Get faster cards and a faster card reader.
> I have to wait and leave my computer on until the files are moved.
Are we talking a few minutes, an hour? How many files? What file size? What card size?
I use 16GB CF cards, and usually have 15MB files. Even if I have a full card, a USB 3 reader only takes a few minutes.
Also, check out UltraCopier.
One simple way of verifying is just check the properties of both folders. If both folders contains just as much files, it should be OK.
If you want to be sure the file contents are exactly copied, you can, for example, use md5summer. Create a checksum file of the original folder, then verify it with the copy. If no errors occur, then the copy is exactly the same.
Maybe in the future you want to use UltraCopier or TeraCopy. They can automatically check if the copied content exactly match the original.
PrivateEye - this is good to watch everything that plays on the interwebz.. and it's free. Same for Ultracopier which is a cross-platform open source program.
(If Gatekeeper won't let you install these apps because they are from outside the AppStore, here's a short article on how to deal with that. http://www.cultofmac.com/224876/safely-install-non-mac-app-store-apps-on-your-mac-os-x-tips/)
Have fun!
Supercopier is on every computer in my computer repair shop - much better than the default file transfer (except Win 8's), and better than teracopy, IMO.
Then you'll probably have to manage things yourself. Either plan ahead and set up sequential cp
or rsync
commands in the Terminal or wait for each copy to complete.
UltraCopier is open source, but I have no idea how functional it is.
Teracopy (free) does a great job, the paid version allows for manipulating the copy queue.
Ultracopier might be worth a look, it's similar, fully free, and allows queue manipulation.
I don't think "emulators" really belong in this section. That's a gaming thing, not a quality of life thing.
That being said, there's some really good suggestions in this post. I do, however, want to say that Teracopy was AWESOME back in the day, but I found after windows 7 it's utterly useless. If anything, it causes problems. As much as it killed me to do, I stopped using it a few years ago.
If you have Win8 or higher, I would honestly avoid teracopy as the gains from it are negligible. Instead, cheack out SuperCopier4
If MD5 hashing isn't wanted/needed/required/allowed by time, then at least look into Ultra Copier http://ultracopier.first-world.info/ since I find it more reliable than Finder/Explorer (I've had Finder just copy over folder structure but not any files, WTF?) and has features like being able to pause transfers and edit buffer size, etc.
Personally, I use a custom app, Shotput licensing (getting them to reset it when I wipe/restore my systems) has become an extreme headache.