External USB drives slow

Robert,

I'm also experiencing some problem with the usb port. When I eject a usb device, the usb port would stop detecting new device. Have that ever happen to you?

Is each drive directly connected to the Intel Mini, or are you using a hub?

Interesting. I'm glad I found this thread. I'm also suffering from the same problem. Interestingly I have a Seagate Freeagent (320GB) as well.

Removing the device when the Mac is powered up and replugging it back in immediately cures the problem until the next time I have to power it off.

So.. is this a Mac Mini, a Seagate Freeagent, or a Leopard problem.... 🙂

I get the slow USB as well, replugging it into a different USB slot works okay but it would be much nicer if this thing didn't happen. It did not happen in Tiger with my 500GB Freeagent Desktop. Also the disk seems to make my programs like iTunes hang, since I have my library stored on there, unplugging it cold seems to stop it from hanging.

I have started a thread at the Seagate Forums about this problem, hopefully some answers will come up from there.

http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/message?board.id=freeagent&thread.id=148

Also this problem could well be on Seagate's end although they don't seem to register the Freeagent drives as a problem on this list it is possible they are working on a solution.

http://seagate.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/seagate.cfg/php/enduser/stdadp.php?pfaqid=4975

Message was edited by: Consumerist

Hi Robert Stern-

This sounds like a problem with the drives themselves.

The fact that your Mac's USB is kicking back to 12MB/s in order to accommodate them is your cause and effect.

Does it bring the hub down to 12MB/s or just shows the drive connected at the slower speed?

Following the steps in this document may be helpful: USB and FireWire Quick Assist

Luck-

-DaddyPaycheck

Hiya,

I've got exactly the same issue, there is definately something up with either 10.5.1 or the freedrives...fingers crossed it gets picked up.

Nb:/ this thread is the top result on google for "mac mini slow usb"

Welcome to Apple Discussions!

The fact the thread is Google's top result means nothing more than that it is the most recent hit in the search, and while it could be something generic to 10.5.1 I really don't think it likely to be that simple. My minis are typically all firewire connected to externals, but when looking at this thread I have experimented by switching two over to USB. Neither appear to have suffered the same drop in throughput as being described here, and both are running 10.5.1.

Are these users using (USB) 2.0 external drives? Only G5 supports 2.0. Other than that, you need a USB 2.0 card.

Only G5 supports 2.0. Other than that, you need a USB 2.0 card.

Not sure what you mean by this. Plenty more than G5 systems support USB 2.0, including, but not at all limited to all minis, both G4 and Intel models.

The following fix -- partitioning the external USB drive twice using the correct partition scheme -- fixed this problem for me.

I can't claim originality -- I got the idea from a Time Machine thread on apple.com (which I can't find now).

Unplugging the external USB drive and cycling power was not working for me -- so there may be more than one problem here.

Here's what worked (note that this will erase the disk!):

1 - Open Disk Utility and highlight the disk description (not the volume name).

2 - Choose the "Partition" tab (which won't appear if you have the volume highlighted).

3 - In the Volume Scheme pull-down, select "2" (or any other number 1).

4 - Click the Options button and choose the GUID Partition Table (if you've got an Intel Mac -- other choices are explained on the page that appears).

5 - Click "Apply."

6 - Now repeat steps 3 - 5, except create a single partition (Volume Scheme = 1).

That should do it!

While you've got Disk Utility open, you may want to check your drive format as well.

(cross-posted in http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6050391#6050391 )

Hiya,

not sure what happened (maybe the latest apple update), but this now seems to be totally fixed on my machine. All i did was change the USB port.

Cheers

DaddyPaycheck wrote:
Hi Robert Stern-

This sounds like a problem with the drives themselves.

I seriously doubt it is the drives.

The drives work flawlessly on several non-Mac systems.

They only have this problem on a Mac.

Still not working for me.

Tried the above posted guide (clear partition table, etc) and still suffering from SUPER slow USB transfer speeds with this drive.

Is Apple even acknowledging this as an issue? 😟

I'm glad to have found this topic, I'm having the exact same problem with USB transfer speeds suddenly dropping to an extreme low. This is very frustrating especially when I'm working in Final Cut, all of my video starts to stutter horribly.
I've found that simply unplugging and restarting the external USB drive helps but only temporarily. It doesn't take long until it's back in the low speed USB Bus again.