Question Normal HDD speeds?

[Steelbom]

I have a 7200 RPM Seagate external drive (USB 3), and 2x 5400 RPM Seagate external drives (USB 3) and they all seem a bit slow. Any time I open an Explorer window and search files in those drives, it hangs for a few seconds before loading (sometimes longer if there's a lot of files)...

I've used Crystal Disk Mark to benchmark the 7200 RPM (H) drive as well as the 5400 RPM (E/G) drives. Settings: 1 pass, 50MiB)... Attached are the results.

Can anyone tell me if these results are poor? I think something is definitely not right with the 7200 RPM drive...

Appreciate any help!

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Can anyone tell me if these results are poor? I think something is definitely not right with the 7200 RPM drive...

It would seem from an initial glance to only be operating at USB2 speeds. Those would certainly be in that ballpark range.

Have you tried different USB cables? Could just be a bad connection on the 5 USB3 pins.

 

[Steelbom]

It would seem from an initial glance to only be operating at USB2 speeds. Those would certainly be in that ballpark range.

Have you tried different USB cables? Could just be a bad connection on the 5 USB3 pins.

That's a good idea. I had a look around but unfortunately don't have another USB 3 cable like this one (USB 3 B to A I think).

However, I did try a different USB port and found that the max speeds increased to 140 & 110MBs respectively for the write and read, but the random operations remained very slow.

 

[KentState]

That's a good idea. I had a look around but unfortunately don't have another USB 3 cable like this one (USB 3 B to A I think).

However, I did try a different USB port and found that the max speeds increased to 140 & 110MBs respectively for the write and read, but the random operations remained very slow.

That seems like the typical speeds for an external HDD. Random IOPS are the Achilles heal of data storage and a spinning platter exacerbates this.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

However, I did try a different USB port and found that the max speeds increased to 140 & 110MBs respectively for the write and read, but the random operations remained very slow.

1.5-2MB/s are quite normal for a single modern 7200RPM drive. On a good day you should expect 100-150IOPS. So all is as it should be.

Due to how HDDs function, you're very unlikely to see higher speeds then that unless you bump to 10.000 or 15.000RPM drives. And why bother when even those get slapped pretty hard by even basic SSDs.