SOLVED Why is Windows 8.1 so slow extracting .zip files? Or is it my Intel?

[Alaric]

I'm running an i5 2500k at stock speeds and it takes way too long to extract 35 Mb to 40 Mb .zip files. It's a brand new 8.1 install, and CPU and memory usage are nowhere near the limits. My girlfriend's 8.1 is kind of slow at it, but nowhere near this bad. Could her FX octo-core be aging well compared to my 2500k?

 

[Mr.Scott]

Is it really slow?......or is it just your patience showing.

 

[Alaric]

Fair question. I'll unzip one of the files in question and time it. Back with results shortly.

 

[EarthDog]

What are comparing it to that you are blaming the OS? Only way to see is to do the same thing on the same hardware with a different os.

Is this a zip file on a drive (hdd/ssd or usb?) and you're extracting it to the same drive? Or usb..or... ?

Also, running an octo against a quad...there's IPC and clock differences, I get that, but if an extraction can use 8c/t it may be faster.

Knowing how long it takes isnt going to help much... we dont have the same file you do to compare...

 

[Alaric]

45 MB compressed to 46.1 MB uncompressed, USB wifi driver file (TP-Link) in 3:21. Seems slow to me.
It takes less than 30 sec. on my Skylake (W7) rig. I'll extract the file on the FX W8.1 rig next and see what's what.

 

[Alaric]

OK, three conclusions: A) Mr. Scott was on to something.... B) Extracting the contents of a zip file on a flash drive is slow, and C) Not much difference at all between rigs. The FX/8.1 came in last at 4.98 seconds, the i5 2500k/8.1 came in second at 4.51 seconds, and the W7 Skylake rig first at 4 seconds flat.

Apparently extracting the contents on the same flash drive is ridiculously slow on all of them (3-4 minutes). On the desktop (All SSD boot drives) it was a non-event. Copying the file from a USB 3.0 flash drive was a lot faster on the W7/Skylake rig, but it's the fastest rig by far of the three, so no real surprise there. Well, this was interesting. Is flash IC really that slow? Is it the time to route everything through USB channels that slows it down? I got answers, but I got more questions, too. Dagnabbit.

 

[EarthDog]

... That's why I asked for details and specifically if it was on usb.

Yep... that's why I asked that info...was wondering if you were trying to extract on to itself. USB sticks, most, are pretty slow and when you're reading and writing to them at the same time... it makes sense. Dont hesitate to share details in the first post.

 

[Alaric]

I was running around the house tying up computers by the time you asked. LOL I previously had no idea extracting/writing to the same flash drive was so much slower. I wasted a lot of time over the years installing/running programs on offline rigs that way. Is the nand that different, or is it a spec the manufacturers just never thought about?

 

[EarthDog]

Why? I don't know. I just knew that because of doing it for well over a decade.

 

[Alaric]

I guess I used the time for other tasks. That scenario only showed up when setting up a fresh install or fixing a borked OS. I save a lot of installers for various things, but most people don't so i just installed from a USB drive and deleted later. I suppose I wrote off the extra time to the scenario before. My current new OS is being a headache so I started nitpicking and finally noticed it. I feel smarter, yet dumber, at the same time.

 

[trents]

It also needs to be said that there is a huge difference between one flash drive and another as far as transfer speeds go. Cheap flash drives are way slower than higher end Sandisks, for instance. Often, cheap flash drives poor performance is covered up in advertising by highlighting their usb 3 connection attribute when they are actually slower than a good USB 2 flash drive. Another trick the cheap ones use is emphasizing read speed at the expense of write speed, though I think they all read faster than they right. The type of nand and memory controller on flash drives can make a huge difference in how they perform compared to one another.

 

[Alaric]

I'm using a Kington Data Traveler. It copies files to the drive fast enough, and pretty fast from the drive, but extracting a .zip file from and to the same drive is ridiculously slow.

 

[Mr.Scott]

Normal.

 

[Alaric]

But why is that normal? Does anyone besides the Flash Drive Wizards know? Do they use the nand that the industry would otherwise throw out when binning? LOL

 

[EarthDog]

I'd gather it has something to do with its controller and its ability to deal with the NAND. I'm just guessing here, but maybe it has something to do with many of these only having a single chip? No clue. My river does not run deep here, lol.