My problem is in regards file copying performance. We have a media management system that requires a lot of moving files around on the file system to different locations inc
You'll never going to able to beat the operating system at doing something so fundemental with your own code, not even if you crafted it carefully in assembler.
If you need make sure that your operations occur with the best performance AND you want to mix and match various sources then you will need to create a type that describes the resource locations. You then create an API that has functions such as Copy that takes two such types and having examined the descriptions of both chooses the best performing copy mechanism. E.g., having determined that both locations are windows file locations you it would choose File.Copy OR if the source is windows file but the destination is to be HTTP POST it uses a WebRequest.