USB 2.0 Transfer Speeds 480Mps (Max) -- Not really happening...

[finbarqs]

So this my have been discussed to death, but I'm trying to find out a solution, or an answer! So I just purchased this 2TB drive (WD) and I'm transferring about 11GB of photos (RAW and JPEG) to this drive. The sustained rate, is 11.3MB/s (which is roughly 90Mbps). I know 480Mbps is impossible, but at least 200Mbps? Why is it so slow? Is it my Windows 7 system?

I'm on a laptop with 4GB of DDR2 RAM, Core 2 Duo 2.6Ghz, and USB 2.0's all around. Why is this thing going so slow?

Keep in mind that this is to an EXTERNAL drive, not a flash drive. Why is this so slow? Anybody else experience this slow speed?

 

[C1]

I bought a 2TB ext HDD made by SimpleTech for Hitachi and straight out of the box it would have a transfer rate similar to the one you are experiencing. However, it comes with TURBO BOOST software (a very small 64KB executable that installs as a program). Without the TURBO the 2TB drive is the slowest ext. HDD I have (and I have a bunch), but using the TURBO it is the fastest transfer of any of my many ext. HDDs.

So my guess is that there is something about the protocol that the WD electronics in the HDD is using (eg, even a priority demand issue). Also, Hitachi bought out SimpleTech's end of the ext. drives SimpleTech was making for Hitachi & the new Hitachi XL series (which I tested) seems to have the TURBO built in. My tests indicated that the built-in wasnt quite as fast as the old SimpleTech version when using of the TURBO software. However, each drive type (ie, each variant; XL & non-XL) produced equal results when using the TURBO software that came only with the SimpleTech variant. Finally, the TURBO for TURBO-rized Buffalo Drive Station ext HDDs is found to not work well at all with VISTA. The review eliminated hardware. It had to be something with the OS that was incompatible with the Buffalo's TURBO implementation.

 

[corkyg]

That data standard for USB 2 is for short bursts - not sustained throughput. Your numbers are not atypical. Have you tried different cables? Different ports?

 

[Fayd]

So this my have been discussed to death, but I'm trying to find out a solution, or an answer! So I just purchased this 2TB drive (WD) and I'm transferring about 11GB of photos (RAW and JPEG) to this drive. The sustained rate, is 11.3MB/s (which is roughly 90Mbps). I know 480Mbps is impossible, but at least 200Mbps? Why is it so slow? Is it my Windows 7 system?

I'm on a laptop with 4GB of DDR2 RAM, Core 2 Duo 2.6Ghz, and USB 2.0's all around. Why is this thing going so slow?

Keep in mind that this is to an EXTERNAL drive, not a flash drive. Why is this so slow? Anybody else experience this slow speed?

i just got done transferring all my data off my raid array (and rebuilding it as a software raid array... and transferring all data back)

anyways, at points during the ordeal i experienced between 9 and 25 MB/s sustained. after i enabled write-cacheing on the external harddrive, the transfer speed picked up tremendously.

 

[C1]

With the SimpleTech, when TURBO Software is not being used, the ext HDD light flashes rapidly during attempted long or continuous file/data transfers such as when watching a movie on the drive. Using the TURBO Software, the front HDD light blinks off for a second, once about every seven seconds. So it appears that the TURBO Software is accessing the USB channel differently. It probably is caching more extensively with the TURBO Mode.

 

[heyheybooboo]

I think your speed is typical.

'Theoretical' 480 Mbit/s = 48Mb/s

A single device, at best, might top out at 35Mb/s, with multiple devices possibly achieving 44Mb/s across the bus.

To make you feel really bad, I saw an article about about the new ST 'Raid' SSD thumbdrive on USB3 achieving 10x your sustained rate (with peaks at 170-180MB/s IIRC).

Ain't technology grand 🙂




--

 

[finbarqs]

don't get MB and Mb mixed.. with lowercase 'b' it denotes bits. Upper case denotes BYTES. I figured it out: When I'm transferring multiple files that add up to a few gigs, the xfer rate is around 13MB/s. But one gigantic ISO, it's about 32MB/s.

 

[0roo0roo]

35mb as said, large files.
copying jpegs off a fragmented drive..or simply jpegs..might rip that number to shreds.
usb2 is dog slow as u've found

 

[piasabird]

If you had a cheap PC you could use it as a file server and use wireless ethernet or something like that. Maybe you could use an ESATA drive. If you are still going to just copy files off of a USB flash drive there may not be much that can be done unless you can find a better flash drive. I think they had some ESATA flash drives on revue somewhere.

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/eSATA-USB-Flash,review-1195.html

These drives are both USB 2 and ESATA.

 

[vshah]

make sure write caching is enabled...uncheck "optimize for quick removal" in device settings

 

[finbarqs]

You know, ethernet (if you're not on gigabit) is limited to 100 mbps, which is approximately 12.5MB/sec... so wireless is even slower...

 

[vshah]

did you check if write caching was enabled?

my computer> right click on drive > properties

go to "hardware" tab

find your external in the list (it may be "generic usb hard drive) and click properties

click "change settings" to un-hide the "policies" tab

on the policies tab, make sure "better performance" is selected

 

[JackMDS]

Show me a professional data sheet that say Transfer of 480Mb/sec.

The term is: "A high-speed (USB 2.0) rate of 480 Mbit/s".

Of course none of the vendors disclose clearly what rate means in the real world.

As an example, in case of Networks, Giga Networl Card means a card that its chipset is working at a rate of one Gb/sec. It is only marketing people, and wishfull thinking enthusiasts that are under the illusion that a functional peer-to-peer network can have a sustained file transfer at Giga Speed. I.e 125MB/sec.


😎

 

[finbarqs]

I still go by the bytes rule, where 480Mb/sec = 60MB/sec... But then again, real world is around 32MB/s...