Advanced file transfer in Windows?

peanutismint · 15 Oct 2008 at 12:36

I work in an IT shop where we are constantly backing up data over a Windows network. We don't use any sort of file transfer or ftp program to do this, we simply drag and drop (or cut/copy & paste) files from the customer's drive to our networked backup drive.

I'm just wondering if anybody knows of a mod/tweak/program which can modify the standard Windows 'file transfer' to become slightly more advanced... I'm not looking for much more advanced or wanting to use the xcopy command or anything, I just thought if the file transfer could be queued or paused and resumed or a few simple extra commands, it would be very useful...

If anybody knows of anything like this, please let me know! :-)

Thanks in advance!

bledd · 15 Oct 2008 at 12:55

terracopy can do this i think

also, get a gigabit network going, will be tons faster

yashiro · 15 Oct 2008 at 13:24

http://www.nullsoft.com/free/nscopy/

*not really stable enough to be reliable*

peanutismint · 15 Oct 2008 at 22:29

bledd. said:
terracopy can do this i think

also, get a gigabit network going, will be tons faster

Our network is gigabit speed from the switch to the backup server, but not from most of the machines we work from to the switch! :confused:

D'oh! But we'll change that soon. We were also toying with the idea of putting two or more NICs in the backup server and somehow multiplexing the streams together to faster copy files - would this work? Our other possibly silly ideas included making extremely long IDE/SATA cables and plugging HDDs directly into the server, but I'm not sure how feasible this is! :-)

Will try the Terracopy program, might give the Nullsoft one a go too, providing it really whips the llama's ass.....

Thanks guys!!

lsg1r · 15 Oct 2008 at 23:08

peanutismint said:
We were also toying with the idea of putting two or more NICs in the backup server and somehow multiplexing the streams together to faster copy files - would this work?

you can bond 2 or more network adapters in windows (and maybe other os's) but in my opinion/experience its only going to make a real difference if its done both ends as the slowest end will still be a bottleneck. Might improve multiple computer throughput to the server though (never tried it though).

Our other possibly silly ideas included making extremely long IDE/SATA cables and plugging HDDs directly into the server, but I'm not sure how feasible this is!

This would probably be my approach but done slightly differently. As you would need the other pc on or a long power cable as well I would probably get a removeable caddy and either a hot swap capable card/motherboard etc (if you haven't got one) to allow for quick plug in and copy access.
Alternatively an external firewire/e sata (depends on hard drives) might be worth considering if the caddy isn't viable - I've got an external drive case purely for quick recovery etc.

LeperousDust · 16 Oct 2008 at 00:05

Terracopy and/or fastcopy, can't remember which one is which but one has a pause and works well over networks the other is just really fast (gonna hazard a guess at fast copy

). Terracopy IIRC can be made the default windows copy client too (but its pretty bad at moving the odd small file) so its probably best left to a context menu...

yashiro · 16 Oct 2008 at 18:37

Tested NScopy myself just now. Works fine generally but screws up on large sets. I wouldn't use it for work.

Teracopy looks the better bet.

LeperousDust · 16 Oct 2008 at 19:45

Fastcopy is the fastest for me, copied 82Gb twice from internet to two external USB drives, fastcopy won by about 20-30 mins. Over a network it wasn't so obvious because i think they're both bottlenecked by my wireless

Fastcopy can't pause/resume though, so its horses for courses...

yashiro · 16 Oct 2008 at 22:50

Yeah, Fastcopy uses less overhead and has less features.

Teracopy is quite handy but is a bit slower, aye. Anyone found any other alternatives?

chris.dante · 16 Oct 2008 at 23:11

I just started using teracopy and i've found its very good for files transfers

sja360 · 16 Oct 2008 at 23:26

if your backing up from a customers drive, your limited to how fast the network card is on their machine i.e. 10/100. most newer boards should have gigabit but i dont know if its worthwhile going and installing a gigabit card purely to backup data faster. i suppose if its 100's of GB's then fair play install a gigabit network card and fire away.
Also i think im right in saying you should use CAT5e for gigabit? if your not already.