Vista - Moving large number of files within same drive

Up to XP, when you moved a folder containing many subfolders/files
underneath it to another location on the same drive, it went blazingly
fast because it would move just the one folder's entry in NTFS.

Not anymore in Vista: it moves everything file by file, even when it's
on the same drive, which can take a lot of time if you're moving a few
GB of small files.

I assume it is now done this way to enable the OS to adjust the search
index for each individual file, so it points to the new location.

Is there a way to make it revert to the XP way?

If I could get that for non-indexed locations only, it would be all I
need (I already keep the subtrees where I'm having the problem
unindexed, because the contents change too often and indexing would be
a bit pointless as the files often don't exist for more than a day and
I never use search there).

I have found that disabling Remote Differential Compression (as recommended
in assorted posts across the web) has improved my file copy/move speeds.

You can disable it by going to Control Panel...Uninstall Programs...Turn
Windows Features On and Off

- John

"Lucvdv" wrote:

> Up to XP, when you moved a folder containing many subfolders/files
> underneath it to another location on the same drive, it went blazingly
> fast because it would move just the one folder's entry in NTFS.
>
> Not anymore in Vista: it moves everything file by file, even when it's
> on the same drive, which can take a lot of time if you're moving a few
> GB of small files.
>
> I assume it is now done this way to enable the OS to adjust the search
> index for each individual file, so it points to the new location.
>
> Is there a way to make it revert to the XP way?
>
> If I could get that for non-indexed locations only, it would be all I
> need (I already keep the subtrees where I'm having the problem
> unindexed, because the contents change too often and indexing would be
> a bit pointless as the files often don't exist for more than a day and
> I never use search there).
>
>

Looking at the description of what RDC is, I thought it impossible
that it would have an affect on local move operations - but
incredibly, disabling it does the trick.

Thanks!


usasma wrote:
> I have found that disabling Remote Differential Compression (as recommended
> in assorted posts across the web) has improved my file copy/move speeds.
>
> You can disable it by going to Control Panel...Uninstall Programs...Turn
> Windows Features On and Off
>
> - John
>
> "Lucvdv" wrote:
>
> > Up to XP, when you moved a folder containing many subfolders/files
> > underneath it to another location on the same drive, it went blazingly
> > fast because it would move just the one folder's entry in NTFS.
> >
> > Not anymore in Vista: it moves everything file by file, even when it's
> > on the same drive, which can take a lot of time if you're moving a few
> > GB of small files.
> >
> > I assume it is now done this way to enable the OS to adjust the search
> > index for each individual file, so it points to the new location.
> >
> > Is there a way to make it revert to the XP way?
> >
> > If I could get that for non-indexed locations only, it would be all I
> > need (I already keep the subtrees where I'm having the problem
> > unindexed, because the contents change too often and indexing would be
> > a bit pointless as the files often don't exist for more than a day and
> > I never use search there).
> >
> >

Lucvdv wrote:
> usasma wrote:
> > I have found that disabling Remote Differential Compression (as recommended
> > in assorted posts across the web) has improved my file copy/move speeds.
> >
> Looking at the description of what RDC is, I thought it impossible
> that it would have an affect on local move operations - but
> incredibly, disabling it does the trick.

It's still significantly slower than it could be though.

The final solution: use the move command on a command prompt, or mv in
powershell. They're instantaneous, the slowness was caused by using
the explorer GUI.