all, these changes belong to the category of improvements that do not spoil the impression for those users who are wary of the newfangled trends of change. GUI, which include, say, a tiled interface home screen or the toolbar ribbon of Windows Explorer and standard applications such as MSPaint or WordPad. This dialog has a pleasant interface, it allows you to view the speed of writing a copied file to disk, finally it is possible to pause copied files, put them in a queue, and, in general, people almost instantly get used to it and no longer imagine, what these dialogues looked like before.

In principle, everything has already been done well in this dialogue, and, if you think about it, there is practically nothing I would like to change in it. However, you can apply some tweaks to make this dialog a little easier to use. To do this, you can use the existing system registry settings, and then create registry preference entries for centralized distribution. But first things first.

What can be changed?

First of all, you should pay attention to the fact that when you copy files for the first time, the corresponding dialog box does not display very much information, namely: the name of the source and destination folders, the progress bar, the percentage of completed work itself, as well as buttons that allow you to pause or cancel the copy process. But after all, if you click on the "More details" button (see image below), a new and at the same time quite interesting interface will immediately open, which was discussed in the introduction of this small note. Is it possible to make it so that the user never has to click on this button, but instead, he initially displays a dialog box with all the details? Of course you can! To do this, you just need to change the value of one parameter in the system registry. This will be the EnthusiastMode DWORD from the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\OperationStatusManager key, for which a value of 1 will enable mode with the details of the copy process, and a value of 0, respectively, will provide a view that is available to each user by default . Both modes can be seen in the following illustration:

Rice. 1. Dialog box for copying files from detailed information and without it

Changes will take effect immediately after changing the registry setting, and you will not even need to restart the system process explorer.exe. By the way, be sure to note that if the user clicks either on the " Less information" (Fewer details), on either " More" (More details), the previously specified system registry setting will change its value.

Sometimes situations arise when you copy several files to the target folder at once, and a dialog box pops up in front of you, indicating that given user appropriate rights were not granted to continue copying a particular file. In this case, usually do the following: check the box on the option " Run for all current elements" (Do this for all current items) and then click on the " Proceed" (Continue). Again, this checkbox is not enabled by default and the user will need to left-click on it. To simplify the task for the end user, you can instead perform this click using the same system registry. In the same registry key mentioned above (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\OperationStatusManager), there is a second setting called ConfirmationCheckBoxDoForAll. It is just responsible for the position of the switch of this checkbox. By setting the value equal to one, you can activate it. Dialog window " No access to target folder" with the checkbox enabled is shown below:

Rice. 2. Dialog box "No access to the target folder"

Centralized change of current registry settings

As you know from articles related to functionality group policy, you can manage registry settings using registry preference items. Therefore, two new preference entries will be created next, thanks to which the registry changes described above can be distributed to a large number of users. It turns out that in order to complete the task, you will need to perform the following actions.

cloudy backup and synchronizing Microsoft service SkyDrive, built into Windows 8.1, is a really good way to access your files and documents on devices with little storage capacity, like tablets and ultrabooks.

The way it works is that the service downloads indexes and thumbnail images of all the files you store in SkyDrive onto your PC's hard drive. These files take up almost no space on your PC, because even if you have saved 100 GB of files on SkyDrive, you can only save pointers on your PC.

Access to SkyDrive apps in file explorer or from an application.

Clue. Some applications that give access to PC files also provide access to SkyDrive.

When you open a file in SkyDrive, it is quickly downloaded from the cloud and stored on your PC, as long as you have an active Internet connection, of course. When you save this file on your computer, any changes you make to it are synced to the cloud. This is a great way to avoid filling up your PC's hard drive with files that you won't open on it.

You can turn on saving (and syncing) a file to SkyDrive in PC Settings by opening SkyDrive and then Files. Here you can check the box for "Save documents to SkyDrive by default". This option will enable full sync with SkyDrive, and from then on, any file you create or save will automatically sync to the cloud, creating a secure backup of the file.

Save the file to SkyDrive.

Windows 8.1, when syncing with SkyDrive, by default saves files from your PC's C:\[Users]\[Username]\ folder to C:\[Users]\[Username]\SkyDrive, where it downloads pointers to your files. Change the location to another partition or hard drive, there are no direct options in the PC settings or in the control panel.

If you want to sync your photos, SkyDrive has an option ➤ in the Files section of PC settings that allows you to turn on their automatic download. This option works independently of full file sync and includes three different quality options for uploaded photos.

Using Microsoft SkyDrive to share files.

Sometimes you may want to share files saved on SkyDrive with other people. You can do this on the SkyDrive.com website. Click right click on the desired file(s) or folder(s) and then left-click on the link at the top of the screen " General access". Next, a dialog box will appear asking you who you want to give

If your computer is slowly copying files to a flash drive or HDD, do not rush to blame the devices for their "slowness". Perhaps the problem is in the imperfection of Windows itself ...

And it was like that. I had to dump a large ZIP-archive of more than 3 gigabytes on a USB flash drive from one computer in our "office" (there was a bunch of all sorts of documentation for the past years). The average write speed to my flash drive is about 3-4 megabytes per second. Reasonably judging that at such a speed the archive will be copied in about 17-25 minutes (roughly speaking 1000-1500 seconds :)), I set the copying to my misfortune half an hour before the end of the working day ...

As a result, this ill-fated file was copied for almost an hour! This made me stay late at work, and the next day I was puzzled by the question of why files can be slowly copied and how to speed up copying if necessary. Let's try to figure it out...

What affects copy speed

What is copying a file in general? This is nothing more than reading a bit sequence in certain sectors of a disk drive and then writing them to other sectors or to another medium. Theoretically, the speed of reading and writing depends only on the storage device itself: that is, its factory performance parameters. However, in practice, everything is much more complicated.

In real conditions, you need to take into account a number of parameters:

• the degree of deterioration of the media;
• quality of connecting data transmission loops;
• carrier nutrition quality;
• correct BIOS settings;
• availability of motherboard drivers;
• set data transfer mode;
• the degree of "clutter" Windows.

All of the above together or separately can affect the reduction in the speed of data copying. For example, the longer we use a storage medium, the more likely it is that some of the sectors in it will become unreadable, which will slow down any file operations. A bad data loop connection can lead to short circuits and loss of information, and insufficient power will not allow the device to work at full capacity.

The problem may also be hiding in the BIOS. Almost all modern computers have hard disks controlled by the SATA controller. In the BIOS, this controller must be activated ("Enabled") and work in "AHCI" mode (unless, of course, you have a modern OS Windows 7 and higher):

Also take care of the issue of checking the availability of drivers for the chipset. If they are not set, then south bridge Your PC may not work properly on standard Windows drivers, which may well lead to problems in working with storage media and USB devices.

If all of the above did not suit you, then another way to solve the problem of slow copying by regular means can be to change the data transfer mode. To do this, call the Device Manager, open the "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" section, call the properties of the controller that is responsible for the operation of your hard drive and check in tab " Extra options" set transfer mode. Should be "DMA if available" and the current ultra DMA mode is 5:

If there is a PIO and it doesn’t work to change it, then you most likely experienced a system failure. You can try to fix it by removing the device with PIO transfer mode and restarting the computer. If this does not help, then the problem can only be solved by reinstalling Windows.

The last option for accelerating copying for owners of Windows 7 and higher (although in the "Ten", it seems, this is no longer the case) is to disable the "Remote differential compression" component. To do this, go to the Control Panel, section "Programs and Features", click on the bottom left item "Turn on or disable Windows components and uncheck the corresponding box:

Copy acceleration technology

And now let's imagine that everything works as it should, but copying is still slow... Why? Everything here rests on the principle of copying. In normal mode, it occurs as follows: a small block of information is read into the RAM or cache memory, and then written to the right place ( new block on a hard disk or removable media) and further through the cycle.

For not large files such a direct copy scheme is quite acceptable, but for large ones it can cause a slowdown. Is there any way to speed up copying them? Theoretically, yes! To do this, you need to use some kind of fast storage medium that will cache the entire file at once (or at least most of it) and write from its own fast memory in a continuous stream.

One of the most versatile and affordable devices of this kind in a computer is RAM. With standard copying, data can also be transmitted through it, but in the form of a stream of small clusters of information. If we first read and place the entire file in it, then we can get a significant acceleration when writing it in a continuous form! It is this approach that is implemented by existing copy optimization programs, which I propose to consider (by the way, similar algorithms have been used in Windows since G8, but they are still far from ideal).

Before installation, I decided to conduct a control measurement. We took 20 small (200 - 800 KB) image files with a total size of 16 megabytes and one large 3 GB ISO image. Copying time within one hard disk partition was 2 seconds. for pictures and 2 min. 3 sec. for a large file. On a flash drive (average write speed - 5 MB / s), the recording lasted 3.4 seconds. and 9 min. 35 sec. respectively. Now let's try to copy with special utilities and compare the difference.

Programs to speed up copying

The most famous copy acceleration program is TeraCopy:

On the official website, you can download its free version, which has basic functionality, and then (if you wish) buy the PRO edition with additional features. However. we are only interested free software, so we will refuse purchases and try to work as is.

During installation, we will be prompted to install TeraCopy in normal or portable mode, as well as create the necessary shortcuts and associate with some files (it is better to remove the association). After the installation is completed, the main and only working window will start, which, fortunately, has a Russian-language interface.

To copy through the program, you need to drag and drop into its window necessary files and specify the destination folder where these files need to be placed. In addition, TeraCopy is associated with the Explorer and when dragging or copying with hot keys, it offers to do this using the program's tools.

From additional features free version it is worth noting the possibility of performing a number of actions to complete the copy (turning off the PC, opening the drive, testing the integrity of the copied files, etc.). Also in the options it is possible to activate the playback of sound upon completion of the task, as well as the use of the system cache for work.

As for the results, on Windows 8.1 x64 they slightly surpassed the regular ones, although there is an increase. So, copying 20 pictures (16 MB) within a hard drive took 1.5 seconds, and a 3-gigabyte image took 1 minute. 48 sec. On a flash drive, the recording lasted 2.95 seconds for images and 8 minutes. 32 sec. for a large file, respectively.

Next, we will test the Japanese program, which, according to the assurances of the developers, implements the fastest file copying algorithm - FastCopy:

The program is completely free and has a separate 64-bit version. It comes in the form of an archive with a portable program and a setup.exe file that allows you to install and register FastCopy in the system (a copy item will be added to context menu) or remove all associations.

Unfortunately, the interface language is only English, but not particularly confusing. The bottom line is simple: you need to select the source folder ("Source") and the final folder into which you want to copy the contents of the source. In order not to copy all files from the specified directory, you can activate the filter ("Filter"), which allows you to set the inclusion and exclusion masks (for example, *.exe or Image*.*). Not very convenient, but you can use it.

As for the results. Copying small files to another folder took 1.8 seconds, and a large one was copied in 1 minute. 49 sec. Copying to a USB flash drive completed with the results of 3.8 seconds. for pictures and 9 min. 12 sec. for the image. As you can see, despite the assurances of the developers, the results are not the best, but there are.

German quality has always been appreciated. Let's see if it is in the Supercopier program, which comes from Germany:

The program comes as an installer or a portable version. Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions are available. There is also a paid edition, which, in fact, serves for "donation", that is, your gratitude to the developer :) By the way, for some reason antivirus 360 "swears" at the portable version Total Security, although there is no installer ...

The interface is Russified only partially (especially in the menu there are a lot of untranslated English words). But integration with the system is maximum: by default, the program replaces the regular copy function without any additional questions, as in TeraCopy.

Of the additional functions, it is worth noting the possibility of pausing copying, automatically skipping copy errors, importing and exporting a list of files to move, as well as manual setting copy buffer size.

Regarding direct copying, the Germans, after all, let us down! Pictures in a new folder were copied almost instantly - in 0.9 seconds, but a 3 GB disk image - in 2 minutes. 6 sec. With a flash drive, however, it turned out better: 2.7 seconds. for images and 9 min. 20 sec. for a large file.

However, such results were obtained at standard settings. If, for example, the block size is increased from 256 KB to 1 MB, as well as the buffer sizes (serial up to 512 MB from 131 and parallel up to 128 MB from 1), then the speed of copying large files will increase to 1 minute. 50 sec. on local hard drive and up to 8 min. 40 sec. on removable. True, then copying small data suffers: 1.6 sec. and 3.1 sec. respectively...

Another contender for the title of the best replacement for the regular copy function is the ExtremeCopy program:

The most current version of the program is paid, however, its previous editions can be downloaded and used for free. True, they do not have the ability to manually configure the specified buffer limits and other parameters, but it works quite well anyway. It is possible to download 64-bit and portable (albeit even earlier) versions.

ExtremeCopy integrates well into the system, however, it does not have the Russian language... The program also does not shine with additional functionality: there is only the possibility of pausing copying and skipping files.

As for the speed of copying, small pictures were copied to a new folder in exactly one second, and a large file in 1 minute. 48 sec. For a flash drive, the results are: 3 seconds for "little things" and 9 minutes. 13 sec. for the image.

Comparison

findings

As you can see, the speed of copying files can really be increased even in modern operating systems. What can we say about the outdated Windows XP, Vista and 7. They did not yet have progressive data transfer systems, so the acceleration on them will be very significant.

In new operating systems, the increase is not very noticeable (maximum - 1 minute for large files and about a second for small ones). However, even here copying programs can come in handy, since many of them have in their arsenal such additional functions like pausing copying, skipping files, and even listing files and deferred copying over them. Therefore, choose the program that you like the most and use it to your health!

P.S. It is allowed to freely copy and quote this article, provided that an open active link to the source is indicated and the authorship of Ruslan Tertyshny is preserved.

To do this, it was necessary to move, copy and delete files on different sections of two hard drives.

Windows 7 was installed about 2 years ago, the second OS after XP, but I didn't use it much. About half a year I began to use it actively and now I noticed this glitch.

In short, it takes an incredibly long time to copy and delete files. I deleted 2 GB of photos and it took 2 hours. It's just unrealistically long. What is it connected with?

It turned out that on Windows 7 this is a common occurrence. Copying speed is really less than 3-5 times than in XP. It turns out that this is specifically done in the default settings of Win 7. Why is this done? Unclear. As always, only in words the developers are doing well, but in reality ...

I had to google. It turned out that a lot of time is spent on copying and deleting due to calculations that occur as a result of the built-in function, whose task is to continuously compare the minimum amount of information of a particular file with it, but already transferred.

They assure that this is done to speed up copying. Hmm, good "acceleration", you will not say anything.

Well, shitty optimizers. Take this Gates and muzzle on the asphalt. Instead of going ahead and improving the system, they make things more complicated and Windows 7 performs worse than XP in some cases.

Fortunately, all this garbage is treated. And it is treated quite simply, if you know what and where to set up. You need to click on the "Start" button at the bottom left, and then click on "Control Panel". There will be no problems here. Next, do as in the screenshots.

We remove the daw

Click "Programs", then "Programs and Features", then "Turn Windows features on or off". The screenshots show where to click. After that, a window will appear in which you need to scroll down and uncheck the box "Remote differential compression". Press OK. And we are waiting for the changes to take place.

After that, things got a lot smoother. Feels the same as on XP.

On Win XP, I did not notice such nonsense: everything is copied and deleted quickly. I never installed Vista, so I don’t know, but most likely, if there is the same problem, it will be treated like on 7.

By the way, in the window where the "Remote differential compression" checkbox was unchecked, you can experiment and try to uncheck some other services, it will suddenly come in handy.

problem with slow file copying we decided, but Windows 7 is full of mysteries. For example, I'm still not able to set up the headphone operation from the front panel. system block, which is done on XP once or twice. On XP, I put the PC to sleep overnight. On 7-ke, no matter what I do, it doesn’t work out. All manipulations with the hibernation mode, etc. do not bring success. Recently I had to solve a problem with .

Having created a hemorrhoidal, non-intuitive system of settings in Win 7, Microsoft has planted a pig for themselves, because, besides Windows, there are other solutions and people have a choice. And people, by a strange coincidence, love things that are clear and easy to manage. There is something to think about the guys from Microsoft.

Three operating systems on a computer, is it possible or not? .

Are you familiar with the situation when copying files from removable media (flash drive, external hard drive) takes a very long time?
Let's try to figure out what could be the reason why the files are copied slowly and whether it is possible to somehow speed up this process.

1. First of all, the copying speed depends directly on the flash drive. What do we usually pay attention to when choosing it? Volume, price, manufacturer, appearance. So, flash drives have another important characteristic - the speed of reading data. Usually, faster devices have a higher price.
Focusing on the price is not always right, and for us, a reliable way to make the right choice is to test the flash drive.
You can check the transfer speed with CrystalDiskMark:

CristalDiskMark - the result of the program

- select the language;
- indicate the number of runs;
- file size;
- and the desired disk.
After a while, the program will show the average write and read speed.

2. Characteristics of USB ports. To date, the following types of USB connectors are known:
- USB 1.0 - have a low bandwidth and are found on very old PCs,
- USB 1.1 - the connector is found on computers and laptops released before the middle of the 2000s,
- USB 2.0 is the most common standard that allows, according to manufacturers, data transfer at speeds up to 480 Mbps. In fact, the copying speed is much lower than stated.
- USB 3.0 - a high-speed connector (up to 5 Gb / s), which is still not widespread enough and is found on computers assembled after 2010.

3. Computer resources are of no small importance. Perhaps the slow copying speed is caused by an old hardware, namely, insufficient volume random access memory or low speed hard drive. In this case, one thing can be advised - the computer needs modernization. In the meantime, you have not bought new things, you can try to speed up copying using the FastCopy program. This program is free and has many supporters and opponents. But I have repeatedly seen that large files are copied using FastCopy much faster.

FastCopy - enable copy acceleration

4. Also, the copy speed can be affected crookedly installed drivers for USB 2.0 or BIOS setup. You can check the settings as follows: in the BIOS, select USB 2.0 Controller - enabled. Then, in the USB 2.0 Controller Mode menu that appears, set the value to Full (Hi) Speed.
5. One more possible reason– size of copied files. One large file will copy much faster than a folder of the same size with a bunch of small files. In this case, archiving will help: using any archiver, we pack our files into one archive without compression and then copy them.