*HELP* Transferring from external HDD to another external HDD only at 8MB/s

[nick name]

Ok I have two external HDDs that I am trying to transfer files between.  I've used several USB configurations on two different computers and the highest transfer rate I've seen is about 8MB/s.  

 

What am I doing wrong?

 

Also, the transfer speed from the external HDD to my systems SSD is about 75MB/s.  So currently I am transferring everything I want to move from the external HDD to my system's SSD to then be transferred to the other external HDD.

[mariushm]

Could be related to half-duplex , full-duplex , windows having to wait for hard drive to acknowledge that files have been successfully written to it before requesting new files from other drive, maybe some conflict with both drives on same usb controller (maybe try moving one to another set of usb ports)

 

You could also try using some smarter software instead of Windows Explorer.

For example, Total Commander can be configured to use large amounts of RAM memory to buffer files so you could go in options and uncheck Standard copy method (where the OS handles caching and everything) and tell it to use big file copy mode with a big buffer, like 128 MB or more

This way, the software will read a big chunk, then write a big chunk and so on ... basically the same as you'd do with copying to SSD and then writing to other HDD, but you skip the SSD.

 

 

[nick name]

12 minutes ago, mariushm said:

Could be related to half-duplex , full-duplex , windows having to wait for hard drive to acknowledge that files have been successfully written to it before requesting new files from other drive, maybe some conflict with both drives on same usb controller (maybe try moving one to another set of usb ports)

 

You could also try using some smarter software instead of Windows Explorer.

For example, Total Commander can be configured to use large amounts of RAM memory to buffer files so you could go in options and uncheck Standard copy method (where the OS handles caching and everything) and tell it to use big file copy mode with a big buffer, like 128 MB or more

This way, the software will read a big chunk, then write a big chunk and so on ... basically the same as you'd do with copying to SSD and then writing to other HDD, but you skip the SSD.

 

 

Thank you so much for your intelligent and elaborate response.  

 

I have tried using multiple USB configurations and saw no improvement in transfer rate.  The software cure sounds promising, but I am already at 40% completion with my SSD work around.  Though a direct transfer would be ideal because I will have to duplicate the effort for completion of the transfer . . .  I am now too invested in my first solution  

[nick name]

@mariushm  Well I fell asleep before the files finished being copied to the SSD which ruined my plan to initiate the next transfer to the HDD last night.  So when I started the transfer over to the HDD today it was going extremely slow.  Less that 7MB/s and sometimes less than 1MB/s.  I'm afraid it might be due to it being a hybrid HDD in an external enclosure.  I've read somewhere they don't perform well as an external HDD.  

 

That means I am gonna explore your option and see how much it improves the transfer speed.