Rsync copy speeds

[JC]

Have recently purchased a 1TB external hard drive for backing up my media, it appears that rsync is transferring relatively slowly, should it be comparatively slower than a copy and paste?

I've noticed it being slow and conducted a test with a 1gb video file.
Transferring from: Internal SATA II drive
Transferring to: External eSata drive

Copy and Paste: Transfer speed 53Mbs (is this decent?)
Rsync -av : "29818985.84 bytes/sec" that's just 2Mbs?

I'm relatively new to linux and not sure if I'm using the right tool for the job, is it to be expected that Rsync is dramatically slower?

Thanks

 

[slylittlefox]

Copy and Paste: Transfer speed 53Mbs (is this decent?)

Yep, sustained 53MB/s is decent (though ensure it's MB/s and not Mb/s!)

Rsync -av : "29818985.84 bytes/sec" that's just 2Mbs?

I work that out to be 29MB/s, which again, whilst decent, is a bit slow.

One thing to bare in mind is the extra processing that goes on when using Rsync, which can have an adverse affect on copy times. We found in work that it was quicker to copy the data straight over rather than use Rsync in some circumstances. There's probably a bell curve diagram out there that gives you the optimal range

Try it using a straight scp/cp, and even better, use NFS.

HTH.

 

[KIA]

Use rsync -avh (human readable) to get speed in MB/s.

My favourite is rsync -avh --partial --progress --stats

man rsync for more information.

 

[zetec452]

I would copy all your media over then use rsync. Should be a lot quicker.

 

[slylittlefox]

I would copy all your media over then use rsync. Should be a lot quicker.

That's a good idea (Though dependent on what you're copying)

 

[daz]

Fork multiple rsyncs for multiple directories...

 

[JC]

Thanks I just used cp -av and will run rsyncs from now on to ensure that additional media files get backed up to the external drive.