Windows 7 cannot copy DVD with large number of images

[dunderhead]

I'm trying to copy a DVD catalogue with over 30,000 product images onto a USB backup drive. Windows 7 Explorer cannot seem to do this. It copied some of the files but then just stopped copying.

I rebooted my machine and tried to copy the files again but Windows reports that it's going to take almost 4 hours to copy! I suspect, however, that it will fail again to complete the task. The backup device has a data transfer rate of 450Mbps so it really shouldn't take that long, surely?

Is there other software I should use that's better than Windows Explorer? Or some other method to accomplish what I would have expected to be a simple task?

 

[jimbo45]

I'm trying to copy a DVD catalogue with over 30,000 product images onto a USB backup drive. Windows 7 Explorer cannot seem to do this. It copied some of the files but then just stopped copying.

I rebooted my machine and tried to copy the files again but Windows reports that it's going to take almost 4 hours to copy! I suspect, however, that it will fail again to complete the task. The backup device has a data transfer rate of 450Mbps so it really shouldn't take that long, surely?

Is there other software I should use that's better than Windows Explorer? Or some other method to accomplish what I would have expected to be a simple task?

Hi there
It's a "Roundabout" way but this should work and be quite fast.

If you have a decent backup program (NOT WINDOWS STANDARD BACKUP) that is capable of copying DATA as well as just "Imaging" a disk / partition then this method will work quickly and easily.

I'm using ACRONIS but any decent commercial backup program will work similarly.

1) Backup the data to a spare area on any disk. The file will be called something like xxxx.tib in the case of acronis.

2) Now Restore the data to your USB device.

Job done --easily and very quickly normally.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[dunderhead]

Hi Jimbo,

Many thanks for your suggestion.

By the way, any idea why Windows takes so long to process large numbers of image files?

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
No Idea -- might be some way in how W7 READS the image files -- I assume it's jpegs --- it might be making thumbnails since its building a directory in the memory buffer. With 1000's of images it will just run out of memory.

Some W7 Guru might be able to suggest a method of "Disabling" this -- but I leave that to others more qualified on that particular topic.

Commercial backups just read data as Binary - doesn't matter what format its in - and usually have very sophisticated and efficient compression (LOSSLESS of course) algorithms built in so they operate extremely fast in most cases -

For example say you have an image which consists of 75% Blue sky -- the pixels will repeat for 75% of the file -- well the compression could just say pixel A RGB (Red Green Blue content) Repeat for next n times where n = 75% of the image. So it would write the pixel plus the code for copying this pixel until the next DIFFERENT pixel was encountered. Very fast and efficiently compressed.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[dunderhead]

Hey Jimbo, yes they are JPGs, and if Windows is creating a thumbnail when all I've asked it to do is copy the files then that must be one of the worst OS design decisions ever (at best!).

If that's what's happening I'd be really grateful if a guru could advise how to disable such nonsense. I have some more supplier product catalogues to copy soon and it's a real pain the way Windows is failing at this simple task.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
Why not solve the problem by a completely different way.

I believe you can get the FREE PICASA application from Google

Picasa 3: Free download from Google

Very fast and a real good way of managing images / thumbnails / catalogs.

Don't worry about having to use a "cataloguing" type of application -- with those amount of images you'll need something better than windows to manage them anyway.

Have a look at the application -- it's 100% free, simple and easy to use and as its GOOGLE it won't go out of business any time soon.

Any professional organisation managing images WILL almost certainly have cataloguing software.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[dunderhead]

Hi Jimbo. Thanks but all I need to do is copy the files for backup purposes at this stage. I'm not at all interested in thumbnails or viewing the images. I'd just like Windows Explorer to behave like a decent application and do what should be a simple and easy task - copying files without fuss. If it can't do that then I'd like suggestions for replacements for Windows or Explorer.

 

[NoN]

I do not know if you have Windows 7 SP1 installed as you did not mentionned it, but there's known issues in the previous RTM build about backing up large amount of files.

Just in case search here:
http://www.sevenforums.com/windows-updates-activation/83589-list-available-hotfixes-windows-7-a.html

 

[dunderhead]

Thanks NoN. I didn't know about that. Yes I have SP1 installed. Is it fixable?

 

[NoN]

Thanks NoN. I didn't know about that. Yes I have SP1 installed. Is it fixable?

There's a registry fix to increase the amount of files selected to be moved. Because Windows 7 & Windows 7 SP1 by design can't take more than a certain amount.

I'm searching right now the infos where i got that a while ago and did applyed to myself already.

Damn MS Page to dig!!

 

[DeaconFrost]

What about using something like xcopy or robocopy to do the job, rather than messing with third-party apps?

 

[NoN]

Meanwhile, you still can use this Microsoft Fix-It Solution...:
Diagnose and repair Windows File and Folder Problems automatically

Found that RichCopy is improved over the Robocopy gui:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-ca/magazine/2009.04.utilityspotlight.aspx

 

[NoN]

Thanks NoN. I didn't know about that. Yes I have SP1 installed. Is it fixable?

Found back the MS article saying about selecting more than 15 files at the time to move...they do talk about "missing items in context menu" but it is worth a try as it related to.

Article ID: 2022295 - Last Review: March 29, 2010 - Revision: 1.0
Context menus are shortened when more than 15 files are selected:

Context menus are shortened when more than 15 files are selected

 

[dunderhead]

Thanks for your help Deaconfrost and NoN. I'll look into those options.

 

[Zepher]

not sure why the copy stops, but the reason it takes so long is that as it writes each file it verifies that the copy is 100%.

 

[dunderhead]

not sure why the copy stops, but the reason it takes so long is that as it writes each file it verifies that the copy is 100%.

If that's the case then it seems Windows 7 is badly written software. Verifying file copy shouldn't take that long. I'm sure other operating systems are faster than Windows when it comes to copying large numbers of small files such as jpegs.

While researching this issue, it seems that Windows 7 is also slow at copying across a network too: Why is Windows 7 so slow in copying network files?

 

[unifex]

I am not sure why your copy process stops, but I imagine that 30,000 files will take a while to copy. The read speed of the DVD drive is theoretically 16x10Mbits/s, which is not too high, about 20 MB/s.

Now, do you have all of these files on one DVD? The DVD size is 4.7 GB, which means your average file size is 157 KB (not too large for jpegs). When you copy that many small files in Windows 7, sometimes the copy speed drops to 1 MB/s, in which case it would take you a couple of hours to complete the task.

Whether or not this indicates that Windows 7 is badly written I do not know, but indeed slow copy speeds was my only complaint about the OS. After SP1 these speeds have increased dramatically though.

Finally, what can you do to speed up the process? If I were you I would just make a disk image. Any DVD-related software (such as Nero) or disk image software (such as UltraISO) is capable of making a disk image (i.e. a ISO, NRG, or any other of the gazillion possible formats). This should take a couple of minutes to complete. Moving the image to a back-up disk should also be fast - much faster than 30,000 small files. The disk-image software can read individual files from the image or you could extract all of them in your back-up disk if you need to be able to access those individual files without any software.

 

[Zepher]

not sure why the copy stops, but the reason it takes so long is that as it writes each file it verifies that the copy is 100%.

If that's the case then it seems Windows 7 is badly written software. Verifying file copy shouldn't take that long. I'm sure other operating systems are faster than Windows when it comes to copying large numbers of small files such as jpegs.

While researching this issue, it seems that Windows 7 is also slow at copying across a network too: Why is Windows 7 so slow in copying network files?

verifying doesn't take long at all, it's just that it will do it 30,000 times + the time it takes to copy.

 

[dunderhead]

Thanks, Unifex. I'll try making a disk image.

 

[MacGyvr]

I just tried this using a DVD with about 25,000 images on it and not even a slowdown in the process using Windows Explorer. I have SP1 and no "tweaks" or "fixes." It's not a 7 problem apparently.