TeraCopy from Code Sector is a free file-copying utility that offers more speed and security than Windows. It's a compact tool that can quickly copy or move single files or batches of files to any directory you select, but it does much more, such as automatically calculating CRC checksum values to speed up the validation process. It also skips bad files during the copying process, displaying them at the end of transfers so you can see just which ones need replacing or other attention.
TeraCopy's user interface is a pair of efficient dialogs, one an icon-based control panel that you use to add, copy, move, test, and delete files, and a second interface that pops up to do the work. After we installed TeraCopy, it opened with this second interface in minimized mode, a tiny dialog with twin file directory fields--one for source files, the other for the target folder--that double as progress bars for file transfers. Clicking More expands the interface to a multifile view for batch operations and accesses the Clean Up, Verify, and Delete controls as well as a file menu button that includes Options; you can also access this interface from the Start Menu. A drop-down menu lists recent operations with time stamps for quick retrieval. Selecting TeraCopy on a file's properties menu calls up a different, icon-based navigation and control panel. We opened this interface and used the browsing tool to add a file to copy and create a destination folder, and then clicked Copy. The operation was successful but concluded so quickly that we had to open the target folder and check the file's properties to verify that anything happened at all. We also tried the Test feature in this view, which verified an ubuntu ISO disk image in about 2 seconds. You can even associate TeraCopy with .sfv and .md5 files in its options dialog or during installation.
TeraCopy is a nifty piece of freeware that improves the copy/move function in Windows and adds useful extras like checksum calculation and permanent delete. We tried it in both Windows 7 and XP, and recommend it for all Windows users.
Using TeraCopy
TeraCopy uses dynamically adjusted buffers to reduce seek time as well as asynchronous copy to speed up the transfer time.
For this example I am transferring one of my mp3 collections to my local C: drive from my external. The size of this folder is 56.1 GB and would take quite a while copying over by using the drag and drop method.
There are a couple ways to go about using TeraCopy. The first is to open the TeraCopy user interface and drag the files or folder you want to copy into TeraCopy. From there you can copy them over by clicking the Copy or Move button and selecting a location.
Another way to use TeraCopy is right click on the folder you want to transfer then select TeraCopy from the menu. This will open up the TeraCopy user interface and copy all files into the application.
You will see progress indicators in the user interface while the files are copying, and you can pause, resume, or cancel the process. In the instance of an error TeraCopy will only skip the file after trying several times to correct the issue. If nothing can be done, TeraCopy will only skip the file and not cancel the entire process. This is a huge advantage compared to relying on a Windows transfer.
Opening up the Options and Preferences you can integrate TeraCopy into the Windows and use it as the default copy handler.
Another cool thing to mention is that teracopy portable is available and is compatible with portable apps. TeraCopy completed the 56.1 GB file transfer in under an hour. While the transfer was being executed I noticed no lag time on any of the other things I was doing on my computer. It was as though it was not running at all.
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