TeraCopy is a free file-copier application designed to speed up and enhance the file copying process, the task that most of us perform using the default Windows function. Yes, the Windows built-in file copy system usually works fine, but what if you could get the highest possible copy speeds, stability and error handling? Of course, it wouldn’t make much of a difference when you are copying two pictures and an audio track. However, things are not the same when it comes to large files/folders such as movies, photo and music collections.
Installation & Requirements
TeraCopy’s capabilities are definitely not revealed by the setup file’s size, which is less than 3 MB large. The install process is very fast with only a few configuration options, namely the install folder’s path and creating a desktop icon and associations with .md5 and .sfv files. Even if TeraCopy is free for non-commercial use, the installation doesn’t contain any form of adware.
TeraCopy works on Windows XP, 2000, Vista and 7, with no additional hardware requirements, which was to be expected from such a lightweight utility.
Interface
Since TeraCopy actually replaces the cut/copy/paste functions in Windows Explorer, so the program’s interface pops up every time you perform a file transfer operation. Of course you can always open it like you do with any other application and deploy the file copy/move process from there.
The interface is very simple and you’ll have absolutely no problems using it, even the first time. It also comes with an essential and an extended mode that provides additional information and options. The essential layout displays two progress bars: one for the file that is currently copied and another for the destination. The button titled More/Less allows you to switch between view modes.
Right below the first progress bar there are several buttons that you can enable/disable for system shutdown, eject drive, run test and close window after transfer completion. If you choose to start a file transfer from within the interface instead of using cut/copy/paste in Windows Explorer, the “Copy to” and “Move to” options will be enabled (by default these are grayed out). As TeraCopy benefits of Windows Explorer integration, the menu that appears when right-clicking on a file also includes an option with the program’s name that opens an additional interface. From here you can select the file transfer mode (move or copy), add the files to TeraCopy, test them and permanently delete them from disk.
Returning to the main GUI the default functions resume, skip and cancel are also present along with the clean up, verify, delete (for source files) and menu options located at the bottom of the extended UI. The program’s settings reside under the Preferences options located in the Menu function. Here, you can tweak a few aspects of TeraCopy such as enable/disable the program as the default copy handler, add to Explorer context menu, change the language and the progress bar colors, and various file transfer related options, such as check free space and audio notification at transfer completion.
Pros
– Small utility with very simple install process.
– Through shell integration, it completely replaces Windows Explorer copy and move functions.
– Reliable error handling: the program attempts to recover in case of an error, but even if it fails the program skips the file
– Preserves the original dates of the file when copying/moving them.
Cons
– Clean up option only works when the file transfer is completed.
– There are no significant improvements to copy speed.
Alternatives
From the list of file-copier utilities, you may want to try SuperCopier, another comprehensive application with low memory usage. FastCopy is also very capable, especially when it comes to reducing the copy speed, the only downside being its outdated interface.
Conclusion
While you may not see drastically reduced copy speeds, TeraCopy seamlessly integrates into Windows operating systems and comes with reliable error handling capabilities so that your file transfers will not be terminated.
