The external hard drive's response time is unusually fast, but overall performance feels sluggish.
The external hard drive's response time is unusually fast, but overall performance feels sluggish.
Hello, I’m transferring some big files between two external drives. The drive with the problem hasn’t been used much in about a year, and the AVG response time is usually between 500 to 1000 ms. The drive holding the files works perfectly, but when writing data it drops from around 130MB to just 2 to 20 MB. I checked using CrystalDiskInfo and everything looks healthy.
It seems like these are numerous tiny files on a very slow HDD. Performance matches the expected standards.
I don't believe that. The folder is about 120GB with 307 files, which means roughly 400MB per file on average. That’s not unusual. Speed was fine for the first 15 seconds, then it dropped to around 30 and stayed low afterward. Now it's approximately 2MB. Updated October 2, 2023 by maher1
Consider using CrystalDisk Mark and adjust the block size settings in the options. Execute the tests again to observe any changes. You might also explore additional disk benchmarks, continue running them for some time, and track read/write speeds. The issue could relate to file system overhead. Check if your drive has been defragmented; otherwise, the disk itself may be faulty or operating at reduced capacity. Many drives struggle to maintain peak performance over extended periods. Some hard drives include an internal cache to enhance speed.
I ran CrystaldiskMark, but the writing speed wasn’t much different. However, the read speed was vastly different—8kib gave 0.09MB and 8mib delivered normal 120MB. My issue seems to be with write speed; I’m unsure what to do with that. I defragmented the disk today, but it didn’t help. I recall in the early months the speed stayed above 100MB during writes, and I think when I first checked the specs it mentioned a cache, which suggests it’s not an unknown brand (WD BLUE).
IT can serve as the main source but also function through a USB port and cable. Have you connected your drive to a USB 3 port using a USB 3 cable? A USB 2 connection will still work, though at much slower speeds than USB 3. For full USB 3 performance, you need both a USB 3 port and a corresponding USB 3 cable. Another method to check the drive is to take it out of the USB enclosure and insert it directly into your computer as an internal drive. This lets you completely skip the USB interface and confirm whether the drive operates correctly or shows signs of slowdown.
Consider restructuring the drive and maybe clearing the cache if you're familiar with the process and it's feasible.