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S-l-O-W copy

I am attempting to copy a 30GB file from a WD internal 500GB HD (backed up to an identical HDD with Time Machine) on my 1.6 GHz PPC G5 Mac running OSX 10.5.8 (1.25 GB RAM) to a LaCie 250GB external drive using FW 800. It's been several years since I've done this type of copying, and it seems to be going steadily, but very slowly. The original estimate was over a day, and it seems to be keeping to that pace.


Any ideas?

Power Mac G5, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Feb 8, 2013 10:12 AM

Reply
24 replies

Feb 8, 2013 11:22 AM in response to John Avelis

Hello John, see how many of these you can answer...


See if the Disk is issuing any S.M.A.R.T errors in Disk Utility...


http://support.apple.com/kb/PH7029



Open Activity Monitor in Applications>Utilities, select All Processes & sort on CPU%, any indications there?


How much RAM & free Disk space do you have also, click on the Memory & Disk Usage Tabs.


Open Console in Utilities & see if there are any clues or repeating messages when this is happening.


In the Memory tab of Activity Monitor, are there a lot of Pageouts?

Feb 8, 2013 12:01 PM in response to BDAqua

Hello John, see how many of these you can answer...



See if the Disk is issuing any S.M.A.R.T errors in Disk Utility...


Says "SMART Status: not supported"



Open Activity Monitor in Applications>Utilities, select All Processes & sort on CPU%, any indications there?


I'm not sure how to read all this- but the CPU shows only about 50% usage most of the time.


How much RAM & free Disk space do you have also, click on the Memory & Disk Usage Tabs.


RAM Used: 1.14 out of 1.25 GB



Free: 133 MB


Wired: 170 MB


Active: 660 MB


Inactive: 316 MB


Shows Virtual Memory pretty consistent at 585 MB



Console in Utilities & see if there are any clues or repeating messages when this is happening.


Nothing noticeably repetitive.



In the Memory tab of Activity Monitor, are there a lot of Pageouts?


I see nothing referred to as a "pageout" in the list.



Other possibly relevant information:


Disk being copied from has 358 GB used, 107 available


Disk being copied to was formatted prior to starting the copy (Mac Extended Journaled formatting).

Feb 8, 2013 1:39 PM in response to BDAqua

We may have found something, not sure what.


1. Yes, the external drive does return "SMART Status: not supported" in Disk Utilities.


2. Time Machine was indeed on; I have turned it off, although I can see no change in the rate of copying.


3. Spotlight Prefs returns an "unknown error" when I try to add the external drive to the Privacy list.


4. Yes. The RAM issue. Well, back when the G5 seemed like a lot of computer, 1.25 GB seemed like a lot of RAM. In a machine of this vintage.....probably not going to add any more. In fact, my copying is backing up essential files in preparation to adding an NAS unit and moving things to that, then the G5 is going to be retired in favor of our Intel MacBook Pros.

Feb 9, 2013 4:25 AM in response to BDAqua

I looked at the progress again this morning, and it's right on the schedule it's kept all along: 5 hours to go, about 1K files.


Also, it now shows the external drive in the Privacy pane of Spotlight prefs.


The figures for mdworker are:


Proc 2527

mdworker

CPU: 0

Threads: 4

Real Mem: 2.75 MB

Virtual Mem: 603.57 MB


Note that the figure for a lot of processes is about that much virtual memory....seems like a lot, when so much real memory is unused.


I have more stuff to copy off the same drive when this folder is done. I plan to use Disk Utility to Repair Disk Permissions and do a restart before attempting to copy again.

Feb 9, 2013 9:07 AM in response to John Avelis

Note that the figure for a lot of processes is about that much virtual memory....seems like a lot, when so much real memory is unused.

It's not a lot, it's more of an in-case needed case, my G5/10 GB Ram/Used 2.3 GB/Free 7.7 GB/VM=20.27 GB! 🙂


If Pageouts are zero or very little, then it isn't being used at all.


Before Repairing Permissions, Verify/Repair the Disk.

Feb 9, 2013 12:50 PM in response to BDAqua

I did a disk verify before I started this project.


I have started the next copy (my iPhoto pictures folder, 31.77 GB), and it's copying.....but just as slowly.


I've studied the Console, and there's an enormous amount of stuff for today's date (3-400 entries), but nothing that consistent.


I guess I'm going to have to write this off to one of life's little mysteries.

Feb 9, 2013 3:10 PM in response to John Avelis

Whew, that sure is slow for FW800!?


At the Apple Icon at top left>About this Mac, then click on More Info, then click on Hardware>Firewire, highlight that drive & see what the connection speed is.


Here's an old FW400 drive on my G5...


Newer Tech miniStack V2:


Manufacturer: Newer Technology

Model: 0x0

GUID: 0x******************

Maximum Speed: Up to 400 Mb/sec

Connection Speed: Up to 400 Mb/sec

Sub-units:

Newer Tech miniStack V2 Unit:

Unit Software Version: 0x10483

Unit Spec ID: 0x609E

Firmware Revision: 0x102

Product Revision Level: 12.0

Sub-units:

Newer Tech miniStack V2 SBP-LUN:

Capacity: 465.76 GB

Removable Media: Yes

BSD Name: disk3

OS9 Drivers: Yes

S.M.A.R.T. status: Not Supported

Feb 9, 2013 3:20 PM in response to BDAqua

Here's the info on the drive:


LaCie d2 Extreme LUN 0:


Manufacturer: LaCie Group SA

Model: 0x0

GUID: 0xD04B580407B9B0

Maximum Speed: Up to 800 Mb/sec

Connection Speed: Up to 800 Mb/sec

Sub-units:

LaCie d2 Extreme LUN 0 Unit:

Unit Software Version: 0x10483

Unit Spec ID: 0x609E

Firmware Revision: 0x102

Product Revision Level: 3.03

Sub-units:

LaCie d2 Extreme LUN 0 SBP-LUN:

Capacity: 232.89 GB

Removable Media: Yes

BSD Name: disk2

Mac OS 9 Drivers: No

Partition Map Type: APM (Apple Partition Map)

S.M.A.R.T. status: Not Supported

Volumes:

Backups:

Capacity: 232.76 GB

Available: 198.15 GB

Writable: Yes

File System: Journaled HFS+

BSD Name: disk2s3

Mount Point: /Volumes/Backups

Feb 9, 2013 6:00 PM in response to BDAqua

Yes, something crazy going on, but since we don't really use that machine for too much any more, if it takes all of of next week to do these backups, so be it.

The external LaCie drive has I/O for USB 2.0, FW400 and FW800. I switched to FW800 because the FW400 was so poky.

That G5 normally runs on the home network with WiFi; I'm planning on running an Ethernet cable to the router when I back up to the new NAS system. Sure hope that goes faster than this backup.

S-l-O-W copy

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