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Have you noticed that the average time to copy files into a folder increases with the number of files? You may have if you use a Mac.
Here at National Geographic magazine there does appear to be a difference in how long it takes to copy JPEG photographs into a folder. My hypothesis was that on a PC (Windows XP) the time to copy each file does not change as the number of files in a folder increases, while on a Mac (OS 10.4) the average time increases as more files are in a folder. I put this hypothesis to the test and the results are dramatic. Read the results after the jump.
The test consisted of copying JPEGs from our server storage system onto a PC workstation connected to gigabit Ethernet. As the chart indicates, the average time to copy an image from the server to a folder on a PC workstation was fairly consistent regardless of the number of files going into a folder. Test results show that it took an average of .11 seconds to copy each photo into the folder when 1,000 images were being copied and the same amount of time when 10,000 photos were being copied to a folder.
On a Mac the average time to copy the files increased as the total number of files increased. When 1,000 files were going into a folder it took an average of .23 seconds per file. When 10,000 files were copied into a folder it took .96 seconds (nearly a second) per file. When 20,000 files were put in a folder the average time per file shot up to 2.87 seconds.
Click the chart below to see it full size.
Since this problem was identified, our solution for large shipments of photographs is to break the photos into sections of about 2,500 images.
What do you do if you have a large number of files to copy on a Mac? Is there a work around that you use? Let us know in the comments.
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Comments
Jan 3, 2008 9PM #
well, sounds interesting. Probably in UNIX based systems a total list of files is taken before copying the files and in Windows they may be copying the files one by one without bothering about the total number. Anyway interesting finding !
Jan 3, 2008 9PM #
I have not needed to copy any large batches of files recently, but have you tried using cp or ditto from the Mac terminal?
Jan 3, 2008 9PM #
Interesting post. Maybe that explains why it takes so long for me to copy my iPhoto library to a backup drive. Seems like forever ...
Jan 3, 2008 9PM #
wow :O i never knew that. Thats so cool because i have a mac cpu!!!!
but i don't upload pics like duh >:|
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