Adjust your Windows file transfer options through the settings menu.
Adjust your Windows file transfer options through the settings menu.
Yes, you can adjust how Windows handles file transfers. By default, transfers run in parallel, but you can change this setting to process files sequentially, queuing them one after another. This allows independent moves without simultaneous starts.
I hadn't realized there was any way before, but it's something that has always bothered me. It seems so much quicker when one transfer completes without issues, and it reduces the chances of problems occurring (for example, if a crash happens while moving 12 files, all transfers would need to be re-run and the original data could be at risk, whereas transferring one at a time keeps the risk limited to just one file).
I recall a study where researchers presented participants with progress bars of similar length that changed at different speeds, asking them to identify which felt most efficient. Bars that moved steadily or accelerated toward the end were perceived as faster, while those slowing down later seemed slower. The key takeaway is that perceived speed doesn't always match actual performance.
You bring up an important observation. While it makes sense to execute some transfers in parallel—like moving files between unrelated storage devices—certain operations should remain serialized to boost efficiency. For example, processing several files at once on the same HDDs can be more effective than doing them one after another. Doing them consecutively instead of in batches helps prevent turning sequential I/O into random I/O.
I'm almost certain that data transfer algorithms are smart enough to try to sort things out before doing the transfer. I've noticed a lot of times when I transfer files that will have conflicts, there's a period of time when nothing's happening until it asks me what I want to do with the conflicts, then it takes off from there. And depending on where the data lives, it may be faster to do operations in parallel because they can be queued up in such a way the drives effectively write sequentially.