Python copy larger file too slow

Question

I am trying to copy a large file (> 1 GB) from hard disk to usb drive using shutil.copy. A simple script depicting what I am trying to do is:-

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Answer 1

Your problem has nothing to do with Python. In fact, the Windows copy process is really poor compared to the Linux system.

You can improve this by using xcopy or robocopy according to this post: Is (Ubuntu) Linux file copying algorithm better than Windows 7?. But in this case, you have to make different calls for Linux and Windows...

import os
import shutil
import sys

source = "source\to\large\file"
target = "destination\directory"

if sys.platform == 'win32':
    os.system('xcopy "%s" "%s"' % (source, target))
else:
    shutil.copy(source, target)

See also:

• Actual Performance, Perceived Performance, Jeff Atwood blog post about this subject
• Windows xcopy is not working in python, which gives the syntax for using xcopy on Windows in fact