Holy Cow :( USB HDD speeds - 98mb/40mb R/W CrystalMark speeds?! (need help please)

[Bender Blues]

My conundrum: Atrocious USB transfer speeds.

 

These are the results on my USB HDD, using 3.0 port. Tested the other 3.0 port, same speed. 2.0 port obviously worse.

I understand its a 1gb 5400 spinner with "ok" R/W speeds, but that can't be even 'ok'. 

 

Tested another 2tb drive, horrid. Tried two other cables, same crawling speeds.

Rebooted just for kicks, same.

 

Any ideas/tips on what to try on this W10 machine? CPU/ram a plenty, and plenty fast ( i7 - 16gb). Its not hardware bottlenecked.

Thank You.

 

[porina]

What is the exact model of the HD? 100 MB/s reads isn't far off for a lower end HD, especially one that is quite full so the data is more likely put at the inner slower part of the disk.

 

Writes probably could be faster, unless it is a shingled drive, in which case it can suck that bad.

 

Maybe a good defrag might help also.

[JLssg4]

Is there any difference between this HDD and an external HDD? (I can picture an external HDD with USB...just never seen another form to be sure I'm talking apples to apples.)

I had one external HDD that had a properties setting for either quick removal or performance.  Right click on that drive -> Properties -> Hardware -> Select that drive from list and click properties -> Policies....see if there's anything similar to quick removal vs. performance.  [quick removal means slow read/write]
 

[Agall]

16 minutes ago, Bender Blues said:

My conundrum: Atrocious USB transfer speeds.

 

These are the results on my USB HDD, using 3.0 port. Tested the other 3.0 port, same speed. 2.0 port obviously worse.

I understand its a 1gb 5400 spinner with "ok" R/W speeds, but that can't be even 'ok'. 

 

Tested another 2tb drive, horrid. Tried two other cables, same crawling speeds.

Rebooted just for kicks, same.

 

Any ideas/tips on what to try on this W10 machine? CPU/ram a plenty, and plenty fast ( i7 - 16gb). Its not hardware bottlenecked.

Thank You.

 

 

 

I'd say that sounds about right tbh.

[Bender Blues]

20 minutes ago, porina said:

What is the exact model of the HD? 100 MB/s reads isn't far off for a lower end HD, especially one that is quite full so the data is more likely put at the inner slower part of the disk.

 

Writes probably could be faster, unless it is a shingled drive, in which case it can suck that bad.

 

Maybe a good defrag might help also.

Seagate, right here, bought in new years ago. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00H4XH5IG/

Defraged her a few weeks ago. Not a lot of activity on it since.

 

Its not that far off? Man, I would assume it cant crawl that slow. 

Thanks for replying!

[porina]

3 minutes ago, Bender Blues said:

Its not that far off? Man, I would assume it cant crawl that slow. 

Link to product doesn't tell us much, and it'll take more searching than I can be bothered with to try and find out what is really inside. All the manufacturers have transitioned to SMR drives on the low end, and I would not be surprised if this was one. If so, it'll cripple write speeds. Look at the reports when they were first introduced in low end NAS drives.

 

The read speeds are within expectations. A big capacity 7200rpm desktop drive might get 200MB/s sustained at the start of the disk, and it'll drop tens of % by the time you reach the end. A 5200rpm 2.5" drive is going to be way worse, even if it wasn't SMR.

 

21 minutes ago, JLssg4 said:

I had one external HDD that had a properties setting for either quick removal or performance.  Right click on that drive -> Properties -> Hardware -> Select that drive from list and click properties -> Policies....see if there's anything similar to quick removal vs. performance.  [quick removal means slow read/write]

This is a good point. Write performance might suffer if write caching is limited for safety on removable drives, but it shouldn't affect reads.

[Bender Blues]

18 minutes ago, JLssg4 said:

Is there any difference between this HDD and an external HDD? (I can picture an external HDD with USB...just never seen another form to be sure I'm talking apples to apples.)

I had one external HDD that had a properties setting for either quick removal or performance.  Right click on that drive -> Properties -> Hardware -> Select that drive from list and click properties -> Policies....see if there's anything similar to quick removal vs. performance.  [quick removal means slow read/write]
 

This is an external. Its this one, nice at the time. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00H4XH5IG/

 

Did the policy thing. It was set for quick removal. Clicked performance and cachhing checkbox (need to use 'safely removal USB' now).

Same speeds.

But Im gonna reboot and test with Crystal again.

 TY!

[Bender Blues]

2 minutes ago, porina said:

Link to product doesn't tell us much, and it'll take more searching than I can be bothered with to try and find out what is really inside. All the manufacturers have transitioned to SMR drives on the low end, and I would not be surprised if this was one. If so, it'll cripple write speeds. Look at the reports when they were first introduced in low end NAS drives.

 

The read speeds are within expectations. A big capacity 7200rpm desktop drive might get 200MB/s sustained at the start of the disk, and it'll drop tens of % by the time you reach the end. A 5200rpm 2.5" drive is going to be way worse, even if it wasn't SMR.

 

This is a good point. Write performance might suffer if write caching is limited for safety on removable drives, but it shouldn't affect reads.

Someone asked what drive it was, thats why the link. There is no searching, that is the drive. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00H4XH5IG/

 

If you want to know whats on the inside, its in the first post, on the purple screen. Maybe you didn't catch it.

 

[porina]

8 minutes ago, Bender Blues said:

Someone asked what drive it was, thats why the link. There is no searching, that is the drive. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00H4XH5IG/

 

If you want to know whats on the inside, its in the first post, on the purple screen. Maybe you didn't catch it.

I did ask. Unfortunately the model of an external drive which uses an enclosure doesn't tell us the actual model of the drive itself, which is the spec I'm after. I also don't see a part number reported in that other screenshot.

 

Maybe give CrystalDiskInfo a try? There is still a chance it gets blocked by the enclosure translation to USB.

[BondiBlue]

20 minutes ago, Bender Blues said:

This is an external. Its this one, nice at the time. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00H4XH5IG/

That's a very basic mechanical drive. The speeds you're getting look normal to me, though the write speed is a bit on the lower side. Still not something I'd be surprised by with that kind of drive. The random performance also looks fine. It's a slow mechanical hard drive, and mechanical drives don't have good random performance. That's why they're very slow when transferring large amounts of small files, but they're faster when transferring larger files. 

6 minutes ago, porina said:

Unfortunately the model of an external drive which uses an enclosure doesn't tell us the actual model of the drive itself, which is the spec I'm after.

 

It's just going to be a standard Seagate 2.5" mobile drive. There's basically no chance it'll even be a 7200 RPM model. 

[porina]

10 minutes ago, BondiBlue said:

It's just going to be a standard Seagate 2.5" mobile drive. There's basically no chance it'll even be a 7200 RPM model. 

We already know it is 5400rpm as it was shown twice in original post.

 

What I'm curious about is if it is SMR or not. If it is, give up now. Writes will always suck.

[BondiBlue]

37 minutes ago, porina said:

We already know it is 5400rpm as it was shown twice in original post.

 

What I'm curious about is if it is SMR or not. If it is, give up now. Writes will always suck.

Oh, I looked right over the RPM in the screenshot. AFAIK their 1TB 2.5" drives are SMR except for the Exos, which this drive most definitely doesn't have. 

[Bender Blues]

2 hours ago, JLssg4 said:

Is there any difference between this HDD and an external HDD? (I can picture an external HDD with USB...just never seen another form to be sure I'm talking apples to apples.)

I had one external HDD that had a properties setting for either quick removal or performance.  Right click on that drive -> Properties -> Hardware -> Select that drive from list and click properties -> Policies....see if there's anything similar to quick removal vs. performance.  [quick removal means slow read/write]
 

After reading this thread just now, sounds about as good as its gonna get... argh.

 

But! Changing that policy did yield a bump in writes, so thats not a bad thing!

Cheers, and TY for your solution.

EDIT: 

Damn, that policy change and that slight bump in writes went from 3 hours+ for the transfer to 42 minutes. Nicely done JL!

Ill take the bump 

[Bender Blues]

1 hour ago, porina said:

I did ask. Unfortunately the model of an external drive which uses an enclosure doesn't tell us the actual model of the drive itself, which is the spec I'm after. I also don't see a part number reported in that other screenshot.

 

Maybe give CrystalDiskInfo a try? There is still a chance it gets blocked by the enclosure translation to USB.

Ahh I see, my apologies for misreading. 

Here ya go. It is 100% the E: drive and selected.

Wonder why it says interface is serial ATA - weird. Its USB.

 

[BondiBlue]

16 minutes ago, Bender Blues said:

Here ya go. It is 100% the E: drive and selected.

Yep, that's a bog standard laptop hard drive from several years ago. The Seagate documentation for that model lists a maximum speed of 140MB/s, which is under completely ideal conditions. You're not using this drive under those conditions, and the real world performance will be lower. Based on that the speeds you're getting are fine. 

18 minutes ago, Bender Blues said:

Wonder why it says interface is serial ATA - weird. Its USB.

That's completely normal. It's a SATA hard drive, and it's connected with a SATA to USB adapter inside the enclosure. That's why it's listed as a SATA drive. 

[Bender Blues]

Just now, BondiBlue said:

Yep, that's a bog standard laptop hard drive from several years ago. The Seagate documentation for that model lists a maximum speed of 140MB/s, which is under completely ideal conditions. You're not using this drive under those conditions, and the real world performance will be lower. Based on that the speeds you're getting are fine. 

That's completely normal. It's a SATA hard drive, and it's connected with a SATA to USB adapter inside the enclosure. That's why it's listed as a SATA drive. 

Yes, many several years ago.  Good catch on that 140MB/s, talk about misleading. Thats not what I read on the description when I bought it.

Glad to hear its fine.

 

Thanks to JL above, that policy change did actually make a difference. 3+ hours to transfer originally to 45 minutes. I can live with these numbers now hehh.

Ahh see what you're saying on the connection. It is SATA. But its "portable" so its SATA>USB - which isn't ideal.

Cheers Bondi!

[BondiBlue]

Just now, Bender Blues said:

Yes, many several years ago.  Good catch on that 140MB/s, talk about misleading. Thats not what I read on the description when I bought it.

Glad to hear its fine.

 

Thanks to JL above, that policy change did actually make a difference. 3+ hours to transfer originally to 45 minutes. I can live with these numbers now hehh.

Ahh see what you're saying on the connection. It is SATA. But its "portable" so its SATA>USB - which isn't ideal.

Cheers Bondi!

The performance numbers given for mechanical hard drives are often under very specific circumstances, and real world usage tends to differ quite a lot. Transferring lots of tiny files at once? Completely ignore the speed rating on the box. Transferring rather large files? The speed on the box might be closer to what you'll get. And it's a laptop drive, and a 5400 RPM model at that, so the actual speed during use isn't going to be very high. These days I don't use portable 2.5" hard drives very much. They're just too slow compared to other options, and SSDs have gotten super cheap. You can buy a brand new 1TB SSD from a reputable brand for only $36 these days, and SATA drive enclosures can be had for less than $10. 

 

The SATA to USB bridge won't cause much of a speed difference for that kind of drive, so I wouldn't worry about it causing any issues. They're all going to be SATA to USB anyway, since that's what mechanical hard drives use. 

[porina]

8 hours ago, Bender Blues said:

But! Changing that policy did yield a bump in writes, so thats not a bad thing!

Cheers, and TY for your solution.

EDIT: 

Damn, that policy change and that slight bump in writes went from 3 hours+ for the transfer to 42 minutes. Nicely done JL!

Ill take the bump 

Good to hear you have an improvement. Just be careful to manually eject the device when you're done, in case Windows still has cached data it hasn't written to the drive yet. I think the lower performance mode forces the writes as it goes along making it safer for people who unplug without ejecting, at a cost to performance.

 

9 hours ago, BondiBlue said:

Oh, I looked right over the RPM in the screenshot. AFAIK their 1TB 2.5" drives are SMR except for the Exos, which this drive most definitely doesn't have. 

I didn't see any reference to that drive being SMR in the spec you linked later. Maybe this drive is old enough to escape that! Seems the model was introduced around 2015. According to Wikipedia SMR started to be introduced in 2013 but to my knowledge it didn't kick off until much more recently. There was a fuss around 2020 when some low end NAS drives went SMR, so it might have been closer to then.