Hello. I bought an Airport Extreme in January. Today I connected a 1TB USB Hard Drive to it. I formatted it to HFS+ and MBR partition table then I decided to do a backup of my files on it. But the writing speed is veeeeery slooow. It's about 1.5MB/s and is frustrating. What can be the problem? I searched all over the internet, but I didn't find anything... So... if anyone can help me. Thank you very much 😀
It may be possible that your network is not optimized to provide the highest througput that it can offer ... but how do you get a objective measurement to compare against?
There are a few things to take into consideration, namely:
For comparison I did a couple of simple tests for my network. In my case, I tested throughput using an Intel Mac mini and an 3rd generation AEBSn. Attached to the AEBSn is a NewerTech MiniStack V3. The basic network path between them is: Mac mini > Ethernet switch > Cisco Router > AEBSn > MiniStack. As you can imagine, you can have literally hundreds of other network configurations and each will be unique for their overall throughput characteristics.
I first measured throughput from the Mini to the AEBSn by using IPNetTunerX. I used iPNetTunerX's Link Rate test tool. I did five runs and the average throughput was found to be 115 Mbps (14.4 MBps).
To measure throughput to the MiniStack, I first created a 1 GB disk image file using the Disk Utility. I then copied this file to a folder on the MiniStack. To get the throughput reading I used Net Monitor. I could have easily used OS X's Activity Monitor for this as well. I did five runs of copying this file and the average throughput was found to be 95 Mbps (11.88 MBps). A second way to run a throughput test to the AirPort Disk is to use AJA System Test. System Test will automatically create a temporary file and perform read/write tests, then delete the file when done.
As I expected the throughput to the AirPort Disk would be lower as it would be additive. All in all, it took under 2 minutes to transfer the file.
You can perform similar tests to determine if the issue is the connection to the AEBSn or to the external USB HDD that you are using. These two values should not be off more than 20-25%. If they are, I would suspect the USB HDD. If both are extremely low, then it would indicate the connection to the AEBSn will require further troubleshooting.
Thank you for your answer. I tried the Link Rate Test, and the results of my Modem/Router are about 1MB/s and to the Airport Extreme (which is attached via ethernet to the AEBSn) is abot 2MBs so I think is some kind of network problem. Thank you again
Those are pretty low readings and I would second your opinion that you may be experiencing some sort of networking issue ... most likely Wi-Fi interference or the placement of your AirPort is preventing you from getting decent performance accessing the attached HDD.
I'm finding some of the same problems with slow response, but what's worse, is that it consitently kicks me off the internet within a few minutes of connecting a USB harddrive. Everytime, to remedy, i have to restart the Airport Extreme. I'm finding the usb port pretty useless right now. Does anyone else have success usb harddrives?
What I've noticed with the latest AirPort Extreme is that a computer connecting with 5ghz to the router can transfer files in no time flat. Whereas a computer using the older 2.4ghz band it would take the same file, say 1gb, several hours. Which usually makes the transfer fail within a couple of minutes.
I have a '11 MacBook Pro with the dual band and have no problems connecting to the router & transferring files. But my roommates all have older laptops ( windows ) with just a 2.4 ghz band and the result is what I listed above.
I also have a 1tb hard dive hooked up through the USB formatted the same.
Interesting that its such a huge difference in transfer speeds from the 2.4ghz to 5ghz.
USB HD is very slow on Airport Extreme
