What's your external USB2.0 HDD speeds?

[edro]

I have an external USB 2.0 HDD but I doubt it is using the USB2.0 because it is slow as hell. What is a free easy benchmark to test my HDD speed?

 

[Reliant]

HDtach

 

[edro]

I just did a simple file transfer test and it did a 98mb file in 36 sec. = 2.75mb/sec. That's way too slow isn't it?

 

[edro]

Thanks for the app! It also said that the speed is 2.7mb/sec. WTF is wrong? I have the USB2.0 drivers installed and my motherboard supports it. The HDD caddy is 2.0 as well.

 

[edro]

Here's my device manager... It shows up as a USB 2.0 device, and my USB devices show up fine as well. It's a Shuttle SK41 motherboard (case).

 

[edro]

.

 

[edro]

bump, can a mod maybe move this to General Hardware?

 

[ElFenix]

USB to IDE controllers are notoriously slow

 

[edro]

Anyone else have an external USB2.0 HDD that could test their read/write speed? I would appreciate it!

 

[dethman]

my 80gb seagate barracuda in my enclosure gets 13.8mb/s sustained, which seems pretty slow considering my 200gb wd se in my system gets 50 or so.

 

[ThisIsMatt]

Are you sure you have it hooked up to one of the 2.0 ports and not one of the 1.x ports on your motherboard?

 

[ThisIsMatt]

Open your device manager again, go down to your USB controllers section, go to the USB 2.0 root hub properties, then over to the power tab and see if the external hard drive shows up. If not, check the other root hubs until you find it.

 

[jmcoreymv]

My USB 2 7200 rpm 120 gig WD drive gets 22.8 MB/s

 

[thomsbrain]

USB 2.0, WD 200 GB, 8 MB cache:

max 23.0 MB/s, min 20.9 MB/s, average 21.7 MB/s. burst 27.7 MB/s.

make sure that you don't have any USB1 devices hooked up into the same channel with a hub or anything like that, since I hear when you do that the whole channel drops to USB1 speeds. and like ThisIsMatt said, make sure you're actually using your USB2 ports.

 

[edro]

Originally posted by: thomsbrain
USB 2.0, WD 200 GB, 8 MB cache:
max 23.0 MB/s, min 20.9 MB/s, average 21.7 MB/s. burst 27.7 MB/s.
make sure that you don't have any USB1 devices hooked up into the same channel with a hub or anything like that, since I hear when you do that the whole channel drops to USB1 speeds. and like ThisIsMatt said, make sure you're actually using your USB2 ports.

I'm not near my computer right now (at parents' house), but I do have a USB 1.1 mouse plugged into the same ports. I bet that might be dragging it down to 1.1 speeds like you said.

Thanks for the input guys!

 

[Kenazo]

why can't they come up w/ a real usb 2.0 interface for hard drives? rather than usb 2 -> ide

 

[Spamela]

i have a 160GB maxtor external drive connected to a USB 2.0 PCI card.
HDTach sez:

18.2mb/s max, 17.4 avg for reads.

 

[OffTopic1]

On topic ----goto----> GH

 

[ThisIsMatt]

Originally posted by: Kenazo
why can't they come up w/ a real usb 2.0 interface for hard drives? rather than usb 2 -> ide

Because that would not be cost effective. USB 2.0 is slower than current IDE speeds.

 

[Vette73]

How about firewire? Are external Firewire drives better?

 

[ThisIsMatt]

Originally posted by: Marlin1975
How about firewire? Are external Firewire drives better?

I think the controllers are better, yes, as they've been around quite a bit longer than usb 2.0 (don't quote me on that ). They're still ide-->firewire bridges, though.

 

[Freejack2]

I got 31.2 MB/s from hatach with several things running. Didn't bother to kill everything to do an absolute test.
Did you install service pack 1 if you are running windows XP? I recall something about XP and problems with USB 2.0 in pre SP1.

 

[edro]

Well, the only device under the USB 2.0 Root Hub is the USB Mass Storage Device.

Arg! What's the problem?

 

[edro]

.

 

[Freejack2]

This is my device manager. The relevant Disk drive is the Samsung SPN1614N USB device. I have an Asus P4P800 Deluxe with the 865 chipset.
Device Manager

Don't know if this will help at all but it is really odd that your drive is so slow. Have you tried the drive on another system and have you tried the drive itself directly in your system?