Why is Alt*p Sal*m*nder so much faster?

[knnknn]

Why is TC so slow when it comes to deleting many (shift+del) files or copying many small files? It's slow with or without the "Big File Copy Mode".

Yes, I have read the threads about "deleting is slow". There is no answer given whatsoever why TotalCommander is so much slower than Alt*p Sal*m*der when deleting many files or copying many small files.

Copying 100'000 files (10bytes each, no subfolder contains more than 1000 files) --> TC needs MORE THAN TWICE the time (193sec vs 78 sec).

Deleting (shift-del) these 100'000 files --> TC needs TWICE THE TIME AGAIN

OK, I can use the "Explorer Delete" Mode but AS doesn't use it to be faster!

Moreover AS pre-checks already for problems BEFORE copy process (e.g. overwriting a read-only file) so I can leave the copying unattended.

Thus please please give TC a copy function as good as AS! It sucks that I have to switch to AS to copy a large amount of files!

[Clo]

2knnknn

Hi !

• Wich version of TC are you talking of, and which OS are you running ?

- You might try TC 7.5 (Public ß6) where the default copy method has been changed…
- About deletion :
- If you are running Vista or Win 7, there is an INI entry to add (TC 7.5)

<wincmd.ini> –> [Configuration]
VistaDelete=Flag
¤ 0 : Disabled
¤ 1 : Enables a special (faster) delete method to the Recycle-bin on Vista and Windows 7.
Directories are moved as a whole to the recycle bin. No warning for read only or hidden¦system files!

 KR
Claude
Clo

[MVV]

Topic starter deletes files w/o using Recycle Bin so VistaDelete won't help.

Delete with TC 20000 files: 43 seconds with normal dialog and 27 seconds in background. AS deleted 2000 files in 18 seconds. BTW, AS don't show each copied/deleted name in dialog, it skips some of them.

I think while operating with small files, interface differences may matter (i mean Label.Caption:='' is longer than SendMessage(hwnd, WM_SETTEXT, 0, '')). Interesting how long will TC delete theese files WITH and WITHOUT showing filename. If this will matter too much, what if replace Label with Edit (read only, w/o border)? Maybe TC faster in background because of Windows controls?

[knnknn]

I use Win XP and TC 7.04

Topic starter deletes files w/o using Recycle Bin so VistaDelete won't help.

Delete with TC 20000 files: 43 seconds with normal dialog and 27 seconds in background. AS deleted 2000 files in 18 seconds. BTW, AS don't show each copied/deleted name in dialog, it skips some of them.

Yes, I think this is one of the reasons why TC is so slow: Because it displays every name.

[Balderstrom]

@ knnknn
If I had to place a bet, I would say deleting files via the CMD.exe prompt is even faster or just as fast as whatever Lizard you are talking about.

[DrShark]

2knnknn
Are you sure your TC hasn't enabled option to handle comments together with files? (Options->Operation, Copy comments with files)
(IIRC Altap Salamader still doesn't have a support of comments from external files like descript.ion).

[MS.Blueberry]

I'm also disapointed by this point, I also observe this very looooong time taken by delete / copy (v7.5 / XP sp3) . For this reason, each time I need to kill a big set of file, I prefer to start a "del *.* / s /q" on the command line, it's by far faster. I tried to have a look in options but did not observe changes.

[Balderstrom]

@ DrShark, I've noticed that keeping TC's enabled support for descript.ion & delete is slower, and it doesn't make that much sense for why that is.

My guess would be that TC does checking of the file vs descript.ion during the delete operation - which isn't necessary. Instead:

At the start of the delete TC knows what you want to delete, either:
1) A List of Files (inside a directory)
2) A List of Files + Folders (inside a directory or drive root)

The descript.ion files can be parsed for any missing files, when all deletes are complete. Any missing files in the descript.ion would be removed.

This could also be an internal TC command -> cm_UpdateION
Which would allow you to easily fix any current descript.ion files in the current directory, or that are selected in cm_DirBranch. For when you've disabled TC's internal copy/delete mechanisms.

Now, TC might also be doing some junction security during deletes, I don't know. I know explorer before Vista wasn't known for handling junctions particularly well.

TC does a constant update of the GUI window as files are being updated (very slow with large file sets if you've enabled it to do so). And displays the files that are being deleted - but Explorer does that as well.

An option to disable panel-refresh during large-file deletes or in the Pop-Up confirmation would certainly improve performance - without making you go thru the hassle of changing those settings in the Config back and forth.

What's interesting is TC copy speeds are decent, speed w/ Copy: 30-40MB/s going from one physical Sata HD to another, not a ton of tiny byte files though, mostly 100KB to multi-meg or GB+ files.

[Lefteous]

What about the famous calculate space before copy/delete option (Config page Operation)? It makes a big difference when it comes to thousands of files.

[knnknn]

What about the famous calculate space before copy/delete option (Config page Operation)? It makes a big difference when it comes to thousands of files.

1) AS also calculates estimated ETAs (both estimations take approx. the same time to calculate)
2) I measured from the first moment the first file started to copy. Thus the figures above are just the "copy time without pre-calculations"

[knnknn]

2knnknn
Are you sure your TC hasn't enabled option to handle comments together with files? (Options->Operation, Copy comments with files)
(IIRC Altap Salamader still doesn't have a support of comments from external files like descript.ion).

"Copy comments with files" is NOT checked.

[Balderstrom]

Config / Refresh, can be disabled by the very first checkbox. You can also set a command onto the buttonBar or add one into a custom MainMenu for: cm_RefreshConfig

[Balderstrom]

I dunno, in my test w/ Explorer Delete method, and Refresh off.
It took about 42-43sec for 50,000 files.

Of course the only way I could delete them was to shift-DEL the folder containing them. If I tried to select them and then shift+delete TC pretty much froze in place, after a little less than 2 mins, I killed its process.
All the files were still there.

And yer saying LizardMeister takes ~78seconds for 100,000 so thats pretty much on par.

Of course... deleting 50,000 10byte files in a CMD prompt, via DEL /Q TEMP*.txt
took about 18-19 seconds... so Guess ya just needa use the right tool for the job!

[EDIT]

Apparently its the Explorer Method that locks up TC w/ 50,000 files and the directory open. Explorer did the exact same thing w/ all the files selected. And then Shift+DEL.

Of course, Deselecting Explorer Method in Config Options, and Deselecting Copy Comments with files, and Refresh Off. It was well past 90 seconds by the time I stopped the Delete menu that I had put into the background, ~15,000 Files were left. I got rid of em w/ a CMD DEL TEMP* > NUL

[/EDIT]

I would think I'll never delete that many files at once ever again though. And after all that I bet I need to defrag my data drive.

[knnknn]

I dunno, in my test w/ Explorer Delete method, and Refresh off.
It took about 42-43sec for 50,000 files.

Of course the only way I could delete them was to shift-DEL the folder containing them. If I tried to select them and then shift+delete TC pretty much froze in place, after a little less than 2 mins, I killed its process.
All the files were still there.

And yer saying LizardMeister takes ~78seconds for 100,000 so thats pretty much on par.

So you write a post stating
1) that you didn't run it with 100'000 files but 50'000 (unlike my setup, you don't even mention the filesize of each file)
2) that you didn't have max 1000 files in a folder (unlike my setup)
3) that TC didn't even start to delete files after 2 minutes
4) that TC froze and you needed to kill it
5) You didn't run COPY tests, just delete tests
6) that you didn't even run a test with AS

AND THEN YOU CONCLUDE "so thats pretty much on par"?

What the heck? Post again when you tried copying and deleting with AS, please.

[Balderstrom]

I used half as many files, 10bytes each, all 50,000 were in the same folder. With half as many files it took about half as long - by Shift-Deleting the folder they were in.

And I clearly stated in the secondary edit, that it was the Explorer method that was causing the lockup, as explorer did the same thing with that many files in one folder.

I also tried pasting the paths of the folders into a file, and for-looping thru the file with a batch and deleting each one. I cancelled it as it was taking too long.

I also stated that it appears TC is slow when handling that many files, even with explorer method off, refresh off and don't copy descript.ion's.

So the only thing I didn't state, was that the files were 10 bytes, sheesh.

And I did it out of curiousity, 50,000 was a large enough sample set for me.