requesting help on usage of portable harddrive.

[RobertMP]

Belarc advisor will list your USB controllers under its 'BUS' heading. If at least one entry in the list says USB2 then you have USB2 ports.

The program just lists what it finds on your computer - it does not offer to fix anything or make any changes.

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

I just installed it, ran it and then un installed it to see what it does. The report shows as a web page so you could copy stuff and paste it here if you are not sure about something it says.

 

[bugbear]

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?

Hmm. that's 240K/sec. That sounds low, even for usb 1, which can do 12 Megabits per second (1.5 Mbytes /sec).

Conclusion (which you already know): something's not right.

BugBear

 

[devonwoody]

Belarc advisor will list your USB controllers under its 'BUS' heading. If at least one entry in the list says USB2 then you have USB2 ports.

The program just lists what it finds on your computer - it does not offer to fix anything or make any changes.

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

I just installed it, ran it and then un installed it to see what it does. The report shows as a web page so you could copy stuff and paste it here if you are not sure about something it says.

belarc lists my other devices and usb's but still no version.

My mother board number is MSI MS 7250 2.0

and screen capture of belarc.

thanks to all for their endeavours. I am going to try the advice of disconecting and switching off virus controls.

 

[matt]

Can I also suggest that you take a reasonably large file (or folder of files) and move it to the external drive and then back again to see if there is a noticeable difference in speed depending on direction.

 

[kityuser]

in my experience of these sorts of bandwidth issues its normally down to anti-virus software or search-tool-indexing threads.

make sure all your virus checking is turned off (taking suitable precautions).
make sure the external disk isn't being indexed for search.

remember USB2 is processor intensive (Vs firewire which is processor independent).
You`d have to be pretty well maxing out your machine to slow usb2 down that much, but its worth bearing in mind..... the more your machine is doing, the less it can "think" about the usb2 handelling. i.e. close all apps.

Steve

 

[devonwoody]

Right switched off virus and spam programs plus internet.

Put a file from My Docs. to IOmega 547 mbs. (all jpeg paintings) copy/paste

Took 2 minutes with viruses off etc.

Took 4 minutes with virus protectors on.

Took 1 1/2 minutes with virus protectors on and from Iomega to PC.

A little bit better with viruses off but it should transfer at 480mbs per sec.

It obviously doesnt like music (mainly midi files) because that took 7 hours for 5 gbs.

So a portable harddrive isnt much good to me for big stuff.

 

[TrimTheKing]

Right switched off virus and spam programs plus internet.

Put a file from My Docs. to IOmega 547 mbs. (all jpeg paintings) copy/paste

Took 2 minutes with viruses off etc.

Took 4 minutes with virus protectors on.

Took 1 1/2 minutes with virus protectors on and from Iomega to PC.

A little bit better with viruses off but it should transfer at 480mbs per sec.

It obviously doesnt like music (mainly midi files) because that took 7 hours for 5 gbs.

So a portable harddrive isnt much good to me for big stuff.

480Mbs is 480 Megabits per sec
1 Megabit is an eigth of a MegaByte
so your 547MB equates to 4376Mb
so in theory at 'full' speed you would expect it to copy in 10 secs
you are actually getting a transfer speed of 48.62Mbs (6MBs)
I'm not entirely sure how this helps, but I extracted the below quote from a white paper on USB 2 speeds:

What then can be expected in terms of USB2.0 data transfer? Depending on the computer and the external hard drive you attach to the computer, you should be able to get anywhere from 10MB-30MB/per second which is still very fast.

HTH

 

[matt]

I'm so tempted to suggest FreeNASif you have an old PC lying around...

 

[devonwoody]

I'm so tempted to suggest FreeNASif you have an old PC lying around...

Getting it over to an old laptop would be slow?

and then what transfer rate from laptop to free storage

I reckon I need around 60 gbs, plus my pictures increase each year, music has about maximised, the stuff my grandchildren were listening to earlier this week is not suitable for an old man like me, especially with video running as well.

 

[matt]

I suggested PC rather than laptop because you can easily add extra disks to the PC and therefore increase capacity. I currently have 3 totally almost 1 terrabyte (I think) - lots in any case. I also like the fixability of PC's for things like this - it's easy for me to pluck a disk out and put in another PC if something goes awry and I want to get at/continue backing up my data.

If 60GBs suits your requirements and you've got a laptop then I see no reason why FreeNAS couldn't be used. It will wipe the OS so you need to dedicate the laptop to this purpose.

Transfer rate from your laptop to the FreeNAS laptop should be good. I use SyncBack to backup data on two laptops each week. One wirelessly the other wired. After the first backup (where everything is copied) it takes me less than 5 mins to do both (although that will vary according to how many files have changed or been deleted).

 

[RobertMP]

Your mainboard is USB2 so we can rule that one out.

What version of windows are you running? XP?

Did you try turning off the firewall too when doing the antivirus test?

Lots of tiny files do take longer than a few large ones but still shouldn't be that slow.

This is a separately powered external drive and not a miniature drive that is powered off the USB? If it is powered from USB then that could be the problem - not enough power at the usb port.

Only thing left I can think of is some MS service pack has messed up the USB drivers. Maybe check if there are any to download from MSI

 

[devonwoody]

Your mainboard is USB2 so we can rule that one out.

What version of windows are you running? XP?

Did you try turning off the firewall too when doing the antivirus test?

Lots of tiny files do take longer than a few large ones but still shouldn't be that slow.

This is a separately powered external drive and not a miniature drive that is powered off the USB? If it is powered from USB then that could be the problem - not enough power at the usb port.

Only thing left I can think of is some MS service pack has messed up the USB drivers. Maybe check if there are any to download from MSI

Yes running XP I think I saw service pack 3.

Bullguard firewall, spam filter and virus off, checked windows firewall was off which is permanent.

power is off the mains via an adaptor.

Drivers for mass usb storage device shows driver as 2001 ???
other usb items are also 2001 & 2002 ????

 

[RobertMP]

Just a chance other devices already plugged in might be slowing the whole USB system down. You could try unplugging everything else that you can and use a socket on the back straight off the mainboard.

If you've got a spare slot I'd be inclined to give up and install a USB2 card

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/108594 £6 plus postage. Might find cheaper on ebay.

Being new it will need a new driver installed and work at the speed it should do.