Thought USB 3 Was Fast?

pumaz · 10 Mar 2011 at 22:22

Guys, I have a 1.5TB hard drive just for games and my steam folder also resides on this. Steam folder alone is nearly 500GB. Now there is a ton of small files scattered throughout my drive, The only realistic way to zip/rar these up would be the whole steam folder and every individual game that isn't in the steam folder to.

Can you not see how doing this would take some time as well as space while compressing, and after that i would have to back them up and if i needed to copy them back i would have to extract them.

To me that seems a bit long winded when all i want to do is backup a drive. Why should it take longer to copy over small files on USB3 than eSata is the real crux of this and that's the answer I seek

paradisiac · 11 Mar 2011 at 09:09

i guess, but it might still timewise be quicker.
from the brief bits i have read, eSATA will still be quicker :

ESATA (External Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) is the external version of the technology, SATA, that your computer is likely already using for its hard drive. While SATA and eSATA are both older than USB 3.0, its proponents would still claim that it's better than USB 3.0.

They can make this argument because the most common use for eSATA is for external hard drives. Internally, these drives are still using SATA even if you're connecting to these devices with USB or FireWire on the outside. Thus, the argument goes, these devices must use a bridge chip to translate from the ATA protocol to USB or the FireWire IEEE 1394 protocol.

whitecrook · 11 Mar 2011 at 17:12

You could image the drive at the block level. This will cut out slowness of small files.

Phil2008 · 11 Mar 2011 at 21:04

yeah its about 30mb/s with usb 2.0 and 70mb/s with usb 3.0

Arthur Hucksake · 11 Mar 2011 at 21:12

Might be a long shot, and probably won't help but what about disabling the old Remote Differential Compression in Windows?

http://www.windowsreference.com/win...-7-caused-by-remote-differential-compression/

This is for network transfers generally though. Worth a shot.

thunderflash · 11 Mar 2011 at 21:40

I got one of these Sharkoon USB 3 caddys too, I am getting about 31mbps transferring from an internal WD Black to an external WD Blue both 1Tb, it's only films I am copying over and is plugged into the correct USB 3 slot on my motherboard, frustrating as I have a USB 2 one that goes just as fast so wasted my money really, if this is its peak speed.

paradisiac · 11 Mar 2011 at 21:43

maybe its something to do with that caddy, i use 2 cheap evolabs ones, and it copies files of around 600mb at a reasonable speed, atleast twice what my usb 2 enclosures do.

thunderflash · 11 Mar 2011 at 21:46

paradisiac said:
maybe its something to do with that caddy, i use 2 cheap evolabs ones, and it copies files of around 600mb at a reasonable speed, atleast twice what my usb 2 enclosures do.

Lol I had an evolabs one too, it was the same so I returned it thinking there was a fault. Might be a driver issue maybe, for the actual ports rather than device?

Phil2008 · 11 Mar 2011 at 21:49

You need to make sure the usb3.0 is enable in the motherboards bios, cos like I sais about 30mb/s is usb 2.0 speed.

thunderflash · 11 Mar 2011 at 22:07

Phil2008 said:
You need to make sure the usb3.0 is enable in the motherboards bios, cos like I sais about 30mb/s is usb 2.0 speed.

Yeah just checked that it is enabled.

Phil2008 · 11 Mar 2011 at 22:15

thunderflash said:
Yeah just checked that it is enabled.

and its in a usb3.0 port? Plus I think you have to make sure you have got the usb3.0 drivers for your motherboard, cos I dont think windows 7 has any usb3.0 generic drivers?

paradisiac · 11 Mar 2011 at 22:24

yeh you should have an NEC firmware tool thing in the startmenu if the USB 3.0 drivers are installed.

thunderflash · 11 Mar 2011 at 22:36

Phil2008 said:
and its in a usb3.0 port? Plus I think you have to make sure you have got the usb3.0 drivers for your motherboard, cos I dont think windows 7 has any usb3.0 generic drivers?

I installed the Renesas USB 3 Host Controller Driver that was on the CD and updated it later on MSI live update.

Don't have NEC in my Startmenu though

paradisiac · 11 Mar 2011 at 22:37

maybe NEC is for a different type/make. i know my ASRock has it and tells me both controllers firmware.

thunderflash · 11 Mar 2011 at 22:42

paradisiac said:
maybe NEC is for a different type/make. i know my ASRock has it and tells me both controllers firmware.

Ah I think my Renesas is NEC after doing a quick Google search, and yes it shows firmware and driver versions for both controllers. So either my drive caddy does not work or my usb 3 is not working then?

paradisiac · 11 Mar 2011 at 22:45

it looks very puzzling. have you tried moving files of different sizes, so 10mb, 100mb, 500mb, 1GB individually and see if the speeds change?

thunderflash · 11 Mar 2011 at 23:02

paradisiac said:
it looks very puzzling. have you tried moving files of different sizes, so 10mb, 100mb, 500mb, 1GB individually and see if the speeds change?

I used crystaldiskmark and tried different sizes it goes between 29 and 33 mbps for sequential read and slightly less for writes. Will just leave it to run over night I think. There was another 2 ports that can be put into a slot on the case and attached to a header so will try that tomorrow.

paradisiac · 11 Mar 2011 at 23:03

seems odd. something deffinatly isnt right somewhere, would say its drivers somewhere.

paradisiac · 11 Mar 2011 at 23:06

are you def using a usb 3.0 datacable, mine are proper thick, nearly same thickness as the power lead to pc.

paradisiac · 11 Mar 2011 at 23:06

thunderflash said:
There was another 2 ports that can be put into a slot on the case and attached to a header so will try that tomorrow.

you are using front usb sockets to mobo?