Users may observe significant network bandwidth used when moving files between two different locations within the same ShareCenter. The network overhead required to move files between two locations within the same ShareCenter is dependent on whether the source and destination directory reside on the same or different physical or logical volume.
Physical and Logical Volumes
All ShareCenter models treat multiple volumes on the same HDD as separate volumes although they reside on the same HDD. Volumes on different physical HDDs within the same ShareCenter are rightfully treated as distinct physical volumes (e.g. Volume_1 and Volume_2).
The DNS-320/325 treat the native P2P folder and primary data folder (Volume_1) as two separate logical volumes, although both reside on the same physical HDD. Due to this treatment, a networked PC will perceive the two volumes as two separate HDDs.
This behavior is indicative of storage in general and is not unique to the ShareCenter. Similarly, moving files between two partitions on the same HDD in a PC exhibits identical behavior.
Network Utilization: Local vs. Remote
Moving a file between two physical or logical volumes using a PC uses local network resources to perform the transfer, because the file is moved from the ShareCenter to the local memory of the PC and back to the ShareCenter. In actuality, the moved file is copied to the destination location and then deleted from the source location.
Conversely, moving a file between folders within the same logical volume (e.g. between two folders local to the same volume) will not require this local network overhead. In this instance, a moved file is not copied, but rather the volume address directory simply redirects (as a pointer) the location of the moved file from the source location to the destination location. Since no copying is performed, no network resources are utilized to complete this function.
Minimizing Network Utilization when Moving Files between Logical/Physical Volumes
If you must manually move files between these two volumes, you will have the best results using the PC with the fastest network connection. You can avoid using local network when moving files between these two volumes using the ShareCenter on-board backup application. Conversely, using the Web File Server function (in supported ShareCenter models) will perform this copying using memory local to the ShareCenter, without consuming network bandwidth or local PC memory.