Super Slow USB2 and Firewire

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Guest

Problem: External drives with either a USB 2.0 or Firewire connection are
transferring files at a measly 6 MB/sec. That's megabytes, not bits. It's
taking hours and hours to back up some video files and that shouldn't be the
case. No error messages - just really slow transfer speeds through USB and
1394.

Tried solutions: I made sure the mobo supports USB2, naturally. I made sure
USB2 and 1394 were enabled in the system BIOS. I've updated the USB drivers
(Vista tells me the current ones were up to date). The external disks have no
drivers themselves - just plain old USB2 and Firewire. Downloaded the most
recent system drivers for my Intel motherboard. Tried different devices and
different cables. None of this has made any bit of difference at all.

Whether I'm using the firewire connection or the USB2 connection, I can only
copy files to the drives at 6 MB/sec - it should be in the neighborhood of
25-50MB/sec! I'm thinking this is an OS problem since both of the connections
are running at exactly the same speed (for accuracy's sake, ~6.15 MB/sec at
the most). This never happened on XP; I'm feeling a little like I got hosed.
Real bad.
 
Restart your computer, then download and install the
following updates:

An update is available that improves the compatibility
and reliability of Windows Vista:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=938194

An update is available that improves the performance
and reliability of Windows Vista:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=938979

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User

----------------------------------------------------------------------

:

Problem: External drives with either a USB 2.0 or Firewire connection are
transferring files at a measly 6 MB/sec. That's megabytes, not bits. It's
taking hours and hours to back up some video files and that shouldn't be the
case. No error messages - just really slow transfer speeds through USB and
1394.

Tried solutions: I made sure the mobo supports USB2, naturally. I made sure
USB2 and 1394 were enabled in the system BIOS. I've updated the USB drivers
(Vista tells me the current ones were up to date). The external disks have no
drivers themselves - just plain old USB2 and Firewire. Downloaded the most
recent system drivers for my Intel motherboard. Tried different devices and
different cables. None of this has made any bit of difference at all.

Whether I'm using the firewire connection or the USB2 connection, I can only
copy files to the drives at 6 MB/sec - it should be in the neighborhood of
25-50MB/sec! I'm thinking this is an OS problem since both of the connections
are running at exactly the same speed (for accuracy's sake, ~6.15 MB/sec at
the most). This never happened on XP; I'm feeling a little like I got hosed.
Real bad.
 
I tried to email customer support, but the MS website isn't accepting my
product ID#. Is there no other way I can get the Cumulative Update Rollup? I
should also say that I read each of those hotfixes contained within, and none
of them are for my problem. Is there any other reason the USB and 1394 would
get stuck at 6MB/s?
 
You can set your USB drive for "performance". It will speed up the file
transfers.

Go to Device Manager | Disk Drives

Find your drive and open it's property tab

Go to "Policies"

Choose "Optimize For Performance"

I don't have any Firewire drives but the same setting may exist for those
also.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)
 
Did that - no change. I wish it was that simple!

Richard Urban said:
You can set your USB drive for "performance". It will speed up the file
transfers.

Go to Device Manager | Disk Drives

Find your drive and open it's property tab

Go to "Policies"

Choose "Optimize For Performance"

I don't have any Firewire drives but the same setting may exist for those
also.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)
Click to expand...
 
UPDATE TO PROBLEM:
I've tried the drive in a friend's Vista laptop and it works splendidly. So
that means it's only my computer that's messed up. I'm going to contact the
motherboard manufacturer for help, but if anyone has any ideas of what could
cause a 6MB/sec cap on USB and Firewire transfers, I'd love to hear them.
Also, once I get home, I will uninstall all the USB and Firewire drivers in
the DEvice Manager, then restart to see if Vista will install working drivers
by itself. Cross your fingers for me - this is a serious pain!
 
This may have _nothing_ to do with it, but does your anti-spy/anti-virus
software scan in real-time all files on move/create/download, etc.? Mine
does and it makes things much slower, but I am a patient person (g) and it
doesn't bother me ... my husband would not tolerate such behavior for two
minutes and would change it to on demand only ... just a thought ...
vanilla
 
Good suggestion, but I haven't even installed anti-anything software. It's
time like these I want to buy a Mac... Too bad they're like $4000.
 
Have you tried deleting the ports and letting windows re-install them?
Remove ALL usb devices and then delete them in Device Manager
test one device at a time (do not plug in more than one at a time
until you have tested all). Remember machines with more than
4 ports usually have some that are 1.1 only.
 
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