Western Digital USB 2.0 external HD speed problems...

[Frank McMahon]

It's a 160 GB / 7200rpm -
http://westerndigital.com/en/products/wd1600b008.asp

Setup went perfect however I can't seem to get the speed where it should be.
I am formatted as NTFS, the USB 2.0 is a PCI Adaptec DuoConnect with 3 USB
2.0 and 2 Firewire ports (I have nothing in the other ports yet).

I run a benchmark program on my internal Western Digital and get 33 MB/sec
read write. Excellent.

Run benchmark's on the external USB 2.0 drive and get Read 10MB/sec and
Write 8315KB/sec

Is this it? Should I not get like 33 MB/sec? I need to edit video and
thought the USB 2.0 would at least be as fast as my internal.

I installed all the latest XP Pro service packs, system is completely up to
date on HD drivers. Also installed the latest Adaptec USB 2.0 card drivers
(Enchanced Host Controler).

I just bought the drive and can return it, but Western Digital tech support
can't figure it out. All they suggest is download the latest drivers and
that is what I have done.

Any other options? Does it sound like there is a problem or is this all a
USB 2.0 external drive can give? The system is a P4, couple years old and
PCI slots should be fine I would think. Unless there is different speed PCI
slots.

Any help would be great...thanks!!

Frank

 

[Rod Speed]

It's a 160 GB / 7200rpm -
http://westerndigital.com/en/products/wd1600b008.asp

Setup went perfect however I can't seem to get the speed where it should
be. I am formatted as NTFS, the USB 2.0 is a PCI Adaptec DuoConnect
with 3 USB 2.0 and 2 Firewire ports (I have nothing in the other ports yet).

I run a benchmark program

Which one ?

on my internal Western Digital and get 33 MB/sec read write. Excellent.

Run benchmark's on the external USB 2.0 drive
and get Read 10MB/sec and Write 8315KB/sec

Is this it? Should I not get like 33 MB/sec? I need to edit video and
thought the USB 2.0 would at least be as fast as my internal.

Nar, even a firewire external is a bit slower than an internal, depending
on what type of benchmark you use, how it moves the data etc.

I installed all the latest XP Pro service packs, system is completely
up to date on HD drivers. Also installed the latest Adaptec USB 2.0
card drivers (Enchanced Host Controler).

I just bought the drive and can return it, but Western Digital
tech support can't figure it out. All they suggest is download
the latest drivers and that is what I have done.

Any other options?

Get a firewire one instead.

Does it sound like there is a problem

Hard to say without knowing which benchmark you used.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/storage/display/wd-250gb-ext_4.html
has some benchmarking data on the 250GB version, see what
you get with the same benchmark software and configs.

or is this all a USB 2.0 external drive can give?

Thats well down on what some of the reviews have got.
But not if you are using small block sizes in the benchmark.
But again, depends on which benchmark you used.

The system is a P4, couple years old
and PCI slots should be fine I would think.

Yeah, should be.

Unless there is different speed PCI slots.

There is, but thats unlikely to be the problem.

 

[Ron]

It's a 160 GB / 7200rpm -
http://westerndigital.com/en/products/wd1600b008.asp

Setup went perfect however I can't seem to get the speed where it should be.
I am formatted as NTFS, the USB 2.0 is a PCI Adaptec DuoConnect with 3 USB
2.0 and 2 Firewire ports (I have nothing in the other ports yet).

I run a benchmark program on my internal Western Digital and get 33 MB/sec
read write. Excellent.

Run benchmark's on the external USB 2.0 drive and get Read 10MB/sec and
Write 8315KB/sec

Is this it? Should I not get like 33 MB/sec? I need to edit video and
thought the USB 2.0 would at least be as fast as my internal.

I installed all the latest XP Pro service packs, system is completely up to
date on HD drivers. Also installed the latest Adaptec USB 2.0 card drivers
(Enchanced Host Controler).

I just bought the drive and can return it, but Western Digital tech support
can't figure it out. All they suggest is download the latest drivers and
that is what I have done.

Any other options? Does it sound like there is a problem or is this all a
USB 2.0 external drive can give? The system is a P4, couple years old and
PCI slots should be fine I would think. Unless there is different speed PCI
slots.

Any help would be great...thanks!!

Frank

Yeah, that's seems about half of what would be reasonable. I have almost the
same setup as you. 'Cept, I'm running a WD 80JB with 8MB cache through a USB
2.0. I'm getting 24MB/s throughput using Diskspeed 32, whereas my internal
RAID 0 is getting 56MB/s. I also have an internal Seagate(old) IDE ATA 33
for my other OS(dual boot) that gets what your WD 160 is running at(9MB/s).
But Rod is correct, FW will run faster even though USB 2.0 supposedly has a
faster burst speed(400Mbs/s vs. 480Mbs/s). So, I recently ordered a FW
external enclosure and will probably put another DVD writer in this USB
enclosure.
If you're using Sandra as a BM program, you'll get lower values. Try
DiskSpeed 32, ATTO, and the one Rod suggested. Do you have the Intel
Application Accelerator loaded(UDMA)? What's your CPU speed? Also, keep in
mind that whatever your drive is rated at(ATA 66, 100, 133, etc.), it'll
usually run at less than half of that on the average in everyday use with
normal setups.

Ron

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

Yeah, that's seems about half of what would be reasonable. I have almost the
same setup as you. 'Cept, I'm running a WD 80JB with 8MB cache through a USB
2.0. I'm getting 24MB/s throughput using Diskspeed 32, whereas my internal
RAID 0 is getting 56MB/s. I also have an internal Seagate(old) IDE ATA 33
for my other OS(dual boot) that gets what your WD 160 is running at(9MB/s).
But Rod is correct, FW will run faster even though USB 2.0 supposedly has a
faster burst speed (400Mbs/s vs. 480Mbs/s).

According to c't, USB 2.0 can do well over 30MB/s when it is part of the
internal chipset. For some reason or other, sofar add-in PCI USB 2.0 cards
only deliver in the low twenties.

So, I recently ordered a FW
external enclosure and will probably put another DVD writer in this USB
enclosure. If you're using Sandra as a BM program, you'll get lower values.
Try DiskSpeed 32, ATTO, and the one Rod suggested.

Do you have the Intel Application Accelerator loaded(UDMA)?

That only works on the chipset.

 

[Ron]

According to c't, USB 2.0 can do well over 30MB/s when it is part of
the internal chipset. For some reason or other, sofar add-in PCI USB
2.0 cards
only deliver in the low twenties.

Yes, that would be my ICH4 SB wouldn't it? IOW, I did have it hooked to my
internal chipset, but still only got low twenties. And yes, I do have the
Enhanced Controller Hub drivers for USB 2.0. And, according to who? I need
to read that.

That only works on the chipset.

Yep, realized that after I posted, my bad.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

Yes, that would be my ICH4 SB wouldn't it?

ICH4 should be able to do 32MB/s on read and 28MB/s on write.
Well, at least with the c't testdrive it does.

IOW, I did have it hooked to my internal chipset,

It appears that some MoBos, next to the internal USB controler also
have an extra PCI USB2.0 controller added to the configuration:
IT7-MAX2 with VIA controller and GA8IHXP with a NEC controller.

but still only got low twenties.

Make sure that it is on the ICH4 and not some added PCI USB controller.
If it is then perhaps your drive's USB->IDE convertor may be the problem.

And yes, I do have the Enhanced Controller Hub drivers for USB 2.0.

And, according to who? I need to read that.

c't, a german magazine.

Btw, before the MoBo chipset included USB2.0 controllers came about they
initially thought that the USB->IDE convertor chips were the limiting factor.
When the MoBo chipsets appeared the drives suddenly did better than
they did on the add-on PCI interfaced USB chips from TI, NEC, VIA etc.

 

[Ron]

Make sure that it is on the ICH4 and not some added PCI USB controller.
If it is then perhaps your drive's USB->IDE convertor may be the problem.

I was under the assumption that any USB 2.0 capable device could be hooked
into any USB port and would automatically be routed through the Enhanced
Controller. In any case, according to the properties tab under System for my
external USB HDD, it is, in fact, running as a 2.0 device and not 1.1. Btw,
I have an Abit BD7-II R mobo. The point may be moot, however, since I've
just received my FW box and now am getting 34MB/s throughput. So at least
THAT's working. Thanks for you input.

Ron

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

I was under the assumption that any USB 2.0 capable device could be hooked
into any USB port and would automatically be routed through the Enhanced
Controller. In any case, according to the properties tab under System for my
external USB HDD, it is, in fact, running as a 2.0 device and not 1.1.

The extra controllers are also USB 2.0, not 1.1.
They obviously wouldn't get in the low 20 MB/s if they were USB 1.1.

Btw, I have an Abit BD7-II R mobo.

I don't have any offline info on that.
Doesn't appear to have been tested by c't.