So the "big files" I was talking about in my previous post were SCORM files? I don't use SCORM, they are media files bundled in HTML/JS, I understand. Yes, then your theory sounds feasible. The bundled (zipped) file will remain in the file system repository. The unbundled files land in moodledata/filedir, roughly doubling the total space used.
But if you pull a SCORM (from the file system repository) a the second time, Moodle should "store" them in the same places in moodledata/filedir as the first time. So the total won't increase. That is, it will remain double, not triple - at least in theory. Ask the moderators to move this discussion to the SCORM forum, the specialists are there.
No, never heard of Moodle backing up the whole filedir in localcache. Definitely not in minutes. We encounter filedirs of hundreds of GB in size!
No, never heard of Moodle backing up the whole filedir in localcache. Definitely not in minutes. We encounter filedirs of hundreds of GB in size!