Big Difference In Transfer Speeds From One HDD To Another

Luckycharms_74

Hi All

I'm in the process of copying some files from Two different external HDD's to One internal HDD & the difference in transfer rate is quite noticeable.
Any help ?




I'm running

Windows 7 64bit
Crucial CT256M4SSD2 256GB m4 2.5-inch SATA 6Gb/s (SATA III) Internal SSD
WD Caviar Green 2TB SATA 6Gbps HDD
AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Box, Sockel AM3, Processor 7MB (1MB L2 +6MB L3)
Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P, AMD 770, Motherboard.
8GB GeIL PC3-12800 1600MHz Value Plus CL9 Dual Channel kit (2x4GB)

I have one of the HDD plugged in via USB at rear of tower
The other (slower one) is plugged in to the USB slot at front of tower


Edit : Sorry about the large pic earlier
Edit : Computer details added.

GreenWolfe

You'll never get the maximum quoted transfer speed, ever. What type of machine are the drives connected to? It's possible that one or more of the USB ports on your computer aren't running at the proper transfer rate. Try switching around the ports that the HDD's are connected to and see if that makes a difference.

Torqay

Both external drives are NTFS formatted?

Got videos and other large files on one drive, lots of small files on the other?

Use TeraCopy.

Luckycharms_74

EarthlyPangaea wrote: »

You'll never get the maximum quoted transfer speed, ever. What type of machine are the drives connected to? It's possible that one or more of the USB ports on your computer aren't running at the proper transfer rate. Try switching around the ports that the HDD's are connected to and see if that makes a difference.

Computer specs added in OP. I might try switching the USB.
How do I tell if USB running at wrong transfer rate ?

Luckycharms_74

Torqay wrote: »

Both external drives are NTFS formatted?

Got videos and other large files on one drive, lots of small files on the other?

Use TeraCopy.

AFAIK they are both NTFS formatted.
I'm copying video files from both HDDs to the other.
I'll check out TeraCopy

BloodBath

Only high end sata3 ssd's will get close to usb 3.0 transfer rates.

HDD's won't even max the bandwidth of usb 2.0.

I'd say the main limiting factor is the write speed of the WD caviar green.

You're not trying to copy files from both of the HDD's at the same time are you?

Luckycharms_74

BloodBath wrote: »

Only high end sata3 ssd's will get close to usb 3.0 transfer rates.

HDD's won't even max the bandwidth of usb 2.0.

I'd say the main limiting factor is the write speed of the WD caviar green.

You're not trying to copy files from both of the HDD's at the same time are you?

Yeah I was copying both HDD's at same time. Even now copying just one its still stick at 2.75MB/s. If the WD cavier green can read one at 25MB/s but not the other I assumed it was the Source HDD and not the target HDD as a problem

BloodBath

You shouldn't really copy files like that but I'm sure windows these days is smart enough to queue up the writes.

Definitely something up there then. That is very slow.

Try the HDTune free trial and test the speed of the drives.

ZENER

If you want reliable sustained transfer rates then get either eSATA or Firewire enclosures. The quoted speed for USB is the burst rate for 1 device connected to the hub.

Just because an interface is capable of a certain speed it doesn't mean the mechanism is capable of utilising it, HDD are slower (comparatively) than SDD because the head has to wait for the desired sector to appear beneath it in order to read it.

Also try checking your device manager > USB Devices section to see what ports are available on your computer, it should also show which ports the enclosures are connected to.
Ken

Luckycharms_74

Here is the analysis from Crystal Disk.

Torqay

There isn't really that much of a difference between the 2 external drives. You just shouldn't copy files from both drives simultaneously.

Luckycharms_74

Torqay wrote: »

There isn't really that much of a difference between the 2 external drives. You just shouldn't copy files from both drives simultaneously.

Yeah I get that regarding copying 2 HDD at same time. But I can't fathom why when I'm copying from the WD 1.5TB on its own its still transfers at less than 3MB/s

Luckycharms_74

Luckycharms_74 wrote: »

Yeah I get that regarding copying 2 HDD at same time. But I can't fathom why when I'm copying from the WD 1.5TB on its own its still transfers at less than 3MB/s

Check the health of the drive. Its possible that it is stuck copying some files that coincide with some bad sectors on the disk.

Luckycharms_74

I Kill You Scum! wrote: »

Check the health of the drive. Its possible that it is stuck copying some files that coincide with some bad sectors on the disk.

There was some redundancy cycle errors that's why I was coping the data from it. I now did a quick format on it but the speeds are the same. Are there any other health checks I should do ?

Freddy Smelly

Torqay wrote: »

Both external drives are NTFS formatted?

Got videos and other large files on one drive, lots of small files on the other?

Use TeraCopy.

tera copy is rubbish... i used to use that but it crashes when you try to move huge amounts of files and it was never really faster than windows.

just disable remote differential compression

http://www.trishtech.com/win7/turn_off_differential_compression_in_windows_7.php




then disable tcp autotuning and receive side scaling





How to Disable TCP AutoTuning and Receive Side Scaling

1. Open an elevated command prompt with administrator rights.
2. Type the following commands and press Enter (the second command on RSS is optional): netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled
   netsh interface tcp set global rss=disabled
3. Reboot computer.

Luckycharms_74

Luckycharms_74 wrote: »

There was some redundancy cycle errors that's why I was coping the data from it. I now did a quick format on it but the speeds are the same. Are there any other health checks I should do ?

Just download the manufacturer diagnostic. Normally you want to do a full format rather than a quick one because that's the only way you'll discover and reallocate bad sectors. But at 3MB/s that will take donkey's years.

Also download CrystalDiskInfo and check the SMART data.

yoyo

Luckycharms_74 wrote: »

There was some redundancy cycle errors that's why I was coping the data from it. I now did a quick format on it but the speeds are the same. Are there any other health checks I should do ?

CRC errors (I am assuming) are signs of a failing hard disk. I would download the diagnostics tool, and if it fails it then the drive would need replacing/sent back if under warranty

Nick

Luckycharms_74

yoyo wrote: »

CRC errors (I am assuming) are signs of a failing hard disk. I would download the diagnostics tool, and if it fails it then the drive would need replacing/sent back if under warranty

Nick

Is the diagnostics tool from the HDD manufacture ?

yoyo

The WD diagnostics utility is available here

Nick

Luckycharms_74

I think this is the one for the WD Desktop HDD.
After installing the diagnostics software, it wont let me select the External HDD N: drive to run the diagnostics.
It only allows physical drives and not logical drives. I have run as administrator.
What am I doing wrong



According to HD tune the drive should be replace

yoyo

While the SMART status is alarming, I would also recommend running a sector by sector scan of the drive. You can try using Vivard, available on the UBCD to check the hard disk for errors. Iirc this supports externals as well,

Nick

Torqay

HDTune is known to issue these warnings with perfectly healthy drives. There are more reliable testing tools. And remove the drive from the enclosure and connect it to a SATA port on the motherboard for accurate results.

Overheal

whats a good HD SMART test for handiness sake?

OP I'm going to suggest something completely different here....

Have you check each of your hard drives with Defraggler? Maybe your WD is just fragged to **** and your Seagate aint.

The drive is dead/dying. I would not use it for any important data.

If it is still in warranty you can return it.

If it's not in warranty and you really want to keep using it (as a junk drive only) then you need to do a bunch of full read/write cycles across the drive. Non-destructive read only cycles are not good enough. The best you can hope for is to flush out all the existing bad sectors so the drive doesnt use them any more. But usually once they start appearing it just snowballs and eventually the drive runs out of places to remap them to.

You were getting such slow speeds because the drive was struggling to read the data on those sectors and was trying to remap them to other parts of the drive.

Luckycharms_74

Deleted User wrote: »

The drive is dead/dying. I would not use it for any important data.

If it is still in warranty you can return it.

If it's not in warranty and you really want to keep using it (as a junk drive only) then you need to do a bunch of full read/write cycles across the drive. Non-destructive read only cycles are not good enough. The best you can hope for is to flush out all the existing bad sectors so the drive doesnt use them any more. But usually once they start appearing it just snowballs and eventually the drive runs out of places to remap them to.

You were getting such slow speeds because the drive was struggling to read the data on those sectors and was trying to remap them to other parts of the drive.

Yeah the product is in still in warrant for a couple more months. I created an RMA and will return.




Thanks man

Luckycharms_74

I create an RMA to send back the drive. I decided to do a file copy test and this is what showed up for speeds.



Weird ....lolz.

Its not trying to read/write from bad sectors any more.

Torqay

Overheal wrote: »

whats a good HD SMART test for handiness sake?

Looking for something for the goodie bag, eh?

Here ya go.

Luckycharms_74

Deleted User wrote: »

Its not trying to read/write from bad sectors any more.

I think I still had better send it back, I might get a replacement from WD.

Luckycharms_74

Luckycharms_74 wrote: »

I think I still had better send it back, I might get a replacement from WD.

Yes im not saying you shouldn't. Im just explaining how it can be slow one minute and normal the next. That's how the process of reallocating sectors works.

Once a SMART parameter goes below the threshold you are entitled to RMA it, its one of the ways a manufacturer determines the drive to be dead. They set the threshold themselves so they know what constitutes unacceptable read error rate. In fact you should be getting OS-level warnings to tell you the drive is dying, im not sure why you're not getting them. And the WD Diag should tell you the drive is dead, if you were able to run it. You have some extra issue preventing you from running that diagnostic, might be worth looking into.