Windows 7: File transfers slow

Hi everybody

I have a simple question that will probably yield a simple answer, but it has had me scratching my head...

I have a desktop pc which I use as a server. I have two laptops that access the files on the server through mapped network drives, simple enough.

When I move files from one location to another on the server the file transfers are quick. When I use the mapped network drives on the laptop to move the same files they are much much slower.

I cant understand why this would be the case. Are the files stored in RAM on the laptop with the remote access or is there some other reason. How can I get around this issue?

Many thanks in advance.

Andi

I assume your laptops access the server via 802.11g. The theoretical speed there is 54Mbps/sec - but in reality it is less because of the overhead. Compare that to the speed you can transfer files inside the server. That is limited by the speed of your HDDs and depends whether you go from one HDD to another or within the same HDD. But it will be a lot faster in any case. Figure that the disk transfer rate is 10 times faster than 802.11g - that is an approximate number and depends highly on the type of disk (e.g. Rpm) and where the from and to folders are located.

Do you mean moving the files on the Server from one location to another on the server via a mapped drive on the laptop? If so, I believe all the data you are moving still has to travel over the network connection.

Locally on the server, data is moving at the speed of the PATA or SATA buss and in many cases no data is moved at all, just the directory entries are changed.

I may be wrong on this and if so I'm sure someone else will post the correct info.

Thanks Ztruker. I thought this might be the case. Is there a way to do it so the data is never transmitted over the network - just the instructions to move the files?

That depends. A "copy" command will always move the data - on the same or to a different volume. A "move" command will move the data to a different volume, but on a "move" command to the same volume, only the directory entries are being changed.

And if you think about it logically, that makes sense.

So should I be using VNC or something similar to 'administer' my media remotely?

I think VNC will give you more security, but it cannot beat the physics.

Actually, VNC would work as then you would be logged on locally to the computer being serviced so there would be no data traffic over the network connection between that computer and the one used to make the connection. It would be the same as if you were using the mouse, keyboard and display of the target computer.

Yeah, but as soon as you want to move data from one system to the other, you are limited by the WiFi speed.

As mentioned above, i am not moving files accross the network. Thanks for the advice though.