Poor USB2 Write Performance Under Win XP?

[Valis]

When I run USB 2.0 HDD on Win XP (SP1a) the writes to the disk goes down to a
halt that is like USB 1.1. If I run it on Linux, (kernel 2.6.17.x) it flies at 15-25 MB/s.

I have a MSI mobo with SiS 746F Ultra chipset. Has anyone else experienced the
same problem with this SiS chipset or other SiS chipset?

I have yet to try USB2 and writing to disk under Win2k, or even Win2k3.

Regards.

 

[HannibalX]

Do you have the latest USB drivers from SiS?

 

[Valis]

That's just the thing, there doesn't seem to be a SiS USB 2.0 driver for Win XP. I guess it's all up to M$ to provide that.

Maybe I'm the only one with this problem.

 

[Lord Evermore]

Buggy driver compatibility maybe. You might try removing all the USB device entries in Device Manager, so that it re-detects them, doubt it'll do much though.

MSI does have USB2.0 drivers for the SiS chipsets, however they specifically advise that XP users get their drivers from Windows Update.

There's also this MS update which addresses some issues with the USB driver. It doesn't specifically mention performance issues like this though. It's a June 2006 update. Compare your driver versions to the ones on that page.

 

[xtknight]

Do you have buffering enabled in Windows? I'm pretty sure Linux has it enabled by default and Windows has it disabled by default. "Optimize for performance" instead of "quick removal" in the hardware options for the USB key will enable buffering.

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: xtknight
Do you have buffering enabled in Windows? I'm pretty sure Linux has it enabled by default and Windows has it disabled by default. "Optimize for performance" instead of "quick removal" in the hardware options for the USB key will enable buffering.

It actually enables write cacheing, and that in turn can cause delayed write errors for USB external devices, and it also ties you to asking permission to pull the drive. On balance, "Quick Removal" is better for thumb or key drives, because that's the way we use them - hot plug - in and out. Slowness or fastness is also a function of the drive itself - some are fast - some are slow.