USB Transfer Speed max at 7 MB/sec - Vista Ult 32b. Normal??

Hi People,

I got a new usb hub (2.0) and a WD 320 Gig ext. hard disk (passport) today, for my music storage.

Been transferring from my iOmega to the WD, and the max USB transfer speed I see is like ~7 to 7.5 MB/sec. I read around a few old threads and posts here in NBR, but I would like to know if there is anything I can do to get the speed higher than this.

Btw, fwiw, transferring ~40,100 files, 195 Gig.. Its been going on n on n on....

Thanks for any inputs, tips or suggestions people.

*I didn't know for sure where else I could post this Q. Apologize if this should not be here.*

 

How does the drive do plugged directly into the computer? That way we can try to find the point where the issue is being caused... I suspect the hub.

 

Ah, sorry I didn't give that info.

Well, both the drives are connected to the hub, which is connected to the laptop. And there a wireless mouse dongle in one of the port' on the hub (there are 4 total). I was thinking the same, but didn't want to cancel the transfer now and start again by connecting directly to the laptop. But may be once I finish this transfer, I will connect directly to the comp and see how it is.

Also, before I didn't have the hub, I connected the iOmega directly to the laptop and transfer was pretty fast.. May be the hub. (in fact, the guys in the commercial center here didn't even have the belkin.. may be will go to euronics tomorrow and see if they have a good or better hub. Any recommendations, Hep???)

Thanks mate.

 

Well, you said the problem yourself - they are both on the hub!
Plug one directly into the computer and the other into the hub and I am sure you will not have the problem, or plug both into the computer. Transfer rates should go up by like 10x

 

^ Hmm ok.

I actually wanted the hub to make it more easy for connecting these drives (and couple more that I have) all at the same time because the laptop comes with only 3 USB ports

Anyways, will check it out. Thanks again, Hep.

 

Well it could be that you have a lot of smaller files. 100gbs of lots of small files will transfer much slower than 100gbs of 1 file.

 

Well, OK, I stopped the transfer and now I am doing the rest. BUT, now both the drives are connected to the laptop directly, and the speed is pretty much the same.. ~ 7.5 MB/sec..

Thanks Nizzy, yeah probably. average file size is 4.8 MB each.

 

While that's true about small files, it should not be that low...

 

I read something similar in google just now, while searching. But I have no idea why its not going beyond the speed I am seeing...

Edit: Though its seems to be "a little bit faster" while copying through SyncBack (or may be I am just imagining things!!!!)

 

Are you using the BitLocker feature of Vista?

 

that's about right.

my 2GB USB drive gives me like .. 11mb/s .. or so, so don't bother, that's just what those do.

I believe somebody is making faster USB drives now, but forgot who. Mine is maybe 2 years old .. I don't remember

your USB will do like 30mb/s on average, so if you're transferring files from USB flash drive to say USB HDD, then the speed will devide probably like 10mb/s for the flash drive and 20mb/s for the HDD

I copied recently like 150gb from one USB HDD to another USB HDD (both happened to be same siza and make), and it took 2.5 hours

 

He's going hard drive to hard drive, no flash drives in the equation. He should not be seeing this slow of speeds.

 

ah sorry, reading owns me again, lol

my USB HDD does like 31MB/s

 

Nope.

Yes.

And this is exactly why its surprising I am seeing such low speeds.

Its not changed till now (I was away for a couple of hours, but the transfer was going on) and its still going on.. I never saw such slow speeds before (the last ~5 months or so, since I got this laptop).. Has it got anything to do with the HDD?

Phew, I am lost... Let me search for more.

Please let me know of any suggestions people. Thanks and Thanks to you too HEP

 

Mine goes about the same and this is for several external hard drives and fast internal hard drives. I get like 15-20mbs on big files and 7-10 on small files.

 

Thanks Nizzy.

Thats a bit 'comforting' to hear, if I may say that I am just wondering if there is something wrong with my laptop or HDD or with my computer set up as such... lol. Till now haven't had any life altering issues and been making lots of effort to have everything working fine.

This speed just keeps puzzling me.. at the moment, I have 3 ext HDD', 1 USB pen drive, though the transfer as such is happening only between two of those hdd'.

Thanks again, mate

*I am still digging around though, to understand better....*

 

If I hadn't just sold my M1330 I'd test transfers from my Freeagent to my Passport and back for you. But I did and I don't have another laptop with the 965PM chipset, I will see if something comes in at work that I can test for you.

 

Thanks a lot, Hep. Very kind of you.

Meanwhile, fwiw, I have the enhanced USB host controller thing in the device manager enabled as well!!!!

 

mine goes 27.8Mb/s on large files, but i didn't install any hard drive drivers e.g Intel matrix, intel chipset installation utility, nothing.. been tried installing them months ago, it decreased the usb speed. Reformatted my laptop almost 16x to get everything straightened up.

 

where can you see the speed?

 

Speaking of copying small files...

One of my mother's HDDs is in a bad shae (and may fail....)

Its copying at about 2,5MB/s due to the small files...
I managed to get about 10-15MB/s out of a portable HDD connected directly to a USB port and copying from the internal drive...and I think 56MB/s copying from C to D on the same drive...

But yes, the HUB does slw things down, still, you can get close to 10MB/s and that's OK.
PS: I've got 3 HUBs - 2 7 port Hubs, and one 4 port Hub - 2 external HDDs.... and a external CD/DVD drive...

 

Did you try checking which mode your USB stick is in?
Go to my computer > right-click your usb-drive and choose properties. Then switch to hardware tab, click on your USB-drive again and choose properties, again. After that go to tab Policies, and choose optimized for performance.

 

Well, I did some transferring yesterday to my WD 500gb external, and it was going about 6.5mb/s. These files were mostly 5mb-200mb or so.

 

^^^ Thanks a lot for your replies people.

nhat > Yes, I had done that already and it is optimized for performance.

Detlev / Syusuke > well, when I connect my ext hard drive (both iOmega, as well as the new WD) directly to the comp, file transfer' between the laptop drive n the ext hard drive are very fast..

But the problem / slow speed is when I am transferring files from iOmega to the WD, either connected to the hub or both of them connected to the laptop USB ports...

 

So your file transfer is slow between two external drives.

Could your USB ports run off the same internal HUB?

 

I am sorry, but can you elaborate on the Q or explain a bit, please?

 

Ok people.. Now I have a strange behavior.

The new WD, when connected to the USB hub, cannot install the device driver, there is an error and such (It worked the day before though, when I transferred files into it!! )

BUT, when I connect the WD ext hdd, directly to the laptop, everything is fine... It shows up in the list of drives and all.

Anyone know what is happening?

when I tried to install the device driver (the automatic way) got an error that no driver was found. Darn...

Went to WD site too, but could not find a 'driver' as such.. there are these reformatting utility though.

Can someone please tell me what could be happening / what should I do?

Btw, the USB hub is working fine, since I have the mouse connected to it, and also the iOmega drives are working properly when connected to the drives

Thanks in advance.

 

Well, HUBS are strange... I can't run one protable HDD off a USB hub that's connected to anoher HUB...

The question with the internal HUB.

A lot of devices have one internal hub - and I suspect that your laptops USB ports are linked to this internal HUB.

With the driver:
Try to deinstal the old one, disconnect the drive, boot up the computer, once everything has loaded, connect the drive.

 

Thanks Detlev... I just saw this and was trying to do the same

^ from the WD support site. BUT, I don't want to mess with the infcache file or whatever, because when the drive is connected directly to the laptop, its working fine. so I sure the inf file is not corrupted or anything.

But I will try doing what you said. lets see..

 

No Luck, Detlev

same stuff. Both my iOmega are fine when connected to the USB hub, but the WD refuses to get connected through the USB hub. Its fine only when connected directly to the laptop. Darn devices.....

 

Holy crap.

Ok I fixed it with help from Stewie.

The thing was, the WD Ext HDD is not having an external power source.

The USB Hub has an external power source as an option.

Today I was working with the USB hub without plugging it to the ext power source, and I think the WD when plugged into the hub did not get recognized, for lack of power may be.

So I plugged in the USB Hub' external power source > now plug in the WD ext HDD into the hub and all is well and at peace with each other. Holy crap stupid of me....

And the iOmega' were working fine all the time since they have a power supply of their own. wow....

Hmmm anyway, that was the issue people. Thanks for your time and replies DETLEV

 

No bother

I'm living on NBR now (lack of social life)

Any ínput I can give, I like adding

(and get solutions to my problems in return)

 

^ me too

As for the speed, I did some test' today and I think it was like what you said with the internal hub and stuff....

Direct connection b/w the laptop and the WD ext hdd, got me ~55 MB/s transfer speed.. but drastically slows down with the hub... Anyways... all is well now

 

You can find out about your internal HUB bygoing into the device manager.

(But please don't ask what stuff is, I don't know (Didn't need to find out - yet ))

 

Yeah I was checking on this and there are lots of entries and now I am trying to read up / try to understand how these things work

 

You basically have one internal USB Bus, called the Host Controller, then all the ports in the laptop are driven off of the root hub attatched to the USB controller. They all get piped over the southbridge chipset in the end, but hubs are just like ethernet hubs, in that they allow signals to come from multiple places and end up in one. Like ethernet hubs, the more devices added in and the more hubs you chain across, the more slowdown you get. The reason USB to USB transfers will never be as fast as USB to ATA/SATA (unless you have a USB host controller on the motherboard, and an additional controller as a PCI, etc card) you're just sending information down the line to the southbridge, to the northbridge, then to the memory, then sending right back on the same line to the other drive (ew, congestion) whereas you can get much better results if you share the same components for less of the transfer.

I have a feeling that none of my posts are very coherent tonight. It makes sense to me, ask for clarification if needed.

People don't realize how important the chipset is in the computer (beyond just CPU support, FSB support, memory address space, etc), and it makes me lol when I see kids with RAID 0+1, RAID 5, RAID 10, etc, and their drive performance is bottom of the barrel because it's all over a weak nforce or VIA chipset instead of a proper RAID card.

 

Ohh thank you SO MUCH, Hep! I was trying to understand exactly those terms (Host Controller, Root Hub, etc... which I was seeing in my device manager) I had no idea what those meant.. Now its a lot clear and I can understand the speed issue...

Thanks again..

LOL, that was coherent. What makes you think otherwise? ..

 

No problem, glad to help.

 

lol

your hub does not provide enough power for the external HDD to run

when I use external USB HDDs, I always connect them directly to the laptop USB ports

P.S. Unless your HUB has power adapter hooked up to it. I have one but don't use it.