At times, the file transfer process becomes ridiculously slow. The usual file transfer speed of 300 kbps higher drops down to a mere 20kbps! Interestingly, it is easy to get a much better file transfer speed with a few little tweaks. This tutorial contains solutions to optimize your system and get higher speed during local and over-the-network transfers.
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Disable Thumbnails
Every time you organize files using File Explorer, earlier known as Windows Explorer, the OS automatically generates a thumbnail of each file. This mechanism is a good one for previewing file contents, however it has its own drawbacks. It slows down the file operations to a great extent. File Explorer spends too much time generating thumbnail previews of different media files that are selected for either copying, moving or deleting.
- Click the File Explorer icon on the Taskbar.
- Click the View tab on the Ribbon interface.
- You will see several layout, pane and other settings. Click the Options icon on the far-right corner.
- This will open up a new dialog called Folder Options.
- Click the View tab, check the box named Always show icons, never thumbnails.
- Click Apply | OK.
Disable Remote Differential Compression
The Remote Differential Compression enables syncing data using compression techniques. This reduces the size of data sent across the network. Speed up the file copying, moving and deletion process by turning off the RDC.
- Type Windows Features in the Search box on the taskbar.
- Open Turn Windows Features On or Off from the Search Results.
- You have a new dialog consisting of a list of all Windows features. Uncheck the box labelled Remote Differential Compression and then click OK.
- In order to finish the process, a system reboot is required.
Replace Bad Ethernet Cable
A bad Ethernet cable can also be held responsible for slow data transfer. Here is what you can do in such a scenario.
- To determine whether this is the case indeed, fire up Task Manager using Ctrl + Alt + Delete keys simultaneously.
- Click the More Details icon.
- Click Performance tab > Ethernet sub tab. (Not Connected message will be displayed and the sub-tab will be greyed out in case no Ethernet cable is used during file transfer operations).
- Determine the transfer speed in terms of network utilization. If the speed is ridiculously slow, for example, 20 kbps, replace the damaged Ethernet cable.
Optimize HDD for Best Performance
Turn on write caching on the partition that contains the files that you’re copying, moving or deleting. The steps are as under:
- Double click the This PC icon on your Desktop.
- Right click the Source Partition. (Source Partition refers to the drive from where you’re trying to copy/ move/ delete files).
- Select Properties from the context menu.
- You have a new dialog named Drive Properties. Click the Hardware tab.
- Select the disk drive in question among the list of DVD ROM, Hard Disk Drive and Removable Medias, if any. Here, select the Hard Disk containing your Source Partition.
- Click the Properties button.
- In the subsequent dialog that appears, click Change Settings.
- Click the Policies tab.
- Check the box labelled Enable write caching on the device. It is highly recommended to keep the Turn off Windows write-cache buffer flushing on the device checkbox unchecked in order to safeguard your data from accidental loss in case of power surges and other uncertain factors.
- Alongside the above mentioned options, in earlier versions of Windows, you’ll find an option called Optimize for performance in the same Policies tab. Select that option to optimize your hard disk drive for best performance.
- Click OK | OK.
Turn Off Large Send Offloads
Disable the Large Send Offloads for both Internet Protocol Version 4 and 6. This will boost the data transfer speed while transmitting data over the network.
- Press Windows Key + X; choose Device Manager.
- Expand the top node; and then select Network Adapters node.
- Right-click the network card in use, select Properties.
- Click the Advanced tab in the Properties dialog box.
- Select Large Send Offload V2 (IPv4) from the Property list box, and set it to Disabled.
- Select Large Send Offload V2 (IPv6) from the Property list box, and set it to Disabled.
- Click OK, exit the Device Manager window.
- This change of settings will improve the file receiving speed once you restart the PC.
Stop Background Intelligent Transfer Service
Turning off Background Intelligent Transfer service to get best transfer speed has worked a super brain technique for many people. Use the Services tool to terminate it as below:
- Press Windows Key + R; type Services.msc and then click OK.
- Scroll down the list of services; right-click Background Intelligent Transfer Service and choose Stop.
Disable Indexing of your Drives
Windows automatically records file changes using a special service. Temporarily disable the Windows Search service using the Services tool.
Update Drivers
Download the latest drivers for your BIOS, Chipset and other devices. Visit the manufacturer’s website and navigate to the Downloads/ Drivers section. Select your system model, operating system version, system type (32/ 64 bit) and download the appropriate driver(s).
Disable TCP AutoTuning & Receive Side Scaling
TCP AutoTuning and Receive Side Scaling can drastically slow down data transfer over the network. Use the command-lines given below to turn both of these features off.
- Open an elevated Command Prompt. To do so, press Windows Key + X; choose Command Prompt (Admin).
- Execute the following commands:
- netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled
- netsh interface tcp set global rss=disabled
- exit
- After successful completion, restart your PC.
