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Faster data transfer

WildW

WildW

Senior member
What's the fastest way to move lots of data (say, hundreds of GB) between two PCs in the same room? My gf and I mirror each others' stuff as a backup strategy.

Currently its a choice between easy - gigabit ethernet crossover cable, over which I never seem to get more than 40MB/sec, or fast - disconnect hard drives from one machine and attach to the other.

Any further suggestions? Is there any way to squeeze a bit more speed out of ethernet? Should it be faster and maybe I have a crappy cable?

Currently copying files just using standard Windows Explorer methods, and it can take hours. I get more like sustained 90+MB/sec over SATA.
 
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NAS storage that you each have an automated backup going to? This way there would be incremental backups and if it fails you've still got data on your systems.

If your system fails data is on the NAS. They can be gigabit as well. I thought speeds were a bit faster with gb as well. Make sure back end is gb connectivity and cat 5e or 6 cables.
 
Chances are your bottle neck with that gigabit connection is going to be the hard drives in one or both of the PCs and not the network itself. Rather than copying tons of data all the time, you can use some type of incremental backup so it only sends or syncs changes in the data rather than everything.
 
I guess I should've added that these PCs are normally 30 miles apart, and colocation is temporary. I'm really looking for a faster pc-to-pc connection. . . 10G ethernet is still crazy expensive. I have an external USB 3 hard disk that manages 60MB/sec despite being a laptop drive, but there doesn't seem to be a way to leverage that faster connection between two computers...as if I could temporarily make my PC a USB3-equipped NAS/DAS. eSATA sitting there unused too. Faster interfaces I can't get any use out of.

Perhaps if/when I get faster than 1mbit broadband some sort of VPN setup would be feasible, but for now I'm looking to minimize the time it takes when I take my computer there with me. Gigabit ethernet is starting to feel very . . . . Pentium 4 era.
 
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The drives all manage 100+MB/sec when copying within the same PC. The real question is why can't gigabit ethernet go above 40MB/sec . . . a quick search revealed this isn't uncommon. Perhaps it's just the combination of factors, latency and so on.

I've not tested it since recently upgrading the other PC's motherboard, so perhaps the on-board ethernet was sat on a PCI bus on the old one.
 
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I get 90 mb/s sequential when transferring from/to a wd green drive to my laptop (hdd) over gigabit ethernet (and through a switch). So yeah seem to be an issue either with the cable or the Ethernet controller itself.
 
WildW said:
The drives all manage 100+MB/sec when copying within the same PC. The real question is why can't gigabit ethernet go above 40MB/sec . . . a quick search revealed this isn't uncommon. Perhaps it's just the combination of factors, latency and so on.

I've not tested it since recently upgrading the other PC's motherboard, so perhaps the on-board ethernet was sat on a PCI bus on the old one.
Click to expand...

things to try:

-different cables
-put a switch in between the PC's
-get better ethernet controllers/update drivers for current controllers.
 
Use a multithreaded robocopy. Windows Explorer is about the worst way to move data fast over a LAN. I rarely have issues where the network is the issue. Normally the SAN's can't keep up due to load.
 
TBH this is a pretty wonky backup strategy, i'm not sure slightly faster transfer speeds are really going to help you much here. Definitely look into an incremental/sync based backup program so you're not recopying the whole drive over and over and over again like others have suggested.

Personally, i'd set up a NAS and configure both PCs to back up to the NAS.

What problem exactly are you trying to solve with faster speeds? Are the backups just taking too long? How often are you doing them?
 
PC to PC data backup in windows.

Map a network drive, use Create Synchronicity to mirror from one side to the other...incrementally.
 
I think your gigabit connection has something wonky. Or your hard drives can't read/write fast enough.

I just transferred 40 gigs of data earlier over a gigabit connection through a switch, computer to computer and copy speed was between 90-100mb/s.
 
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