Copy & Move with TeraCopy

As provided by the author of TeraCopy. In doing my own testing of this program, I got results of an increase in speed of approximately 80%.

(Note 2017: Copy speed difference depend on many complex factors and differences usually come down to testing different things without realising. Very occasionally there are esoteric edge cases which make one program faster than another sometimes and vice-versa other times. This post is also from 2007, and even back then the 80% difference the author states was not something others could reproduce. You should check if the speed differences apply on your machine, and with the types of data you copy, and not just use a different program because someone said it was faster. You may also want to use TeraCopy because you like its UI or other features, of course. --Leo).

Of course, you have to have the TeraCopy program installed for these buttons to work: http://www.codesector.com/teracopy

Directly below are buttons you can paste to your toolbar to copy and move files using TeraCopy. Below the buttons you will also find instructions on how to make Opus use TeraCopy whenever you drag & drop files. You can use any of all of these methods; whatever suits you.

Copy Button

Copy and Paste this code for the Copy Button:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<usercommand backcol="none" textcol="none">
	<label>TeraCopy_CopyFile</label>
	<tip>Copy files with TeraCopy</tip>
	<icon1>C:\Program Files\TeraCopy\TeraCopy.exe,1</icon1>
	<function type="normal">
		<instruction>&quot;C:\Program Files\TeraCopy\TeraCopy.exe&quot; Copy *{allfilepath|filem} {destpath}</instruction>
	</function>
</usercommand>

Move Button

Copy and Paste this code for the Move Button:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<usercommand backcol="none" textcol="none">
	<label>TeraCopy_MoveFile</label>
	<tip>Move files with TeraCopy</tip>
	<icon1>C:\Program Files\TeraCopy\TeraCopy.exe,2</icon1>
	<function type="normal">
		<instruction>&quot;C:\Program Files\TeraCopy\TeraCopy.exe&quot; Move *{allfilepath|filem} {destpath}</instruction>
	</function>
</usercommand>

Drag & Drop: Copy

You can also configure Opus to use TeraCopy for drag & drop operations.

To automatically use TeraCopy to Copy files whenever you drag & drop using the left mouse button:

  • Go to Settings -> File Types and edit the All Files and Folders entry near the top.
  • Select the Events tab and double-click the first entry which is Drag-and-Drop.
  • When the Edit box pops up, replace copy movewhensame with:
    "C:\Program Files\TeraCopy\TeraCopy.exe" Copy *{allfilepath$|filem} {destpath}
  • Click OK to save the change.

Now, just click on OK, then Close to get back to Opus proper.

From now on, when you drag and drop a file, TeraCopy will kick in, and do the work for you. The only thing is that it will NOT do a move using this method. It will only do a copy, no matter what drive you are dropping the file on.

Drag & Drop: Move

If you want to be able to do a Move when you drag & drop while holding the Shift key, then you will have to do more editing:

  • Go back again to to Settings -> File Types -> All Files and Folders.
  • Edit that, and make sure the Events tab is active.
  • This time, double-click on the Drag-and-Drop + Shift entry.
  • The command to be entered this time is:
    "C:\Program Files\TeraCopy\TeraCopy.exe" Move *{allfilepath$|filem} {destpath}

Save everything as before, and now when you do a Shift + Drag-and-Drop, TeraCopy will do a move, no matter what drive you drop the file on.

Of course, you can swap the Move and Copy commands if you want to Move by default and Copy when Shift is held down.

Drag & Drop: Menu

One more thing you can do is add TeraCopy to the Drop-Menu that appears if you drag & drop using the Right mouse button. (Thanks to Steje for this one.) If you want to do that then here are the steps:

  • Go to Settings -> File Types and edit the All Files and Folders entry near the top.

  • Select the Drop Menu tab and click New...

  • Set the command to:
    FileType CONTEXTMENU {A7005AF0-D6E8-48AF-8DFA-023B1CF660A7} CONTEXTFORCE
    (The name of the item isn't important in this case.)

  • Click OK to save the change.

7 Likes

Excellent! Thanks for posting this info.

:smiley:

Sure!

It really does speed up the copy/move times quite a bit on large files, yes?

Finally a program that can have a queue

Great !

TeraCopy was just updated, so you might want to hop over to the website and grab the newest version. Now with built-in Opus support!

[Admin note: I've consolidated this information into the first post in this thread. --Nudel]

But I think that's a 'Beta' version eh?

Anyhow... to add to the button stuff you graciously provided, you could also add the following to an Opus context DROP menu action:

FileType CONTEXTMENU {A7005AF0-D6E8-48AF-8DFA-023B1CF660A7} CONTEXTFORCE

Nice tip, thanks much!

This surely is fast!

I have set up a three-button button, with the copy function on LMB, and the move function on RMB.

Thanks Oblias.

It would be great if this technology were integrated into DOpus. I do most copies/moves using drag'n'drop, and have to train myself to remember to use the new button.

Maybe the 'integrated Dopus support' that Oblias mentioned in the new TeraCopy beta might be that it will 'intercept' the Dopus copy and move functions and replace them the way it can with Explorer...?

Edit: is there a command line interface to it? Checking...

[Admin note: I've consolidated this information into the first post in this thread. --Nudel]

The question was asked in another thread about having TeraCopy take over while doing a Drag-and-Drop. I'll repost the information here, just so things will be all in this one thread.

Go to Settings/Filetypes/All Files and Folders. Edit that, and make sure the Events tab is active. Double-click the first entry which is Drag-and-Drop.

When the Edit box pops up, replace [copy movewhensame] with
[C:\Program Files\TeraCopy\TeraCopy.exe Copy {allfilepath$|filem} {destpath}] , then click OK to save the change. Of course, do NOT use the [ ]s , just the text only.

Now, just click on OK, then close to get back to Opus proper. So, from now on, when you drag and drop a file, TeraCopy will kick in, and do the work for you. The only thing is, that it will NOT do a move using this method. It will only do a copy, no matter what drive you are dropping the file on.

If you want to be able to do a move, then you will have to do more editing. Go back again to to Settings/Filetypes/All Files and Folders. Edit that, and make sure the Events tab is active. This time, double-click on the Drag-and-Drop + Shift entry. The command to be entered this time is
[C:\Program Files\TeraCopy\TeraCopy.exe Move {allfilepath$|filem} {destpath}] , again without the brackets [ ] . Save everything as before, and now when you do a Shift + Drag-and-Drop, TeraCopy will do a move, no matter what drive you drop the file on.

OK, that should cover it, but if I've made a mistake, just let me know, and I'll see where I went wrong, but it should work. It works for me, using Opus 9.1 .

[quote="steje"]Maybe the 'integrated Dopus support' that Oblias mentioned in the new TeraCopy beta might be that it will 'intercept' the Dopus copy and move functions and replace them the way it can with Explorer...?

Edit: is there a command line interface to it? Checking...[/quote]

What I was referring to by 'integrated Dopus support' was that the button codes are now supported by TeraCopy when you install it. During installation, it will ask you if you'd like to integrate buttons into Opus.

As far as I know, there is no command line interface for the program, as of yet.

Well, using TeraCopy.exe with arguments as you've suggested in your previous post above is close enough to a 'command line' use of the app as we really need :wink:.

Bernard, does that function well?

[quote="steje"]Well, using TeraCopy.exe with arguments as you've suggested in your previous post above is close enough to a 'command line' use of the app as we really need :wink:.

Bernard, does that function well?[/quote]Hello Steje...

I have implemented the suggestions by oblias. They do indeed work as advertised.

Just one thing needs to be taken into account - the time taken to load a copy of TeraCopy when executing it for a small file. This can easily exceed the time it would have take to do the job using the built-in DOpus functions.

I think the ultimate solution would be for GPSoft to reach some sort of accomodation with the TeraCopy developer, to permit absolute integration of his technology into DOpus. I did actually suggest this to Greg, but I'm afraid he was less than enthusiastic. Here is his reply to my suggestion:

"Thanks for the note. Interesting though. But I don't think there's a lot of point in adding a US$19.95 option to Opus to include this type of thing. No one would pay for it.

"Opus already has quite efficient copy functions and you can adjust the copy buffers to suite your system etc, and a copy queue system has been planned for some time now but just not made it yet. Adding a copy queue to Opus is quite complicated because of the multi-threading but it's one of the next features."

...all of which was a bit disappointing. Obviously, if TeraCopy Basic can be had for free by anyone prepared to download it, the developer is unlikely to charge GPSoft US$19.95 a copy for the technology, and I seriously doubt that fiddling with copy buffers will give the huge performance boost (up to 80% quoted) that TeraCopy offers. Finally, it comes complete with a copy queue, one of the oft-requested enhancements for DOpus, which Greg acknowledges.

However, that said, such decisions are beyond the scope of this forum, and I acknowledge Greg's and Jon's prerogative to decide them.

Teracopy is only free for home users - the pro version is $19.95 - so I presume that's what Greg is talking about. There's a 40% christmas discount atm though apparently...

Can anyone explain how/when TeraCopy is faster than Opus at copying files?

The queuing that it provides is clearly a useful feature but I'm interested to know what it does differently when copying files. On large file copies between my HDDs, Opus typically maxes out to the theoretical limit of my SATA2 drives (60MB/s) so I can't see how anything would be faster. When copying lots of small files you are typically limited by the speed the OS can create files and set attributes and so on.

(Setting the attributes and timestamps ends up taking a significant amount of time with lots of small files. This turned out to be why some people felt Opus was slower than Explorer at copying a while ago, but I think most people want those things to be preserved when copying. Opus makes it optional and when the attribute/timestamp stuff was turned off it was identical to the Explorer copy speed.)

Do you guys find that Opus doesn't tend to max out your drives when copying large files? Or is the speed-up from small files? Or are we talking about copying to something else like network drives or removable media?

Hi nudel. As I posted in another thread, the speed increase will only be apparent when handling large file sizes, say anything above 50M or so.

How it works, I have no idea. And re: your SATA2 question, I do not know that either, not having SATA2 drives to test with. So, maybe TeraCopy does not affect those running only SATA2 drives, I cannot say. Perhaps the speed increase is only apparent on systems using IDE drives?

Why not grab a copy of TeraCopy and test it out on your system? Then let us know the results you get with your fast drives? I would be interested in knowing the result from you. Just think that if, somehow, TeraCopy could increase your speed too, wouldn't that rock? :slight_smile:

Actually, I'm not going to answer your question but I'd like to repeat it.
I got so enthusiastic upon reading posts here that I downloaded the tool and tested it myself. My findings didn't live up to my expectations, and I didn't post here in order not to disappoint others, but I really timed the copy operations using large and small files on my SATA2 7200 drive and from SATA2 7200 to USB 5400. It's not that I found no difference but in some tests Dopus was faster then TeraCopy.

Please note that this is my own observations (findings), others may experience something different but I really don't know why.

Well, on my IDE only system, I saw a marked improvement using TeraCopy.

And from the posts of others, they too saw this same dramatic improvement.

Would you try testing the speeds just using one drive? Copy a large file, let's say a file that is about 700M from one directory on any of your SATA2 drives, to another directory on that same drive, using TeraCopy. Time how long it takes. Then do the same exact thing, but using Opus's built in copy function.

Would you then post your result? Thanks!

OK...

My initial reactions were based on a couple of quick tests using large files on my SATA2 drives, and they did seem to bear out Oblias' results.

However, since Leo's last post, I decided to be a lot more stringent in evaluating my results. I have now carried out a series of tests, mostly with large files, some from one folder to another on the same drive, some from one drive to another on the same PC, and some from a network node to my PC, some from one network node to another, and finally a collection of files, small and large from one network node to another.

The upshot - for me there is almost no difference between DOpus and TeraCopy, with one exception. In the (relatively rare) case of repeating a copy, between two folders on the same drive, DOpus took advantage of caching, and the result was almost instantaneous, whereas TeraCopy took the same time to repeat a copy as it did initially.

So, to quote another response from Greg, "I think you are all looking at Emperor's New Clothes:)" Yes, Greg. I think you are right.

Then it would seem that TeraCopy does not give a particular advantage to folks with SATA2 drives.

Perhaps it is of use only for us folks with IDE drives? I re-ran my tests, and still see a performance increase of at least 60%, and most of the time, up around 75%.

Oh well, speaking for myself only, it is still of value, and most definitely worth using. At least, until I can get a laptop with a SATA2 drive in it, rather than the one I have with an IDE drive. :slight_smile: