Extremely slow transfer speed usb 3.0 (only USB 2.0 speed)

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Level 2

202 points

Extremely slow transfer speed usb 3.0 (only USB 2.0 speed)

I am currently transferring 870 GB of data to a new G-TECH external hard drive.

Through USB.0 to another external hard drive.

Connected through a powered HooToo Superspeed dock.

From what I read on the box of the G-tech, 19 GB should transfer in under 2 minutes, 870 GB should transfer in less than 80 minutes.

But my estimated time is 6 HOURS.

Instead of 10 GB/ hour I am only getting 2.4 GB/hour - that's USB 2.0 speed!

What is wrong here?

Why is it so slow?

MacBook Pro with Retina display, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4), 512 Gb SSD, 16 Gb RAM,

Posted on Jan 12, 2016 2:37 PM

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Answer 1

c_spaul

Level 1

8 points

Dec 12, 2017 3:50 PM in response to Ocean 17

I'm having this exact same problem!

I bought a Targus USB 3.0 4 Port USB Hub and when connecting my G-Drive to it I'm literally getting between 5mb/s and 15mb/s for the write speed. When I connect the G-Drive directly to my Late 2013 15" Macbook Pro with Retina Display I get around 130mb/s for the Write speed. The crazy thing is when it is connected to the Targus, the write speed is terrible but the Read speed isn't effected at all!

Here's the thing though, I connected two other drives to the Targus and ran speed tests on them and neither of them were effected at all. They had the exact same transfer speed over the Targus as being directly connected to the Macbook.

The other two drives are: 1) A SeaGate backup drive and 2) a custom built Raid5 drive. Both of these are USB 3.0 as well.

On top of this, I tried changing the USB 3.0 cord of the G-Drive with another cord from one of the other drives that had no issues and the G-Drive still had terrible write speeds.

I've tried repairing the drive, checking permissions, shutting it off and back on, and nothing works.

Why would only the G-Drive be having this issue? I can't find any answers online at all!

Any thoughts?

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Answer 2

Ocean 17 Author

Level 2

202 points

Jan 16, 2016 11:13 AM in response to Ocean 17

Nobody has a tip?

Why does it take 6 hours to copy 870 GB via USB 3.0?

I just unhooked the usb 3.0 connections and put it back on Firewire 800. The expected time now went up to 7 hours. Even slower.

That's just barely above usb 2.0.

Why - with a 3 year old retina macbook pro and new and one year old g-tech drives?

If I take the speeds on the g-tech box it should be over in 1 1/2 hours via usb 3.0, and under 2 hours in Firewire 800.

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Answer 3

Jan 16, 2016 11:30 AM in response to Ocean 17

Are you using a USB3 cable?

My only suggestion would be to try a different higher quality USB3 cable.

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Answer 4

Ocean 17 Author

Level 2

202 points

Jan 16, 2016 11:36 AM in response to leroydouglas

Yes, I have been using the usb 3.0 cable that came with the g-tech discs.

Looks like usb 2.0, but has blue plastic pieces on each end. One end is different from the other (where you plug it into the drive)

But the Firewire 800 speed is also super slow. actual usb 2.0 speed on firewire 800.

I'm using a thunderbolt to Firewire adapter manufactured by Apple for the Firewire 800 connection.

The cables are the cables G-Tech supplies with its drives. I don't think they will supply junk cables that will not make their drives work fast enough.

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Answer 5

Ocean 17 Author

Level 2

202 points

Jan 16, 2016 12:02 PM in response to Ocean 17

I ran a test:

connected the hard drive directly to the usb 3.0 port.

Got 10 GB/minute transfer speed as advertised.

So why is it so slow over the superspeed hub?

And why is it so slow over Firewire 800 daisychain? Since I put on the new drive it even takes 2 minutes to 3 minutes for a drive that comes AFTER the new drive in the daisy chain to mount and be responsive. It then takes 2 minutes for the folder icons to properly show (placeholder before that)

I feel something is wrong with the new drive. It can't daisychain, it can't connect to a hub, only works directly connected to a port.

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Answer 6

Jan 16, 2016 12:11 PM in response to Ocean 17

Ocean 17 wrote:

I ran a test:

connected the hard drive directly to the usb 3.0 port.

Got 10 GB/minute transfer speed as advertised.

So why is it so slow over the superspeed hub?

And why is it so slow over Firewire 800 daisychain? Since I put on the new drive it even takes 2 minutes to 3 minutes for a drive that comes AFTER the new drive in the daisy chain to mount and be responsive. It then takes 2 minutes for the folder icons to properly show (placeholder before that)

I feel something is wrong with the new drive. It can't daisychain, it can't connect to a hub, only works directly connected to a port.

Doesn't the evidence point to the hub as the problem?

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Answer 7

Ocean 17 Author

Level 2

202 points

Jan 16, 2016 12:14 PM in response to leroydouglas

That was my first guess.

But the FireWire 800 performance is even worse than through a usb 3.0 port.

It is so slow that the drives sitting below the new drive in daisy chain become unresponsive. I had a couple of involuntary unmounts as well.

Under FireWire 800, it took minutes for a drive in the daisy chain to become responsive. FireWire 800 became impossible with this new drive.

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Answer 8

Ocean 17 Author

Level 2

202 points

Jan 16, 2016 12:31 PM in response to Ocean 17

I tested FirWire 800 with a different drive: 65 Gb take 18 minutes to copy - about twice the time it actually should. (this is a different drive, a g-tech 2 TB about 1 1/2 years old).

It's connected directly to a Thunderbolt port using an Apple thunderbolt-firewire adapter.

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Answer 9

Ocean 17 Author

Level 2

202 points

Jan 18, 2016 2:15 PM in response to Ocean 17

Anybody else?

Why is FireWire800 so slow, 7 hours for 870 GB is usb 2.0 speed.

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Answer 10

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Jan 18, 2016 2:19 PM in response to Ocean 17

Firewire 800 is much slower than USB 3. That is why it is slower (0.8GB/s = FW 800 5GB/s is USB 3)

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Answer 11

Ocean 17 Author

Level 2

202 points

Jan 18, 2016 2:40 PM in response to Csound1

On the box of my G-tech drive it says 19 GB should transfer in 3 min 31 sec on FW 800 and in 1 minute 46 seconds on usb 3.0.

Bottle neck would be that those are spinning hard drives, not SSD.

But in real life the speeds were about three times as long for both FW800 and usb 3.0. (only without a hub I could achieve the promised speed on usb 3.0 - which doesn't help as I have 3 drives to connect to one port - I need a hub, and the hootoo hub didn't work, slowed it all down to usb 2.0 even though it promised to be "superspeed" real usb 3.0.

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Answer 12

Csound1

Level 9

60,063 points

Jan 18, 2016 4:41 PM in response to Ocean 17

You have a math problem.Fw 800 is 6 times slower than US3 (O,8 Gb/s versus 5 Gb/s for USB 3) factor the correct speeds in to your calculation. And if your ub slow it down even more, don' use it (get a faster hub)

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