How long does it take to copy files?

[Lisa]

Hello,

How long is it suppose to take to copy a 1gig file from one hard drive to
another? I just moved one 7gig folder from one drive to another on the same
machine and it took 12 minutes! Is that normal? I also backed up the same
file to and external USB drive and it took 23 minutes! Again, is this
normal? Thank you very much for you comments.

PC Specs,

HP
windows XP
CPU 3.2
Memory 2 gig

Again, thanks.

 

[ananttickoo]

ya

its okey normal .. copyng dependes on two things . source and
destination read/rite speeds second on the memory thats RAM.


usb took more time coz write speed of USB is very less as conpared to
that of hard disk

 

[Val]

The copy time between internal HDs is perhaps a bit slow, (I just copied a
3+GB file in just under 3 minutes).

Did the folder contain just a few very large files, or many smaller ones.
For each file, there's some overhead time for setup of the operation.

Size of drive buffers will have an effect as well.

Make sure DMA is turned on in the Drive Controller settings.

And, if you can arrange it, having the drives on diffent controller channels
will improve efficiency.

The USB dirve time sounds much worse. Theoretically, USB 2.0 should move
your 7GB in about 2 minutes. Even allowing a bit more for file copy
overhead, that is still way too slow. I don't have any suggestions for that
problem.

Val

 

[Lisa]

Thanks Val,

I am not really worried about the internal drives because that was a one
time thing, but I am a little concerned about the USB drive! Hopefully
someone here can help me out. I bought this USB drive recently to backup my
DATA and it'll really suck if I'd have to live with it as is!

Again, Thanks.

 

[Zilbandy]

I am not really worried about the internal drives because that was a one
time thing, but I am a little concerned about the USB drive! Hopefully
someone here can help me out. I bought this USB drive recently to backup my
DATA and it'll really suck if I'd have to live with it as is!

I make image backups using Acronis True Image software and it takes me
just over 24 minutes to make a 9.2 gbyte backup image file on my USB 2
hard drive. The time for this backup is about the same whether I am
backing up my laptop, a modest Compaq, or my desktop, a much faster
3ghz Dell. I don't know if these numbers are good or not, but
considering how long it would take to recover from a crash without the
backup, I'm quite happy.

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Hello,

How long is it suppose to take to copy a 1gig file from one hard drive to
another? I just moved one 7gig folder from one drive to another on the same
machine and it took 12 minutes! Is that normal? I also backed up the same
file to and external USB drive and it took 23 minutes! Again, is this
normal? Thank you very much for you comments.

PC Specs,

HP
windows XP
CPU 3.2
Memory 2 gig

Again, thanks.

Those times aren't really out of line. Yes, large files can take time to
copy. If you reduce the number of other processes running, you can make
sure that the system devotes as much attention as it can to the task, but
there are bottlenecks, such as the speed of USB. If the file is
fragmented, copying times may be longer just because the drive has to take
more time to collect the fragments.

Also, if you are using the built-in XP copy or drag and drop functions,
these have some drawbacks. For example, if an error is encountered, they
tend to just give up. Because of this, I use FileSync from fileware.co.uk,
which doesn't just give up and helpfully provides an error log.

What you might also consider is compressing the files and doing differential
backups. I regularly use Backup Plus, which isn't expensive, and have had
good results with it. One of its advantages is that its file format, .bac,
is really an ordinary ZIP file. So, there are plenty of repair and
recovery utilities should things go wrong.

However, there is a file-size limitation around the 4 gig mark.

The one thing that can be confusing with it is that the progress meter zips
along while it's collecting files, and then appears to stop in the 95% area.
This can give the impression that it's hung, but it hasn't; it's built a
large ZIP file in a temporary location and is moving it to its final
destination.

You can also use disk imaging programs like Acronis True Image with great
results. Interestingly, these can image much more data in much less time
than copying takes.

HTH
-pk

 

[Lisa]

thanks pat..good info.

Those times aren't really out of line. Yes, large files can take time to
copy. If you reduce the number of other processes running, you can make
sure that the system devotes as much attention as it can to the task, but
there are bottlenecks, such as the speed of USB. If the file is
fragmented, copying times may be longer just because the drive has to take
more time to collect the fragments.

Also, if you are using the built-in XP copy or drag and drop functions,
these have some drawbacks. For example, if an error is encountered, they
tend to just give up. Because of this, I use FileSync from
fileware.co.uk,
which doesn't just give up and helpfully provides an error log.

What you might also consider is compressing the files and doing
differential
backups. I regularly use Backup Plus, which isn't expensive, and have
had
good results with it. One of its advantages is that its file format,
.bac,
is really an ordinary ZIP file. So, there are plenty of repair and
recovery utilities should things go wrong.

However, there is a file-size limitation around the 4 gig mark.

The one thing that can be confusing with it is that the progress meter
zips
along while it's collecting files, and then appears to stop in the 95%
area.
This can give the impression that it's hung, but it hasn't; it's built a
large ZIP file in a temporary location and is moving it to its final
destination.

You can also use disk imaging programs like Acronis True Image with great
results. Interestingly, these can image much more data in much less
time
than copying takes.

HTH
-pk