FAQ and Knowledge Base

Scan Acceleration is a new feature available since ViceVersa PRO version 5.

With Scan Acceleration, you can speed up the folder scanning phase of a profile significantly in certain scenarios. The scanning phase is when all the information is collected from Source and Target folder(s) to initiate the comparison and then to work out which files or folder need to be copied, based on their attributes / timestamps and based on the selected execution method in ViceVersa.

It can take a significant amount of time to scan all files - if there are a lot of files to scan. Scan Acceleration can make that a lot faster, up to 10 times faster, in some cases.

How Scan Acceleration Works

Scan Acceleration builds an index of the drive before the actual scanning occurs. The index will make the scanning faster. The index is kept in memory during the scanning phase, and it is then deleted once done.

Watch Scan Acceleration Video

Requirements to Use Scan Acceleration

To use Scan Acceleration, the following requirements must be met:

1. ViceVersa must be running by a user with Administrative Privileges ("as Administrator"). Some USB drives can be indexed without Administrative Privileges, but generally Administrative Privileges are required. VVEngine and VVLauncher always run with Administrative Privileges. To run ViceVersa as administrator, right-click on the ViceVersa icon / program and select "Run as Administrator".

2. The drive to be indexed must be a Local Drive, e.g. an internal HDD, SSD or an external drive (USB, etc.). Drives over the network, cloud, or mapped drives are not supported for Scan Acceleration.

3. The drive must be formatted as NTFS. This is the default file system on Windows. HFS, FAT, exFAT, EXT and all other file system types cannot be indexed, so Scan Acceleration will not be possible. In ViceVersa select View->Drive Information from the main menu to view the file system of each drive that is present on the system.

How to Enable Scan Acceleration

The Drive Indexing / Scan Acceleration option is in Profile Settings->Folders in ViceVersa. Click on the link 'Set Drive Indexing Options (Scan Acceleration)'. A dialog box will open where you can enable Scan Acceleration for Source, for Target or for both. When you then run the profile, ViceVersa will use Scan Acceleration for Source, Target or both as specified. If Scan Acceleration cannot be used, because the drive does not support it, ViceVersa will advise with a warning. If multiple folders in the
same profile are all on the same drive, the drive will be indexed only once.

Scan Acceleration and Volume Shadow Copies

Scan Acceleration can also be used with Volume Shadow Copies. If you are using the option "Use 'Volume Shadow Copy' to copy open files" in Profile Settings -> Advanced Settings, then you can enable Scan Acceleration.

Scan Acceleration Use Cases

• Accelerate mirror / sync / replication of files between two USB drives (both formatted as NTFS)
• Accelerate mirror / sync / replication of files between two local HDD / SDD or from HDD / SDD to or from USB drive (all formatted as NTFS)
• Accelerate mirror / sync / replication of files between local HDD / SDD / USB drive to network path (scan acceleration enabled for local drive formatted as NTFS)
• Accelerate mirror / sync / replication of files between HDD / SDD / NAS (all formatted as NTFS)