after doing some research to find out if TeraCopy was faster than Windows 7 I found out there are other file copiers that are fast, I decided to pit the two considered the best/fastest together with windows... these tests were done with no Anti-Virus running or other background processes.
here are my findings ("in" refers to external-to-internal drive and "out" refers to the opposite)
one 827Mb file:FastCopy = 32 seconds in - 36 seconds out
TeraCopy = 36 seconds in - 36 seconds out
Windows = 40 seconds in - 39 seconds out
one 1.92Gb file:FastCopy = 76 seconds in - 85 seconds out
TeraCopy = 83 seconds in - 86 seconds out
Windows = 91 seconds in - 90 seconds out
2.16Gb of Music Tracks:FastCopy = 86 seconds in - 98 seconds out
TeraCopy = 98 seconds in - 102 seconds out
Windows = 100 seconds in - 142 seconds out
772 documents totaling 347Mb:FastCopy = 16 seconds in - 20 seconds out
TeraCopy = 19 seconds in - 22 seconds out
Windows = 23 seconds in - 33 seconds out
As you can see FastCopy is the quickest, but not by much as Teracopy is very close behind and almost as quick when copying out to ext. drive, windows is a bit slower, especially when copying out to ext. drive.
FastCopy may be the quickest but TeraCopy integrates into windows better and has a nicer interface with progress bars, it also has the option to Pause during copying, FastCopy can be integrated into windows too
but... when 'pasting' you have to right-click and choose
Paste (fastcopy) from the menu and then when its copy window appears you have to click the "execute" button ...this alone can add 3-5 seconds onto the copying time, whereas TeraCopy you can simply use CTRL+C and CTRL+V with no interaction from you at all, it replaces windows copier.
FastCopy has some advanced buffer settings that allows you to adjust buffer sizes which may improve (or worsen) copy times, I think if you copy a LOT of files a LOT of the time then FastCopy is for you - but if most of your copying (like me) is out to an external drive then TeraCopy would be better.
you can have both TeraCopy and FastCopy installed and use either/or - both have to be integrated into windows via their options, once you have done so; to use TeraCopy simply use Copy/Paste or CTRL+C/CTRL+V - to use FastCopy use Copy/CTRL+C and to paste Right-Click and choose PASTE (FASTCOPY) then press enter which clicks the 'execute' button that appears, or click on it with mouse.
TeraCopy ->
http://codesector.com/teracopy/FastCopy ->
http://ipmsg.org/tools/fastcopy.html.en