Archive

Archive for the ‘Sysinternals’ Category

Multi-Thread Robocopy – Update

August 11th, 2009 No comments

OK, I know I already went on and on about this, but this just blew my mind!  My boss just loaded Windows 7, and was copying his old data from an external USB drive to his new computer – 128GB worth of data.  He used the /MT:128 (the maximum number of threads) and here are his results:

            Total    Copied   Skipped  Mismatch    FAILED    Extras
Dirs :     14346       615     13731         0         0       545
Files :    148533      2201    146332         0         0      1244
Bytes : 128.888 g   9.813 g 119.075 g         0         0   2.407 g
Times :   7:13:01   0:07:08                       0:00:00   0:00:05

Speed :           102739780 Bytes/sec.
Speed :            5878.817 MegaBytes/min.

Ended : Tue Aug 11 11:27:34 2009

Yeah, you read that right… 5.8GB/Min, copied 128GB in 7 minutes!!! :)

Share and Enjoy:
  • email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • LinkedIn
  • Print

Categories: 7, Microsoft, Sysinternals

Windows 7: Robocopy is Multi Threaded!

August 10th, 2009 1 comment

OK, so not everyone uses Robocopy on a regular basis, but I sure do! I am super excited about Windows 7’s version of Robocopy. Robocopy was created by Mark Russinovich, and was included in a whole suite of free windows tools called Sysinternal Tools. Well, Mark works for Microsoft now, and has continued his development of his tools, including robocopy. Basically, robocopy is a command line tool that copies/moves files from one location to another. While this seems to be a common task (copy/cut/paste) for most users, sometimes administrators need to tweak the copy process.

Robocopy has a plethora of options for administrators to use, some used more often than others, but all prove priceless at one time or another. To list all the options for robocopy, just use the /? switch to list all available switches.

OK, on to Multi-threaded file copy! Up until now, robocopy copied one file at a time. Most of the time, that was OK, but it would be really nice to do it faster. Windows 7 version of robocopy includes the /MT switch. The default is 8, so if you use the switch, it will copy 8 files at a time. I did a few tests, and here are my results:

I copied a folder from my hard drive to a mapped drive on a server, over a Gigabit network. The folder was 35MB, and had 1140 files it it.

Without /MT switch: (robocopy Source Destination/E)

  • Directories:  166
  • Files:  1140
  • Size:  35.71MB
  • Time:  03:55

With /MT:8 switch:  (robocopy Source Destination/E /MT: 8)

  • Directories:  166
  • Files:  1140
  • Size:  35.71MB
  • Time:  52 seconds

Needless to say, using the multi-thread switch with robocopy is much faster!  Unfortunately, the Windows 7 Version of robocopy does NOT work on any previous version of windows.  Bummer!  Anyway, Win7 is a great OS so far, so this is just another added bonus of buying that upgrade! :)

Share and Enjoy:
  • email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • LinkedIn
  • Print
Categories: 7, Microsoft, Sysinternals, Tip

Get your desktop organized with MS Desktops

August 22nd, 2008 No comments

I’m a HUGE fan of Sysinternals line of products by Mark Russinovich.  Since being "aquired" by Microsoft, Mark has been pumping out some really great stuff!  I could blog for a straight month on nothing but his tools, and still not give them justice!  They are by far, some of the best tools any nerd could use!

So… his latest tool is called Desktops.  This allows you to organize your applications on up to four virtual desktops.  Now I can have certain RDP sessions on one desktop, email and documents on another, and Firefox and IM on another! 

Desktops runs in the tray, and allows switching to the virtual desktops via hotkey, or clicking the icon, and selecting the desktop.

download Download Desktops v1.0

Share and Enjoy:
  • email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • LinkedIn
  • Print