USB 3.0 Slow write speed

[linuxtothebone]

Hi there,

I have a WD elements usb 3.0 1tb external portable HDD and it only works as usb 3.0 when reading. when writing to the drive it hovers around 9.0/10 mb/s.... painstaking

I have checked out what I can online but no real answers apart from this one http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions ... 175471456/

In which the person says "Apparently it was an issue with the NTFS driver in Ubuntu. I changed the file system to ext4 and now it works at USB 3.0 speeds both ways"

I want to know if there has been any update to this as the post referred to above was started in 07-30-2013, and or can any one help me diagnose whether ntfs is the fault here.

Thanks in advance, you guys rock!

[PatH57]

Hi,


you can use the integarted bench mark tool, it's in disks select your drive and on top right corner select benchmark.
In order to use the write benchmark the partiton or drive has to be unmounted.

drive selection disks.png

[Guy7]

linuxtothebone (sorry if this is over basic - hopefully it will help others too)
I've just picked up one of these external HDDs myself. Plugged it in to USB 3.0 port and Nemo refused to open (at all). All icons diappeared from my desktop too. A quick google led me here. Initial dispair but what I tried (no guarantees but it worked for me) was this (no, I don't know *why* it worked I'm afraid):
*** before you do this, we are mucking about with a hard drive here so the usual make sure you have everything backed up / be prepared for data loss etc warnings apply. You do this at your own risk ***

• Open gparted
[list]
• (if you don't already have it installed, either:
[list]
• in a terminal:
sudo apt-get install gparted
• or in Software Manager UI search for "gparted" and install from there.)

[/list]
[*]Select your WD Elements drive (/dev/sd? - mine was /dev/sdd, yours will likely be different)[/*]
[*]*double check* you have selected the correct hdd[/*]
[*]Right click the partition (there should be only one if the drive is fresh out of the box) in the partition list and select "New UUID"

1.png

You will get various warnings - read them and if happy accept.
[*]Apply the changes in GParted[/*][/list]

Once I'd done this, Nemo would open again and my desktop icons came back. I did a bit of benchmarking and the WD Elements drive is almost 2.5 times faster than a Sammy 3.5" usb2.0 external drive I have and about 0.8 times (80%) as fast as an internal SATA drive (HDD) in the same machine. So performing well I'd say.


PatH57 - thanks for the pointer to the benchmark tool

[PatH57]

Glad it helped.
I wouldn't touch the uuid unless really necessary.
I kernel update will probably address the issue in the new future

[Mark Phelps]

Had similar problems when I first started using USB 3.0 rated external drives. Found out, through searching, that the firmware on the motherboard needed to be updated. Since the onboard USB chipset was from NEC, was able to go to their website, download the firmware update and run it -- but that was using Windows.

Once I updated the firmware, I was able to get decent USB 3 related speeds from both Windows and Linux.

So, you should find out what chipset is being used in your PC for the USB 3 jacks and do some Google searches on fixes.

[linuxtothebone]

Thanks everyone for your help.

to patH57-does the disk need to be empty to perform a benchmark. though I dont understand how this will help solve anything as its only the write speed that is useless the read speed is awesome. Some people have reported formatting to Ext4 file system sorts it out as it is apparently ubuntu's NTFS driver that is the problem. The only reason I am hesitant to go Ext4 for my external drive is because I like universal compatability and dont know how the rest of the world works with it. I do have all my own pc's internal drives on Ext4.

to guy 7 Im not too keen to mess around with the UUID have had complications with disks because I messed with the deeper level settings, but hey thanks for your contribution and keep it up. Windows is crap and its the linux community that kicks ass

to Mark Phelps call me paranoid but like the UUID I dont want to mess with the firmware unless there is no other option as I have heard of other issues being created in the system, thanks for your input and I will have a look into what chipsets are in use on my laptop.


Can anyone out their shed some light of the NTFS driver claim? do any other non ubuntu distros suffer the driver issue if their is one?


Thanks to everyone keeping the kickassness of linux alive

[PatH57]

Hi,

let's look at facts.
Please provide the output of

Code: Select all

inxi -v7

linux relies heavily on it's kernel for updates as the kernel has a lot of drivers built in.
You should check through update manager if any new kernel is available and install it (it's safe and you can easily boot into the old kernel)

The drive doesn't have to be empty for write test. (the only limit is that it cannot be the drive you booted on)

[linuxtothebone]

Thanks patH57

Here is the output. I am running mint 17 and kept it up to date, I have not done the benchmark as yes as it said to backup important data and although that is probably just a standard notification I dont want to risk it as I do have important data on there. if I can figure where to move the data I will but until then I hesitate...

Code: Select all

care@care-T1005 ~ $ inxi -v7
System:    Host: care-T1005 Kernel: 3.13.0-24-generic x86_64 (64 bit, gcc: 4.8.2) Desktop: N/A Distro: Linux Mint 17 Qiana
Machine:   System: GIGABYTE product: T1005 version: GSBF05
           Mobo: GIGABYTE model: T1005 Bios: GIGABYTE version: GSBF05 date: 08/30/2010
CPU:       Dual core Intel Atom CPU N550 (-HT-MCP-) cache: 512 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 ssse3) bmips: 5985.56 
           Clock Speeds: 1: 1000.00 MHz 2: 1500.00 MHz 3: 1000.00 MHz 4: 1000.00 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel Atom Processor D4xx/D5xx/N4xx/N5xx Integrated Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0 
           X.Org: 1.15.1 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1280x1024@60.0hz 
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel IGD GLX Version: 1.4 Mesa 10.1.3 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card: Intel NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ver: k3.13.0-24-generic
Network:   Card-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller 
           driver: r8169 ver: 2.3LK-NAPI port: 1000 bus-ID: 04:00.0
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: 1c:6f:65:3c:70:51
           Card-2: Qualcomm Atheros AR9285 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) driver: ath9k bus-ID: 01:00.0
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: 1c:4b:d6:a8:fa:a2
           WAN IP: 122.56.200.70 IF: eth0 ip: N/A ip-v6: N/A IF: wlan0 ip: 192.168.43.25 ip-v6: fe80::1e4b:d6ff:fea8:faa2 
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 2320.5GB (55.5% used) 1: id: /dev/sda model: WDC_WD3200BEVT size: 320.1GB serial: WD-WXB0AC9N7518 
           2: USB id: /dev/sdb model: Elements_1048 size: 1000.2GB serial: 57584431454233435A4A5836-0:0 
           3: USB id: /dev/sdc model: Elements_1048 size: 1000.2GB serial: 575837314542335A44353734-0:0 
           Optical: No optical drives detected.
Partition: ID: / size: 9.1G used: 5.8G (68%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda6 
           label: N/A uuid: 6f9a720d-88d9-4272-aca9-4cd5c47b134f
           ID: /boot size: 453M used: 45M (11%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1 
           label: N/A uuid: 033d853f-f75b-475a-9dcc-2b0132478cd1
           ID: /home size: 280G used: 14G (6%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda7 
           label: N/A uuid: 731aef06-ed1b-48c0-a099-eb3e5b093600
           ID: /media/care/Elements1 size: 932G used: 444G (48%) fs: fuseblk dev: /dev/sdb1 label: N/A uuid: N/A
           ID: /media/care/Elements size: 932G used: 737G (80%) fs: fuseblk dev: /dev/sdc1 
           label: Elements uuid: 7ED8F451D8F40963
           ID: swap-1 size: 5.00GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda5 
           label: N/A uuid: 1ec930f9-0596-44c5-a9c2-69742807f95f
RAID:      System: supported: N/A
           No RAID devices detected - /proc/mdstat and md_mod kernel raid module present
           Unused Devices: none
Unmounted: No unmounted partitions detected
Sensors:   None detected - is lm-sensors installed and configured?
Info:      Processes: 177 Uptime: 12:09 Memory: 1104.2/1990.0MB Runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.8.2 Client: Shell inxi: 1.8.4 

[PatH57]

for the moment it seems to do that you ask it to do "safe data", it could be slow ok, but you have to try another kernel. Don't worry physically you have a backup? or even more then one? then you are safe could be some work getting it bak, but it's there and safe. Don't quote me on it, it common sense

[oblador]

This link helped me:
http://acehege.wordpress.com/2011/11/19 ... inux-mint/

[PatH57]

not really sure, I did try it and still have problems with my usb2 speed. All it seems to do is cache more so the transfer window goes quicly to 100% then satys there for a couple of minutes and the drive flashes (2GB test file).

[linuxtothebone]

Hi there,

Still none the wiser about why I dont get USB3 speed in write mode with my external HDD. I have been playing with linux porteus and have the same problem there too.

Im using the correct port here is the lsusb output, any help would be appreciated.

care@care-T1005 ~ $ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 003: ID 045e:0745 Microsoft Corp. Nano Transceiver v1.0 for Bluetooth
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 0e8f:0016 GreenAsia Inc. 4 port USB 1.1 hub UH-174
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 2087:0a01 Cando Multi Touch Panel
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 007 Device 002: ID 1058:1048 Western Digital Technologies, Inc.
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub