Copying big files = high server load?

[edge]

When copying files (4GB iso's) on one of my servers from one directory to an other, the server load average shown by the command top gets really high: (server load: 11.96, 11.20, 5.87). The rest shown by "top" looks okay.

Anyone here who might know what could cause this high load?

[Hans]

The server load represents the number of processes waiting to access the CPU.
So if you copy huge files and this process has a high priority on your server, other processes have to wait. This is why the server load increases.

[edge]

Thank you Hans. I understand the "processes waiting to access the CPU" part.

But why with copying big files? It's not that I'm scanning the file.. It's just a simple copy the file from A to B.
Does copy take that many processes¿

[Hans]

Copying huge files and making backups will normally cause a higher load on most servers. As far as i know the server load is to do with the CPU, not RAM.
When huge files are being copied, it has to pass the CPU so...