What's a faster file transfer: cut or copy?

[redsmurf]

My friend and I were having a rather pointless argument. About what is a faster file transfer: CUT or COPY ?
I always assumed it was CUT since the drive isn't forced to duplicate a copy of every file. He argued that with COPY it's faster because the drive isn't forced to delete a copy every file.

Which is faster, who is right ? ?

 

[lotussama]

Copy is faster. A move (cut) is simply a copy + a delete.

 

[sturm]

It depends on if you are copying/cutting to the same hard drive or a differenct drive. Cutting on the same drive it only changes the FAT table to the new directory. Copying on the same drive it has to read the file, then write, read then write. Takes longer.
one drive to another, copy would probably be faster albeit just a little bit.