Thread: Large Binary File Copy

I am setting up a dll that automatically creates a date/time stamped copy of my Database Backup before I overwrite it with a new backup. As the DB backup has got bigger, the copy process has started to take over my processor for the 10-minutes it takes to do the copy (backup is now in the 2Gb size).

Is there a way I can change the code below to run as a 'background' process, or a way to restrict the amount of PC resource it can grab?

I am currently using a very simple:

Code:

do
	{
	dwRead = sourceFile.Read(buffer, blocksize);

	destFile.Write(buffer, dwRead);
}
while (dwRead > 0);

You could try copying the file in contiguous, but seperate, blocks with a small sleep between each block copy. I would recommend a block size of around 32KB, but you may need to experiment with this.

Your whole copy process will then take considerably longer than 10 mins, but it shouldn't hammer your CPU as much.

Thanks Davos. I originally had a sleep but thought that was 'lazy' coding - will relook at it now.

Is there any good reason for using a particular block size? You suggest 32k. Is there a reason for that size (or is it just experience)?