What is the best way to hook up several HD's

DaMaGeLIVE said:

That's a lot of data lol. If you're only backing up, why not get a drobo?

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eaglepi said:

I have been having issues ever since I built this sytem of very very slow transfer speeds, not sure if a different config would help.. when I backup and transfer data from one drive to another I get mid 20's MB per second which is a joke but I am not a power user so i put up with it.

I noticed that it gets really slow when going from a internal to a external and that is why I am considering putting all of them in the system by buying a new case..

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eaglepi said:

I have what I have and I just want to knowhow best to configure them...I want speed and I will use for backup. I have to laugh, whenever I ask someone something aboiut what I have and how to best use it, someone always goes off the subject and wants me to spend more money..........lol I have 3.5TB now and don't use 500GB so I have plenty od space
I can understand why they might suggest spending more money since you have 500GB of data on drives inside the case. You have 3 500GB drives inside the case two of which are alike that might be raidable. The other brand 500GB drive is not suggested to be put in raid with the other two.

I have been having issues ever since I built this sytem of very very slow transfer speeds, not sure if a different config would help.. when I backup and transfer data from one drive to another I get mid 20's MB per second which is a joke but I am not a power user so i put up with it.
You do n0t say but we assume as below that any backups are being done to an external Usb drive.You do not say if you are transferrring data from one 500GB internal drive to another internal 500GB drive and than internal to internal drive is only working at 20MBs. That WOULD be slow.

I noticed that it gets really slow when going from a internal to a external and that is why I am considering putting all of them in the system by buying a new case..
Tranferring files from internal drives no matter how they are configured will be slower when transferring to external Usb 2.0 drive.


OH for the record the comment about someone always wantingme to spend more money was just joking no harm meant...
No harm no foul.

Thanks

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RGone said:

Google search terms >> nas faster than usb

Highlighted hits:

USB 2.0 = 480mbps (theoretical). USB 2.0 based external hard drive will be faster than a 10/100 NAS device

In theory, writing to a NAS with Gigabit LAN connection should be faster than writing to a USB 2.0 7200RPM Drive, but in practice it isn't

Modern ethernet is gigabit, which is potentially faster than high speed USB 2, but in practice this varies

Now links to the page where I copied those highlights above from. There were some interesting hits there that would warrant a little study of.

Now of course in anything computer related there are always varying opinions. But in general the more information, the better the suggestions. My guess is that you have the <500GB of data scattered across at least 2 of your internal 500GB drives. That would make sense because a FULL 500GB drive is slow. The fuller a platter drive becomes, the slower it becomes overall when working with data. That has been told me now nearly 15 years.

With the previous paragraph considered, it would seem at least one good idea might be to Raid 0 two of the alike 500GB internal drives you have. That would spread < 500GB of current data across an array that is 1TB in size.

Then move one of your Usb 2.0 1TB size drives into a good external eSata enclosure and make whatever changes are needed to have that 'now' eSata 1TB drive to connect to the computer at eSata speeds. Use a script as suggested above to back up the raid array with your data to the eSata 1TB hard drive and your speed of transfer and backtup to that 'now' eSata drive should be markedly faster.

This assumes the raid 0 array is backed up to the 1TB 'now' eSata drive and that any data on the other lone 500GB drive is or can be backed up to the 'still' operational 1TB external Usb 2.0 drive.

Something along those lines is / or would seem to be a more logical use of your current parts and pieces. Of course you would have to setup the array internally and reload windows on the raid 0 array at least in my mind. At least that is what I would do. Of course YMMV.

One last note: Yes there is the expense of making one of those Usb 2.0 1TB drives into a working eSata configuration, but short of that there is not a really faster way to get data ONTO that drive from internal drives. End last note.

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