A client data recovery process led to a useful tool which improved the transfer speed through the use of multiple threads – the issue was that the backup repositiory had many folders with large numbers of small files which made up a substantial amount of data. The data was stored in a vmware vm backup which had its disks mounted on a vmware workstation install. The data was copied out to an external disk but took a very substantial amount of time. As a comparison I re-ran the same procedure and found that the transfer time could be reduced to a fraction by using Richcopy as an alternative to the venerable Robocopy.
Once the app is installed you need to select a source and destination for the transfer and then go into the options to set the number of threads for file copy and directory copy as these will need to suit the amounts and type of both. In my case I used 10 as a test value and it seemed to perform well.
So if you are planning to move large volumes of small files why not take Richcopy for a spin.