Typical Transfer Speeds on 2023 Mac mini M2 Pro with Ventura 13.2.1?

What are the make & model of the SSDs (if you put them together yourself from individual components, then what are the make & models of each component as well)? This is really important. The USB 3.x speeds are mostly irrelevant...the important question is what the SSD itself can do especially if you pieced them together yourself.

Many of today's consumer level SSDs are low end budget economy models which can be extremely slow especially during sustained writes. Even some higher end SSDs may have issues these days when writing larger amounts of data, plus maybe their may be compatibility issues between the various components or perhaps even with other connected devices.

For the best possible USB3 transfers, make sure each USB3 device in the direct chain back to the computer all support the UASP protocol. This protocol handles transfers in a better more efficient way than than the older block protocol method, plus if any slower USB1/2 devices are connected, then they should not slow down the transfer as they would if the UASP protocol was not being used.

Connect the SSDs directly to the Mac and Make sure to disconnect all other external devices in case one of them is causing a problem. I also recommend checking the write speed of a single SSD while transferring from the Mac's internal SSD to the single external SSD to get a best case baseline for that particular SSD.

Are you using any anti-virus apps, or cleaning/optimizer apps, or third party security software which may be interfering with the normal operation of macOS?

Plus what file system is being used on these external SSDs?

The size and number of files is also a factor. Opening on one side, creating on the other are tasks that take time.

A single 1GB file will transfer a lot faster than many 1MB files.

And the data is going through the computer - it’s not direct disk to disk.

You can use Blackmagic application to see what’s possible on your machine for different file sizes.

USB 3.0/3.1 are standards that theoretically support throughput rates up to 5 Gbps/10 Gbps, respectively.

As far as USB "ports" on this mini model (I just got one and love it), it has four Thunderbolt 4 ports and two USB-A ports.

• Those four Thunderbolt 4 ports support:
  • USB 4 (up to 40Gb/s)
  • USB 3.1 Gen 2 (up to 10Gb/s)
• Two USB-A ports (up to 5Gb/s)

The other side of the equation would be these two external (USB?) drives. Are they identical? Are they connected to the same type of ports (Thunderbolt 4 or USB-A)?

How are you measuring throughput between these devices?

I can certainly run some throughput tests on my mini as I have an assortment of external drives that either already have connected or can do so.

Thanks for providing the additional details. The most likely bottlenecks here are going to be the internal drive transfer rates (directly related to their interface types), the lower read/write access speeds of the HDD, and the mini port that the HDD is connected to.

Again, I would be helpful to know how you made these measurements. When, I get a chance, I can run a few test runs, using some of my external drives to compare the results I get.

Here's a benchmark on a slow SATA3 SSDon USB3.2 buss Up to 5 Gb/sec...

QuickBench(TM) 4.0 Test Results

�2000-2007 Intech Software Corp.

Test file created on Friday, March 3, 2023 at 8:47:40 PM

Test Volume Name: SSD5slow - Data

Test Volume Type: Windows Sharing (SMB/CIFS)

Test Volume Size: 1.862 Terabytes

Test Volume Free Space: 785.624 Gigabytes

Allow Disk Cache Effects: Disabled

All reads and writes performed sychronously

Standard Test Results:

Test Cycles: 1

Transfer Size Sequential Read Sequential Write Random Read Random Write

4 KBytes 44.407 MB/Sec 34.934 MB/Sec 19.510 MB/Sec 42.254 MB/Sec

8 KBytes 81.418 MB/Sec 62.694 MB/Sec 35.617 MB/Sec 75.108 MB/Sec

16 KBytes 92.910 MB/Sec 92.549 MB/Sec 58.428 MB/Sec 107.080 MB/Sec

32 KBytes 143.711 MB/Sec 147.747 MB/Sec 91.751 MB/Sec 169.582 MB/Sec

64 KBytes 263.743 MB/Sec 220.934 MB/Sec 127.637 MB/Sec 235.125 MB/Sec

128 KBytes 328.508 MB/Sec 274.534 MB/Sec 224.564 MB/Sec 290.987 MB/Sec

256 KBytes 368.364 MB/Sec 345.853 MB/Sec 279.918 MB/Sec 348.167 MB/Sec

512 KBytes 387.197 MB/Sec 376.888 MB/Sec 326.442 MB/Sec 357.532 MB/Sec

1024 KBytes 392.798 MB/Sec 379.883 MB/Sec 351.414 MB/Sec 371.142 MB/Sec

Standard Ave 233.673 MB/Sec 215.113 MB/Sec 168.364 MB/Sec 221.886 MB/Sec

And here is cloning 1.2 TB from Spinner on USB3 Bus to SSD on USB3 bus, 2019 iMac...

Ok, I finally had a chance to run some throughput tests with my M2 Pro mini & a number of my external drives.

To keep this reply simple, I will only provide results for sequential read/writes of 1 GB file transfers. I have a number of throughput testing apps, and will use AmorphousDiskMark app's results here. Results from my other apps were similar.

• Internal Apple 1 TB SSD: Read: 6450 MB/s / Write: 5574 MB/s
  • Volume Name: Macintosh HD - Data
  • File System: APFS
  • Protocol: Apple Fabric
• Synology DS916+ NAS: Read: 423 MB/s / Write: 403 MB/s
  • Volume Name: Data
  • Network Drive over 1 GB Ethernet thru two UniFi PoE 60W Ethernet switches on the same subnet
  • Jumbo Frames enabled on both the NAS and Ethernet switch ports.
  • The NAS ports are aggregated.
  • File Sharing Protocol: SMB3
  • File System: bfrs
• OWC miniStack STX: Read: 790 MB/s / Write: 700 MB/s
  • Volume Name: OWC2
  • External Drive
  • SATA 6Gb/s 2TB Iron Wolf HDD
  • File System: Journaled HFS+
  • Protocol: USB4
  • Link Speed: Up to 40 Gb/s
• WD My Book Pro: Read: 292 MB/s / Write: 166 MB/s
  • Volume Name: SG2
  • External Drive
  • WD Red 2TB HDD
  • File System: Journaled HFS+
  • Protocol: Thunderbolt 2
  • Link Speed: Up to 20 Gb/s
• 5th Gen AirPort Time Capsule (2TB HDD): Read: 42 MB/s / Write: 34 MB/s
  • Volume Name: Home_Share
  • Network Drive over 1 GB Ethernet thru two UniFi PoE 60W Ethernet switches on the same subnet
  • 2TB HDD
  • File System: Propriety TC partions/format

FrankPerry wrote:

Interestingly, I am not being presented with a "Data" drive to select.

But neither Black Magic's Target Drive selector nor the Finder displays the "Data" volume.

The Finder hides it from the user so everything appears as the familiar "Macintosh HD" volume. A lot of stuff goes on behind the scenes though.

The "Data" volume is where your macOS home user folder is located, so just select any folder within your own home folder as the destination of the test.

Is it typical to see the "Data" volume displayed with an M2 Pro Mac mini running Ventura?

No, this is usually hidden from view under most circumstances. The only place you should be modifying files/folders is within the "/Users" folder since everything outside of this is considered the system area now with read-only access to even admin & root users.

Perhaps you did not select the Data partition of the internal SSD. You should not have to alter any permissions except perhaps occasionally on your personal files.

Does the machine have problems after you reset permissions?

FrankPerry wrote:

What is Black Magic RAW Speed Test to be used for vs Disk Speed Test?

Directly from Blackmagic: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/media/release/20190808-04