MOVE AND COPY
Choose transfer behavior, then keep browsing.
Status: Production
RFile exposes multiple transfer backends. Engine preference is captured by newly queued jobs, while the resolver can use a compatible fallback when an operation needs behavior the selected engine does not provide.
Feature status
- Robocopy: Production
Recommended for eligible ordinary local folder transfers on Windows.
- Velocity Rust: Production
RFile's general and recovery transfer path with verification, bandwidth controls, and compatible resumable checkpoints.
- Windows Native: Production
Eligible copy-only local NTFS folder jobs through IFileOperation; other shapes use a compatible fallback.
Transfer engines
- Robocopy (Production)
A mature multithreaded Windows transfer option. RFile recommends it for compatible ordinary local folder jobs, including jobs whose only advanced NTFS content is a named stream such as Zone.Identifier.
- Velocity Rust (Production)
RFile's available general-purpose and recovery engine. It includes bandwidth controls, compatible resumable 64 MiB checkpoints, size or content-hash verification, and identity-bound publication and move handling. Unsupported shapes still fail closed.
- Windows Native (Production)
Uses IFileOperation for eligible ordinary folder copies between fixed local NTFS locations. The direct path is copy-only and requires compatible Keep both, verification and destination rules; availability is not universal Explorer parity.
Choose settings for new jobs
Settings stores the transfer engine, verification mode, resource mode, per-job and global bandwidth limits, and durable-checkpoint preference. Engine, verification, per-job bandwidth, and checkpoints are captured by newly queued local work. Global bandwidth and resource mode apply to the scheduler immediately.
- Verification
Choose None, file-size checking, BLAKE3, or SHA-256. A requested verification mode can require the resolver to use a compatible engine.
- Resource mode
Choose Automatic, Maximum speed, Balanced, or Background for newly queued work.
- Bandwidth
Set whole-number MiB/s limits per job and across local transfers. Zero means unlimited.
- Durable checkpoints
Enable 64 MiB checkpoints for compatible Velocity Rust work. RFile safely resolves an incompatible engine preference instead of pretending another backend supports them.
- Name conflicts
Choose Ask every time, Keep both, Replace, or Skip for local copy and move conflicts. The compact prompt can remember a choice after a reviewed job starts, and a saved choice still passes the exact backend review before work begins.
Collision-free same-volume roots move immediately; other moves are verified
An eligible, collision-free file or folder root moved on the same volume uses RFile's identity-bound, no-replace atomic rename. This O(1) operation changes the directory entry without copying payload bytes or starting Robocopy, so it normally completes immediately. An occupied destination or folder merge takes the verified transfer path and can use Robocopy when independently eligible.
For an eligible cross-volume folder move between local fixed NTFS volumes, requested with Robocopy, Robocopy copies only into RFile's private stage. RFile never passes /MOVE or /MOV. It verifies the staged result, durably publishes the destination, and only then performs identity-bound source deletion through its own journal.
Other or ineligible cross-volume shapes—including single-file roots, mixed roots, unsupported metadata, storage topologies or transfer policies, and recovered partial work—use a safe fallback where supported or fail closed before mutation. Transfers shows the requested engine, actual engine or pre-start failure, and reason instead of claiming Robocopy ran when it did not.
Follow a transfer
A new local job appears immediately in the Transfers popup while RFile checks for conflicts and starts the selected engine. Active jobs stay visible there and on the dedicated Transfers page while you continue browsing. Depending on the job, the interface can show transferred bytes, total bytes, item counts, elapsed time, remaining time, and current throughput.
For local jobs, Transfers reports the requested engine and the actual engine selected by the resolver. If they differ, the card identifies the fallback and its reason instead of presenting the requested engine as the one that ran.
When conflict review fixes an exact absent final root—either the original name or a Keep both copy name—an eligible single-folder Robocopy Copy runs directly there and reports Completed after Robocopy and its required checks finish. It does not build and publish a redundant reviewed manifest stage. Replace and other publication-required jobs retain the reviewed private-stage pipeline, where Finalizing covers safe publication, verification, and durable completion recording. Cross-volume folder Cut deliberately keeps that private stage so Robocopy never owns source deletion.
A conflict-reviewed folder requested with Windows Native preselects Velocity Rust with NativeExactStageContract before manifest named-stream routing. Velocity preserves and verifies the planned stream; RFile does not relabel that job as Robocopy. This is separate from a directly requested, independently eligible Robocopy job, which stays on Robocopy and verifies its named streams.
Robocopy's observed file count is shown while the adapter runs instead of leaving file progress at zero. Observed adapter progress is distinct from a fabricated durable count.
Two local jobs can run concurrently when their source and exact destination-root authority is disjoint, including reviewed jobs whose original or Keep both final roots are already fixed. Overlapping paths remain serialized, and an unreviewed dynamic Keep both request reserves its destination conservatively until review fixes the numbered final name.
Conflict review uses a compact canonical fail-closed tree commitment through the planner ceiling of 999,999 entries. A changed tree or a job beyond that ceiling is rejected rather than partially reviewed.
Elapsed time is measured from queue acceptance through the current or terminal state. The timing row omits unavailable speed and remaining-time fields cleanly instead of leaving an empty separator.
Use Pause or Cancel only when those actions are offered for the current job. A completed job is retained as a status record; a failed or interrupted job is not reported as successful.
ZIP, TAR, and TAR.GZ creation starts as a background archive job. The card appears immediately, reports scanning or available progress and timing, can be cancelled while active, and remains through completion, cancellation, or failure until you choose Clear.
What controls transfer speed
Actual throughput is bounded by the source and destination storage, filesystem workload, CPU, memory, Windows behavior, network path, transport, and the number and size of files.
RFile does not promise one universal rate. A LAN or internet path can only move data as quickly as the participating computers, storage devices, and current network conditions allow.