Huge file transfer (10k+) - Easy way?

S

SlimShady

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Aug 2, 2000
Messages
1,143
I'm trying to copy a large amount of files (around 11k) from DVD to my USB HD. OS X takes forever just to load the window, not to mention do the actual files transfer. Is there a terminal command or something to make this easier?
 
OSX file copy sucks, especially with lots of individual files.

If you do have an Windows machine somewhere it could be a bit faster...I ran into this problem when copying lots and lots of music files for my uncle from his old XP laptop --> USB HDD, then from the USB HDD --> new MBP with OSX. Even though the MBP was a newer faster laptop, it took about twice the amount of time to copy the files :rolleyes:
 
Navigate to the DVD in the Terminal and then use cp -R.
 
Believe it or not (as I've done this many times), but on client machines where they request I do such file transfers from backups (thousands upon thousands of tiny files) I use Disk Utility to make a .dmg of the DVD on the Desktop, mount the .dmg file as a drive and then do the copy that way. In testing, with a DVD that had 27K+ files on it, the actual file copy from DVD to hard drive took 2 hours 26 minutes.

Doing it the .dmg method took 29 minutes, complete, from the time I started to make the .dmg to the time the file copy from the mounted .dmg to the hard drive was finished.

Go figure... ;)

Optical drives are notoriously slow for small file copying, it has nothing to do with the OS. Optical drives have random access speeds in the 125ms or higher range (10-20x slower than hard drives) and by doing a copy process of thousands of small files, that 125ms or more on each file access adds up to a lot of wasted time.

Make a .dmg of the DVD and mount the .dmg on the Desktop, do the file copy from there - it'll be a helluva lot faster, I promise.
 
i ended up just waiting it out. i cancelled the first attempt and then on the subsequent attempt it went much better. go figure.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top