Anyone found a fix for the slow file transfer problem in Vista?

[dannyboy27]

This has been driving me nuts over the past few days, and having googled the problem it appears to be pretty widespread.

Basically if you delete, or move a large file or folder in Vista, it takes ages. Moving a file within a volume should be almost instantaneous, as the file itself doesn't get moved, only the pointer to it. I moved a 1.5gb folder today and it took nearly 4 minutes, whereas it takes a matter of seconds in XP.

This is what a google search brings up. At least I'm not alone.

One of those searches recommended installing KB 931770, but this made no difference. I wasn't that surprised anyway as the article refers to slow copying from network shares, but this is happening just moving a file within a local disk.

Anyone else noticed this problem or found a solution yet?

[Steve R Jones]

The slowness is probably due to Vista greatly enhanced index/search function which can be turned off.

[dannyboy27]

It's certainly better with indexing turned off, time has halved from 3m 30 secs to 1m 45 secs.

But it still doesn't seem right that it takes 105 seconds to change a few file pointers, when it was near-instantaneous in XP. I still think there's an issue which MS need to address here.

[Steve R Jones]

When you copy large files to or from earlier operating systems, the copy operation may be slower than expected on some Windows Vista-based computers
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932170/en-us

[dannyboy27]

thanks Steve, no change from implementing the workaround in that one though. The problem isn't really when copying from one PC to another, just moving a file within my Vista OS.

I'll keep scouring google but the indications from my google searching this morning were that it's still something which MS are investigating.

[cargo]

Wonder if its same with UAC on or off?

In my situation it takes just as long with XP but I am re-applying user right to the new directory. It takes time. So I would "guess" and that's a big guess that the Vista system is doing the same with it's increased security footprint. Especially related not to file size per say but the amount of object within the container.

[dannyboy27]

not sure, I personally have UAC turned off but I haven't tried it with it on.

Got my hopes up as there were 2 new updates for Vista this morning, but one is apparently an engine update for Defender (which I've disabled anyway), and the other is a buffer overflow.

[krupted]

files transfers across the board in vista have been equal or faster then they were in xp, for me at least. run the diagnostic test for your harddrive first, you never know... it could also be your motherboard drivers not talking to the harddrive right

[wrathchild_67]

Someone over at the MSFN forums found an interesting utility that shows latency due to drivers in Windows. My XP machine rates at about 15-30 micro seconds. Vista's latency is around 1000+ microseconds on some machines! I haven't tried it on Vista X64 on my machine yet, mainly because I need to set up a dual boot again.

Here is the original thread:
http://www.msfn.org/board/lofiversio...hp/t94987.html

And here is the link to the util:
http://www.thesycon.de/dpclat/dpclat.exe

It doesn't solve your problem but it's something to keep in mind.

[krupted]

my machine hovers 70-100. absolute 194 though it really never goes over 130.

[dannyboy27]

interesting, thanks wrath I'll try it when I get home.

I just noticed one of your rigs shares the same mobo as my Vista PC, is that the one running Vista x64 ? If so, it might provide an interesting comparison against mine, even though I stuck with the x86 version for now.

[dannyboy27]

well I just tried it remotely through RDP, moving a folder from C:\folder1 to C:\folder2 . In XP this takes seconds. In Vista it took about 2 minutes, and that app showed a pretty consistent latency of about 1000 microseconds. Not good.

I still can't decide if this is an OS or driver problem but I sure hope it's fixed soon by either MS or Intel.

[pcpal]

You know I had the same problem and when I bought a new hard drive and reinstalled vista the slow delete problem seemed to disappear. Yeah, it seems to run better.

[dannyboy27]

Out of interest, I'm gonna try installing Vista x64 over the weekend to see if it's any better. If it is, and my other drivers work ok, then I think I'll stick with it.

[Tuttle]

FWIW, I moved a big folder in Vista today (~5000 files, 1.1 GB). It took a few seconds, but nothing too unbearable.