requesting help on usage of portable harddrive.

[devonwoody]

I have an Iomega HDD1 portable harddrive with 405 gbs of space.

Today I backed up My Music file of 5.89gb to this harddrive but it took around 7 hours (copy and paste)

I would like to back up My Pictures file to the Iomega but there are 54gbs of files and that would take ten times as long= nearly 70 hours.

Is there a way to do this more quickly?

 

[wizer]

How old is your PC? Is it using USB or Firewire?

 

[devonwoody]

30 months old amdAthlon x2 64. with the portable harddrive using a usb connection.

 

[wizer]

Something is not right then. As a test I just transferred 5.34gb from my laptop to my portable hdd and it took about 7mins.

Does the external drive need to be plugged in to an external power supply? Is that turned on?

It sounds like it's not using USB2.0 and transferring at the old USB1 rate, which is dead slow.

 

[devonwoody]

The mains lead is plugged in (adaptor)
Perhaps my portable harddrive is an old usb1 model?

 

[devonwoody]

Pulled out the hard drive packaging and it says usb2 and transfer rate480mbit/s

So should I use send to and not copy and paste?

 

[matt]

As an aside, is this something you plan to do on a regular basis? If it yes then grab a copy of Syncback (it's free). After the initial whole backup it will compare files in both locations and only copy those that are new, been changed, or deleted.

 

[TrimTheKing]

Pulled out the hard drive packaging and it says usb2 and transfer rate480mbit/s

So should I use send to and not copy and paste?

They do the same thing DW.

 

[big soft moose]

possibly a stupid question but did it really take 7 hours or was that just the Time remaining that flashed up when you first started the job ( i presume you then left it to it rather than acvtually watching it for 7 hours) - if its the latter this estimate is often wildly inaccurate and it can take a lot less time

 

[devonwoody]

No it reallllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyy took 7 hours.

So what should I do?

PS I think there were over 30,000 files, do you think this might be the reason?

 

[Mike.C]

Pulled out the hard drive packaging and it says usb2 and transfer rate480mbit/s

So should I use send to and not copy and paste?

What model number is your Iomega? Because unless its a really old one, you should not have to send to or copy/paste. Like most modern hard drives, with my Lacie all I do is click on backup and then if I do not want everything copied, I just choose the music folder and then continue, and 5 or 10gb's is backed up within minutes.
After this as Matt states in any future backups it will only copy the new files.

Edit: have you got a Mac? Because in the following link it states that if you do your hard drive may need formatting. There are other troubleshooting questions/answers which may help you.

http://www.sb.fsu.edu/~xray/Manuals/Iomega-EHD.pdf

Cheers

Mike

 

[devonwoody]

PC system.

Serial number J6BJ03G445 R

Any help, it is under three years old.

 

[Mike.C]

DW, have you got your external hard drive pluged straight into your PC, or into a hub? If it is a hub, make sure that the hub is USB 2.00 and not USB 1.00

Did you get a program with your Iomega that allows you to do the above instead of copy to and paste/copy?

Cheers

Mike

 

[devonwoody]

DW, have you got your external hard drive pluged straight into your PC, or into a hub? If it is a hub, make sure that the hub is USB 2.00 and not USB 1.00

Did you get a program with your Iomega that allows you to do the above instead of copy to and paste/copy?

Cheers

Mike

I am not using an external hub, there are 6 usb outlets on the PC.

Cannot recall any program that came with Iomega, is there one? I think it was just plug and play.

 

[RobertMP]

It could be over zealous anti virus scanning each of those 30,000 files before it allows it to be copied.

As a test unplug the internet then turn off the antivirus and firewall and try the copy again. If it is as fast as it should be then you need to look for settings in the antivirus or firewall to stop it scanning local connections.

 

[devonwoody]

Thanks Robert, I will give it a try in the morning, into Watership Down at the moment with the grandchildren. :wink:

 

[RobertMP]

Enjoy

Only other thought is that by the age of the PC it really should be USB2 not USB1 (which is slow but probably not that slow). Might be worth a quick check in control panel > device manager and see that something is listed as USB2 or 'enhanced' USB.

 

[matt]

Perhaps a real longshot but have you defragmented your hard drive recently (i.e. the one that you're copying from)?

 

[devonwoody]

Enjoy

Only other thought is that by the age of the PC it really should be USB2 not USB1 (which is slow but probably not that slow). Might be worth a quick check in control panel > device manager and see that something is listed as USB2 or 'enhanced' USB.

Had a look at my device manager and usb.

There is no reference to any usb number like 1 or 2.
But I am certain I checked with the pc supplier that it was a usb2 when purchased.
There is reference to usb root hubs(two of them). I have usb connections at rear of pc tower and another usb panel on front, two sockets as well as an array of card slots.

If I go to rear and use usb slots I anticipate trouble if changing cable entries, they dont like it, do they? So its possible that the front connection I am using is a hub.

 

[devonwoody]

Perhaps a real longshot but have you defragmented your hard drive recently (i.e. the one that you're copying from)?

I havent defragmented, there is 90gbs free. Also on request analyze, the message comes back defrag not needed.

But I will do a defrag later today anyway, because it is a year at least since last done.