Slow Copy speeds

jayz · Jan 7, 2010

I have windows 7 x64 with good speeds all round, but when transfering movies through a usb port to an external drive, usually 700mb in size the system transfers at 200-300 MBs for a few seconds then slows down to 3 or 4 mbs speed. Is this the CPU or is there a hidden setting that would speed up the transfers. I have to wait 10-15 minutes to finish. Thanks!

My set up:
Windows 7 x64 ultimate
Phenom X2 545
OCZ core series 2 60 GB SSD
4 GB memory

to a Seagate free agent drive USB 2.0

EarthDog · Jan 7, 2010

I dont remember specifically what I transfer(ed) at with my Seagate FA, but it was WAY faster than that IIRC. Heck, my NAS box only gets 3-4MB and thats over the network. USB should be faster than that.

200-300MB sounds WAY too fast though. The drive inside the FA cant read or write at that speeds outside USB.

ThePerfectCore · Jan 7, 2010

It goes 200-300MB for a few seconds because it's filling up the cache, then it hits the limit and slows down to the real speed.

Check that:

-You're using a USB 2.0 port. Seriously, some of those USB port extenders for ports on the front/sides of the case only do 1.1 speeds.
-The USB hub (if you're using one) isn't the problem, plug it directly into the computer.
-The USB cable isn't bad.
-The hard disk enclosure really does USB 2.0. Even having "USB 2.0!" on the box doesn't mean it'll really do 2.0 speeds. Some manufacturers buy USB controller chips that can do 2.0 speeds and then attach them to an interface circuits that only do 1.1 just so they can advertise the thing as a USB 2.0 device. Shady, but it happens. I doubt your Seagate really has this problem though.
-The hard disk itself isn't crapping out.
-That something isn't saturating the PCI bus.
-The cluster size on the hard disk isn't something horribly tiny. If you're moving 700MB+ files, your cluster size should be as large as possible.

Also, try the disk on another computer.

Seagate enclosures are such trash. I'm sorry you have to deal with one.

jayz · Jan 7, 2010

Good external drive

ThePerfectCore said:
It goes 200-300MB for a few seconds because it's filling up the cache, then it hits the limit and slows down to the real speed.

Check that:

-You're using a USB 2.0 port. Seriously, some of those USB port extenders for ports on the front/sides of the case only do 1.1 speeds.
-The USB hub (if you're using one) isn't the problem, plug it directly into the computer.
-The USB cable isn't bad.
-The hard disk enclosure really does USB 2.0. Even having "USB 2.0!" on the box doesn't mean it'll really do 2.0 speeds. Some manufacturers buy USB controller chips that can do 2.0 speeds and then attach them to an interface circuits that only do 1.1 just so they can advertise the thing as a USB 2.0 device. Shady, but it happens. I doubt your Seagate really has this problem though.
-The hard disk itself isn't crapping out.
-That something isn't saturating the PCI bus.
-The cluster size on the hard disk isn't something horribly tiny. If you're moving 700MB+ files, your cluster size should be as large as possible.

Also, try the disk on another computer.

Seagate enclosures are such trash. I'm sorry you have to deal with one.

Thanks! i didn't think of the cache, what is a good external hdd? i was going to upgrade to a terabyte sized one for torrents.I will get one with firewire or esata connections, my mobo has all those.

TollhouseFrank · Jan 9, 2010

if you are getting an external HD, the fastest will be ESATA (assuming you have an ESATA connection available). If not, the next fastest will be a NAS with gigabit connection.

Slow Copy speeds

jayz

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