system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why does it take a lot of time to move, let's say, 600GB of archives between two folders in Windows 10, but it's almost instantaneous to move the folder itself (with all those archives inside) to another?
gpt
The way the file system works is that the windows explorer hierarchy is just pointers to the actual physical location on the drive.  And moving stuff between different folders in the windows explorer hierarchy isnt moving the actual data.  It only moves the actual data if you're trying to move it between two different drives.  

It's like you have a lot of junk in your garage and you created a filing cabinet with different folders with paper that that specifies where something is in the garage.  You move a piece of paper from one folder in the filing cabinet to another folder.  That's fast right?