This article provides a list of inbuilt and third party file copying and moving software -

utilities A public utility company (usually just utility) is an organization that maintains the infrastructure for a public service (often also providing a service using that infrastructure). Public utilities are subject to forms of public control and r ...

and other

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...

used, as part of

computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...

file management A file manager or file browser is a computer program that provides a user interface to manage files and folders. The most common operations performed on files or groups of files include creating, opening (e.g. viewing, playing, editing or p ...

, to explicitly

move Move may refer to: People * Daniil Move (born 1985), a Russian auto racing driver Brands and enterprises * Move (company), an online real estate company * Move (electronics store), a defunct Australian electronics retailer * Daihatsu Move Go ...

and copy files and other

data In the pursuit of knowledge, data (; ) is a collection of discrete values that convey information, describing quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpreted ...

on demand from one location to another on a storage device. File copying is a fundamental operation for data storage. Most popular

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...

s such as

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

and

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

as well as

smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...

operating systems such as Android contain built-in file copying functions as well as command line (CLI) and graphical (GUI) interfaces to filing system copy and move functions. In some cases these can be replaced or supplemented by third-party software for different, extended, or improved functionality. This article lists inbuilt as well as external software designed for this purpose.

Related software

For software designed to copy, clone, image or

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

entire storage devices such as CDs,

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

disks,

hard drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnet ...

s and storage device partitions, back up data, copiers that work on storage devices as a logical unit, and more general file managers and other utilities related to file copying software, please see:

Functionality and demands met by file copy software

Examples of comparable operating functionality seen across file copying programs: :* Criteria for original files and target location: typically a location and criteria for selection within that location) and destination location :* Existing target files: action to take in relation to existing files in target location (if a file already exists, does not exist, or other files exist) ::: A subtlety in handling existing files is whether such files are overwritten on attempting to copy, or they are renamed (or the target temporarily named) and only removed once the replacement file has been verified. :* Verification: actions taken to ensure integrity of resulting compared to original files :* Queuing: how multiple operations, or operations on large files (or large numbers of files) should be scheduled and prioritized, and any queue management :* Operator confirmations and warnings: whether and when to request confirmation of an action :* File properties: whether to copy

file attribute File attributes are a type of meta-data that describe and may modify how files and/or directories in a filesystem behave. Typical file attributes may, for example, indicate or specify whether a file is visible, modifiable, compressed, or encrypted. ...

timestamp A timestamp is a sequence of characters or encoded information identifying when a certain event occurred, usually giving date and time of day, sometimes accurate to a small fraction of a second. Timestamps do not have to be based on some absolut ...

s, and permissions :* Filing system idiosyncrasies: for example, Windows filing systems may also track " 8.3" short filenames or may be unable to correctly handle

long file name Long filename (LFN) support is Microsoft's backward-compatible extension of the 8.3 filename (short filename) naming scheme used in DOS. Long filenames can be more descriptive, including longer filename extensions such as .jpeg, .tiff, .html, a ...

s :* Program flow and algorithms: multi-threading, buffering, data speed/priority, interruption/restart handling, atomicity/integrity assurance, and other

algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific Computational problem, problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specificat ...

s that affect efficiency of operation. ::: A notable function here relates to options determining whether the underlying file system will be requested to perform a move operation, a copy operation, or create or delete a new

junction point The NTFS file system defines various ways to redirect files and folders, e.g., to make a file point to another file or its contents without making a copy of it. The object being pointed to is called the target. Such file is called a hard or symbo ...

(

hard link In computing, a hard link is a directory entry (in a directory-based file system) that associates a name with a file. Thus, each file must have at least one hard link. Creating additional hard links for a file makes the contents of that file acc ...

), if this will meet the needs of the requested action. Moving, linking and delinking can be much faster and lower risk then copying, but are not always desirable or available. In particular they may not be available when the source and destination are on different logical devices or on devices that do not easily allow moving of existing data. In some cases a "copy and delete" operation may be unavoidable in performing a file move. :* Variants on pure copy and move: whether to create just the folders (

directories Directory may refer to: * Directory (computing), or folder, a file system structure in which to store computer files * Directory (OpenVMS command) * Directory service, a software application for organizing information about a computer network's u ...

) in the source, or create files as "null" (empty), rather than copy all data :* Status, error, and status reporting: error handling, and any logs or reports produced of the operation(s), while running or upon completion :* Compatible devices and filing systems: usable/unusable types of storage device and filing systems :* System administration and networking capabilities: for example, copying across networks and other network management aspects, remote use, authentication. Generic differentiators and functions as software: :* Flexibility and configurability: options, skins, extensibility/plugins :* Operating system choice:

cross platform In computing, cross-platform software (also called multi-platform software, platform-agnostic software, or platform-independent software) is computer software that is designed to work in several computing platforms. Some cross-platform software r ...

? :* Operating system integration: whether the software is inbuilt, separate, or is separate but can replace inbuilt functions :* Interfaces:

command line A command-line interpreter or command-line processor uses a command-line interface (CLI) to receive commands from a user in the form of lines of text. This provides a means of setting parameters for the environment, invoking executables and pro ...

GUI The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inste ...

API An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how ...

script Script may refer to: Writing systems * Script, a distinctive writing system, based on a repertoire of specific elements or symbols, or that repertoire * Script (styles of handwriting) ** Script typeface, a typeface with characteristics of handw ...

Review

''Gizmo's Freeware'' published a basic comparison review of a range of well-known third party file copying software on

FastCopy FastCopy computer software is a file and directory copier that runs under Microsoft Windows. It was originally open-source, under the GPLv3 license, but later freeware releases reported "Due to various circumstances, distribution of the source c ...

was given top place, being highest speed and also light on system resources (the author states it uses its own cache to avoid slowing other software, and the

Win32 The Windows API, informally WinAPI, is Microsoft's core set of application programming interfaces (APIs) available in the Microsoft Windows operating systems. The name Windows API collectively refers to several different platform implementations th ...

API and C runtime rather than MFC). Ultracopier was recognised as having a well-developed GUI interface. Unstoppable Copier was well regarded as a niche copier designed for best results with damaged media and files, but at a cost of speed. TeraCopy was also mentioned below these as also worth considering. More recently, Raymond CC's blog reviewed a similar range of software on Windows versions XP, 7, and 8, and also ranked FastCopy as the overall speed winner.15 Free File Copy Tools Tested for the Fastest Transfer Speeds
"Updated 4 years ago" as of 2020-06-19 at Raymond CC's blog. Both reviews are over four years old.

List

Operating system commands: *

Peripheral Interchange Program Peripheral Interchange Program (PIP) was a utility to transfer files on and between devices on Digital Equipment Corporation's computers. It was first implemented on the PDP-6 architecture by Harrison "Dit" Morse early in the 1960s. It was subse ...

* cp * mv *

copy (command) Copy may refer to: *Copying or the product of copying (including the plural "copies"); the duplication of information or an artifact **Cut, copy and paste, a method of reproducing text or other data in computing **File copying **Photocopying, a pr ...

xcopy In computing, XCOPY is a command used on IBM PC DOS, MS-DOS, IBM OS/2, Microsoft Windows, FreeDOS, ReactOS, and related operating systems for copying multiple files or entire directory trees from one directory to another and for copying files a ...

– Windows copy utility included until

Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...

and now deprecated in favour of

Robocopy Robocopy, for "Robust File Copy", is a command-line directory and/or file replication command for Microsoft Windows. Robocopy functionally replaces Xcopy, with more options. Created by Kevin Allen and first released as part of the Windows NT 4.0 ...

– Windows xcopy replacement with more options, introduced as a standard feature in

and

Windows Server 2008 Windows Server 2008 is the fourth release of the Windows Server operating system produced by Microsoft as part of the Windows NT family of the operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on February 4, 2008, and generally to retail on Fe ...

Notable third-party file transfer software include: *

* RichCopy *

Rclone Rclone is an open source, multi threaded, command line computer program to manage or migrate content on cloud and other high latency storage. Its capabilities include sync, transfer, crypt, cache, union, compress and mount. The rclone websit ...

– open source, used with cloud storage *

rsync rsync is a utility for efficiently transferring and synchronizing files between a computer and a storage drive and across networked computers by comparing the modification times and sizes of files. It is commonly found on Unix-like operat ...

– open source GPL copy utility for Windows and UNIX-like operating systems *

TeraCopy TeraCopy is a freemium file transfer utility designed as an alternative for the built-in Windows Explorer file transfer feature. Its focus is data integrity, file transfer reliability and the ability to pause or resume file transfers. Design ...

Ultracopier Ultracopier is file-copying software for Windows, macOS, and Linux. It supersedes ''SuperCopier''. Features Main features include: *pause/resume transfers *dynamic speed limitation *on-error resume *error/collision management *data security * ...

, which is the

Supercopier Ultracopier is file-copying software for Windows, macOS, and Linux. It supersedes ''SuperCopier''. Features Main features include: *pause/resume transfers *dynamic speed limitation *on-error resume *error/collision management *data security * ...

evolution

References

{{Reflist * File copying software File copying software Unix software Windows administration Data synchronization

Related software

Functionality and demands met by file copy software

Review

List

See also

References