Use multi-threaded Robocopy feature to speed up file copying on Windows 10

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When having to copy a large number of files to another drive, Robocopy can accelerate the process with its multithreaded feature. Let's TipsMake.com refer to how to use multi-threaded Robocopy feature to speed up copying files on Windows 10 in this article!

To copy files to another drive, you often use the standard selection, copy and paste process. Although this process works well, the speed becomes a bottleneck when you try to transfer multiple files and may take a long time.

Instead, many tech-savvy users, using Robocopy (Robust File Copy), the command-line tool built into Windows 10 provides more features to move data to another location faster.

A feature that makes Robocopy special (and often overlooked) is a multi-threaded feature that allows you to copy multiple files at once . Instead of copying each file, use the built-in copy feature in File Explorer.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to use the multi-threaded feature on Robocopy to speed up the process of transferring files and folders to other drives on Windows 10.

How to use multi-threaded features with Robocopy

If you are about to copy a large set of files and folders to another drive, use these steps to enable multi-threaded Robocopy to copy data quickly.

1. Open Start .

2. Search Command Prompt , right-click on the result and select Run as administrator .

3. Type the following command to copy files and folders to another drive and press Enter :

For example:

In the above command, make sure to change the source and destination paths with your configuration.

Robocopy command issue

Robocopy has a lot of features and in this command displayed, we are using the following switches to copy reliably and quickly.

1. / S - Copy subdirectories, excluding empty directories.
2. / E - Copy subdirectories, including empty directories.
3. / Z - Copy files in restart mode.
4. / ZB - Using restart mode, if access is denied use backup mode.
5. / R: 5 - Try again 5 times (you can specify another one, default is 1 million).
6. / W: 5 - Wait 5 seconds before retrying (you can specify another number, default is 30 seconds).
7. / TBD - Wait for sharenames To Be Defined (retry error 67).
8. / NP - No Progress - does not display the copy rate.
9. / V - Create output, show the skipped files.
10. / MT: 32 - Make multi-threaded copy with n thread (default is 8).

The most important switch to focus on the above command is / MT , this is the switch that allows Robocopy to copy files in multithreaded mode. If you do not put a number next to the switch / MT , the default number will be 8 , which means that Robocopy will try to copy 8 files simultaneously. However, Robocopy supports 1 to 128 threads .

In this command, we are using 32 threads, but you can set it to a higher number. Note : the larger the number, the more system resources and bandwidth will be used. If you own an old processor, using a large number will affect performance, so be sure to check before executing the command with a large number of threads.

When you have completed these steps, you will notice that the copied files and folders will take less time.

Not only do you have the ability to copy files and folders to external drives or internal drives, this also works to move files over the network.

If you need more help on how Robocopy works, send us a question in the comment section below!

Refer to some more articles:

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Having fun!