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solstice

Member

Registered: 2006-10-27

Posts: 239

Website

slow data transfer rate on usb 3 external DD with ntfs partition only

hello,
here is the setup
I have a Asrock USB 3 PCI-Express extension card with 2 USB 3 ports (1849:0194 with a NEC uPD720200 chipset)

I plug-in a Western Digital Elements 500GB external USB 3 hard-drive.

And i had the disappintment to see no improvment with the new USB3 port extension card over USB 2.
For example, a transfer of a file of 1GB takes around 40s.
In windows 7, it takes less than 20s

But  later, I found out that with a btrfs partition or a ext4 the rate transfer is way better around 15s

So why is it so slow (like USB 2) on the ntfs partition ?

mis-aligment of the partition ? why would it work in windows and not with ntfs-3g driver ?

Edit:
the slow data transer rate is only when copying file TO the dd. when copying FROM the dd to my internal dd the rate is 40MB/s i.e. something mcuh better
Edit2:
I tried different alignment of the ntfs partition and its still the same. I tried
After first cylinder (with gparted)
After 1MB (with gparted)
and with windows 7 storage admin tool that formats with 2MB gap at the start of the disk

Last edited by solstice (2011-12-30 18:12:50)

karol

Archivist

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 25,440

Re: slow data transfer rate on usb 3 external DD with ntfs partition only

NTFS is Microsoft stuff, so I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't run as well on Linux.

stefanwilkens

Member

From: Enschede, the Netherlands

Registered: 2008-12-10

Posts: 624

Re: slow data transfer rate on usb 3 external DD with ntfs partition only

the ntfs-3g driver is notoriously slow compared to file systems like ext4.
http://www.tuxera.com/community/ntfs-3g-faq/#dd

Sadly:

Status: An optimized, high-performance version, primarily for consumer electronics devices, is available commercially.

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Arch i686 on Phenom X4 | GTX760

solstice

Member

Registered: 2006-10-27

Posts: 239

Website

Re: slow data transfer rate on usb 3 external DD with ntfs partition only

ok.

but there is worse.
it began to make a few click noise when I was copying data to/from it.

I can't believe it. It's a 2 week old harddrive. a western digital suposed to be good quality.

Have I broken it or what ?

I have made a badblocks scan before trying to use it and found no problem. I'll try again but I fear loosing data any moment now :-(((

Last edited by solstice (2011-12-31 08:41:46)

kahlil88

Member

From: Mendocino, CA

Registered: 2010-08-10

Posts: 138

Website

Re: slow data transfer rate on usb 3 external DD with ntfs partition only

it began to make a few click noise when I was copying data to/from it.

I can't believe it. It's a 2 week old harddrive. a western digital suposed to be good quality.

Have I broken it or what ?

I have made a badblocks scan before trying to use it and found no problem. I'll try again but I fear loosing data any moment now :-(((

Western Digital is great but every manufacturer ships out defective drives now and again. Run a hard test with Sea Tools or the WD equivalent and if anything comes up, call them immediately. Your drive is still under warranty if it's brand new so they should replace it for free.

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There is no system but GNU and Linux is one of its kernels.