[SOLVED] Super Slow USB 3.0 Rad/Write Speeds With External HDD

[ChildOfMana]

Hi all,

I’ve done plenty of searching on this and found plenty of similar problems but so far nothing that has solved my problem, so forgive the ‘yet-another-slow-usb-issue’ post…

For info I’m running Mint 18.2 x64 Mate. Full rig specs are in my sig.

So I have a new Seagate Maxtor M3 4TB external USB 3.0 drive. I tried to run an rsync backup to it and noticed it was taking an inordinate amount of time. When I investigated I was seeing write speeds of about 64Kbps. Not exactly what you’d expect from USB 3.0!

My initial thought was to use a different port. Same deal. A different (known-good) cable? No difference.

I ran a benchmark and got average read speeds of 9.6Mbps and write speeds of 1.8Mbps.

I figured it might be a faulty drive so I switched to my Windows 10 partition and ran a benchmark there to rule out any problems with Linux itself… low and behold average read/write speeds of 117Mbps/128Mbps. Much more like it!

Just to be sure I also ran a benchmark on the drive from my laptop (also running Windows 10) and got similar speeds.

Switching back to Linux I ran another benchmark and got the same dismal speeds I got the first time round. So, the problem seems to squarely lie with my Linux Installation. I updated to the latest available kernel but that didn’t solve the issue either. Same speeds again.

I formatted the drive to Ext4 to see if that made a difference but again got roughly the same speeds.

I ran a benchmark on an older Western Digital drive I have lying round, just for comparison, and got average read write of 21Mbps/25Mbps. Much better than the Maxtor M3 but I’m sure you’d agree still way too slow for a USB 3.0 drive!

It’s probably worth mentioning that my wireless adapter is an external USB 3.0 dongle and there is no problems with my internet speeds. The last speed test I ran came back as a whopping (for my area at least) 126Mbps downstream, so clearly there’s no problem with the USB 3.0 throughput in general.

Perhaps it’s something to do with the storage controller then?

I ran dmesg |grep usb and, although I forgot to copy the output at the time so can't paste it here now, it definitely listed the drive in questions as using xhci_hcd, which I believe means it's running in USB 3.0 mode, right?

Unfortunately the kernel update broke compatibility with my USB wireless dongle and I've not yet had chance to compile and install the updated driver to get it working again so I'm posting this from work. As soon as I get it back up and running though I'll post the full output from dmesg here.

On another note I was poking around in the BIOS (on a separate issue) and noticed that my internal SATA drives are set to operate in IDE mode instead of AHCI mode. A foolish oversight on my part when I set up the rig – but that shouldn’t affect USB 3.0 speeds, should it? It doesn’t seem to in Windows at least (or if it does it’s at least fast enough for my needs and is comparable to the benchmark speeds on my laptop which is set to AHCI mode). Not sure if any of this is relevant but I mention it as at this point it’s the only theory I’ve got. Could it be affecting Linux’s USB 3.0 performance? The problem is if I switch to AHCI mode Windows will fail to boot and unfortunately I need to keep it in working order due needing it for my work.

So, any theories or suggestions?

Thanks in advance guys.

[JerryF]

Posting the specs in your signature really doesn't give us enough information about your machine in Linux setup.

Please copy the results of the following command in Terminal, the paste the results in between code tags:

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inxi -Fxz

and then:

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lsusb

[ClixTrix]

Could you please run the following commands from Terminal and post back the results. Make sure the USB drive is connected.

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inxi -Fxz

The output from this command should provide the driver for onboard hub it's using and speed.

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lsusb -t

Edit: I see there was a request ahead of mine. I would ask you add the "-t" for mine.

Edit2: This is interesting.....

https://github.com/restic/restic/issues/1555

[ChildOfMana]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the replies. Got my wireless dongle back up and running so here's the output of inxi -Fxz...

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System:    Host: MintDesktop Kernel: 4.13.0-45-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
           Desktop: Cinnamon 3.4.6 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.3) Distro: Linux Mint 18.2 Sonya
Machine:   Mobo: MSI model: P67A-GD53 (MS-7681) v: 1.0/2.0 Bios: American Megatrends v: V1.14 date: 07/13/2011
CPU:       Quad core Intel Core i5-2500 (-MCP-) cache: 6144 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 26340
           clock speeds: max: 3700 MHz 1: 1596 MHz 2: 1596 MHz 3: 1596 MHz 4: 1596 MHz
Graphics:  Card: NVIDIA GK104 [GeForce GTX 770] bus-ID: 01:00.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: nvidia (unloaded: fbdev,vesa,nouveau)
           Resolution: 1920x1080@60.00hz, 1920x1080@60.00hz
           GLX Renderer: GeForce GTX 770/PCIe/SSE2 GLX Version: 4.5.0 NVIDIA 384.130 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card-1 NVIDIA GK104 HDMI Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 01:00.1
           Card-2 Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio Controller
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.13.0-45-generic
Network:   Card: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
           driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: d000 bus-ID: 06:00.0
           IF: enp6s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 10442.1GB (24.2% used) ID-1: /dev/sda model: WDC_WD3200AAJS size: 320.1GB
           ID-2: /dev/sdb model: TOSHIBA_A100 size: 120.0GB ID-3: /dev/sdc model: WDC_WD30EZRX size: 3000.6GB
           ID-4: /dev/sdd model: WDC_WD30EZRX size: 3000.6GB ID-5: USB /dev/sde model: M3_Portable size: 4000.8GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 29G used: 11G (39%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdd1
           ID-2: /home size: 2.7T used: 2.3T (91%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdd2
           ID-3: swap-1 size: 2.05GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sdd3
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 32.0C mobo: N/A gpu: 0.0:36C
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 198 Uptime: 18 min Memory: 1589.9/7946.9MB Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.481) inxi: 2.2.35 

And here's the output of lsusb -t...

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/:  Bus 04.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/2p, 5000M
    |__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Mass Storage, Driver=uas, 5000M
/:  Bus 03.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/2p, 480M
/:  Bus 02.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=ehci-pci/2p, 480M
    |__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/8p, 480M
        |__ Port 2: Dev 3, If 0, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M
        |__ Port 2: Dev 3, If 1, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M
        |__ Port 2: Dev 3, If 2, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M
        |__ Port 8: Dev 4, If 0, Class=Vendor Specific Class, Driver=rtl8812au, 480M
/:  Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=ehci-pci/2p, 480M
    |__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/6p, 480M

Edit:
In case it helps here's the relevant section of dmesg | grep usb...

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[ 1062.570717] usb 4-1: new SuperSpeed USB device number 2 using xhci_hcd
[ 1062.596696] usb 4-1: New USB device found, idVendor=0bc2, idProduct=61b7
[ 1062.596700] usb 4-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=2, Product=3, SerialNumber=1
[ 1062.596702] usb 4-1: Product: M3 Portable
[ 1062.596705] usb 4-1: Manufacturer: Seagate
[ 1062.596707] usb 4-1: SerialNumber: NM1577S3
[ 1062.638006] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
[ 1062.642230] usbcore: registered new interface driver uas

[ClixTrix]

Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Mass Storage, Driver=uas, 5000M

If that's the drive, it does show 5Gbs (5000M). Hmmmm.....so does the dmesg log show it possibly having errors and dropping speed?

Try running a test and see if it does and what the drive shows with lsusb -t after the test.

I did a check on your motherboard. I believe it uses a Renesas USB 3.0 controller. Got that from it's driver list for old Win 7/XP. If you can also run the following command from Terminal and post back the result, it might give enough info to figure-out which Renesas chip it has and check driver used.

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lspci -v

[ChildOfMana]

Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Mass Storage, Driver=uas, 5000M

If that's the drive, it does show 5Gbs (5000M). Hmmmm.....so does the dmesg log show it possibly having errors and dropping speed?

Try running a test and see if it does and what the drive shows with lsusb -t after the test.

Forgive my ignorance but I'm not sure what type of test you mean. Below is the output of smartctl -x /dev/sde1 and attached is a screenshot of the benchmark I just ran. Strangely I now seem to be getting greatly improved speeds compared to the other day, but still about a third slower than the speeds recorded using Windows 10 on the same port.

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=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Vendor:               Seagate
Product:              M3 Portable
Revision:             9300
Compliance:           SPC-4
User Capacity:        4,000,787,029,504 bytes [4.00 TB]
Logical block size:   512 bytes
Physical block size:  4096 bytes
Logical Unit id:      0x5000000000000001
Serial number:        NM1577S3
Device type:          disk
Local Time is:        Tue Jun 19 19:44:52 2018 BST
SMART support is:     Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is:     Disabled
Temperature Warning:  Disabled or Not Supported

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Health Status: OK

Error Counter logging not supported

Device does not support Self Test logging

I did a check on your motherboard. I believe it uses a Renesas USB 3.0 controller. Got that from it's driver list for old Win 7/XP. If you can also run the following command from Terminal and post back the result, it might give enough info to figure-out which Renesas chip it has and check driver used.

Thanks. Here's the output...

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00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family DRAM Controller (rev 09)
	Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] 2nd Generation Core Processor Family DRAM Controller
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel driver in use: snb_uncore

00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200/2nd Generation Core Processor Family PCI Express Root Port (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
	Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0
	I/O behind bridge: 0000e000-0000efff
	Memory behind bridge: fa000000-fb0fffff
	Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000d0000000-00000000d9ffffff
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
	Kernel modules: shpchp

00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
	Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 31
	Memory at fb207000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16]
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel driver in use: mei_me
	Kernel modules: mei_me

00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 05) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
	Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller
	Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
	Memory at fb206000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel driver in use: ehci-pci

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 05)
	Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 32
	Memory at fb200000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
	Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel

00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev b5) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
	Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=02, sec-latency=0
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
	Kernel modules: shpchp

00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev b5) (prog-if 01 [Subtractive decode])
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 10
	Bus: primary=00, secondary=03, subordinate=04, sec-latency=0
	Capabilities: <access denied>

00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 6 (rev b5) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
	Bus: primary=00, secondary=05, subordinate=05, sec-latency=0
	Memory behind bridge: fb100000-fb1fffff
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
	Kernel modules: shpchp

00:1c.6 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 7 (rev b5) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 18
	Bus: primary=00, secondary=06, subordinate=06, sec-latency=0
	I/O behind bridge: 0000d000-0000dfff
	Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000da100000-00000000da1fffff
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
	Kernel modules: shpchp

00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 05) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
	Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller
	Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 23
	Memory at fb205000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel driver in use: ehci-pci

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation P67 Express Chipset Family LPC Controller (rev 05)
	Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] P67 Express Chipset Family LPC Controller
	Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel driver in use: lpc_ich
	Kernel modules: lpc_ich

00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family 4 port SATA IDE Controller (rev 05) (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
	Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family 4 port SATA IDE Controller
	Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 19
	I/O ports at 01f0 [size=8]
	I/O ports at 03f4
	I/O ports at 0170 [size=8]
	I/O ports at 0374
	I/O ports at f090 [size=16]
	I/O ports at f080 [size=16]
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel driver in use: ata_piix
	Kernel modules: pata_acpi

00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 05)
	Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller
	Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 3
	Memory at fb204000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
	I/O ports at f000 [size=32]
	Kernel modules: i2c_i801

00:1f.5 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family 2 port SATA IDE Controller (rev 05) (prog-if 85 [Master SecO PriO])
	Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family 2 port SATA IDE Controller
	Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 19
	I/O ports at f070 [size=8]
	I/O ports at f060 [size=4]
	I/O ports at f050 [size=8]
	I/O ports at f040 [size=4]
	I/O ports at f030 [size=16]
	I/O ports at f020 [size=16]
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel driver in use: ata_piix
	Kernel modules: pata_acpi

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GK104 [GeForce GTX 770] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
	Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] GK104 [GeForce GTX 770]
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 33
	Memory at fa000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
	Memory at d0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
	Memory at d8000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=32M]
	I/O ports at e000 [size=128]
	[virtual] Expansion ROM at 000c0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel driver in use: nvidia
	Kernel modules: nvidiafb, nouveau, nvidia_384_drm, nvidia_384

01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation GK104 HDMI Audio Controller (rev a1)
	Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] GK104 HDMI Audio Controller
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
	Memory at fb080000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
	Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel

03:00.0 PCI bridge: ASMedia Technology Inc. ASM1083/1085 PCIe to PCI Bridge (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
	Bus: primary=03, secondary=04, subordinate=04, sec-latency=32
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel modules: shpchp

05:00.0 USB controller: NEC Corporation uPD720200 USB 3.0 Host Controller (rev 04) (prog-if 30 [XHCI])
	Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] uPD720200 USB 3.0 Host Controller
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
	Memory at fb100000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8K]
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel driver in use: xhci_hcd

06:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 06)
	Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 30
	I/O ports at d000 [size=256]
	Memory at da104000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=4K]
	Memory at da100000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=16K]
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel driver in use: r8169
	Kernel modules: r8169

[ClixTrix]

05:00.0 USB controller: NEC Corporation uPD720200 USB 3.0 Host Controller (rev 04) (prog-if 30 [XHCI])
Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] uPD720200 USB 3.0 Host Controller
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
Memory at fb100000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) size=8K
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: xhci_hcd

Well, that's the NEC Renesas USB 3.0 Controller. So, the driver info was correct. Yep, it's using the xhci_hcd driver.

FYI....I had an old Renesas controller on an add-in card on a prior system. I recall having to flash its firmware to get it working well. Not saying that's the problem here. Just putting it on the table as something to check. BIOS would provide any fixes for that and Windows, but not sure about Linux.

Since you're running the 4.13 kernel, have you tried any of the older kernels, especially the 4.4 kernel? Older hardware......older kernel....maybe the problem is old and fixed and now regressed.

If you were to create a smaller, say 10GB, partition on the drive as FAT32 or ext2 (not ext4) and ran some benchmarks, what are the results?

Edit: You might want to read this old post at Ubuntu on that Renesas uPD720200 chip.

https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1893543

Edit2: Your current BIOS is old. While I don't specifically see a firmware update for the Renesas Contoller, it's possible one is buried in one of the updates. You might consider updating BIOS to last release to see if it helps.

[ChildOfMana]

Interesting results. See the attached benchmarks on a 10Gb FAT32 partition. Generally faster, but not by much... except for test_1 which seems to be a bit of an outlier when it comes to read speed. Any idea what's going on there?

Also, you might be onto something with your suggestion to use an earlier kernel. I've had this rig for a number of years and an older installation of Mint (though I forget which version now) had no problem backing up to an external HDD via USB 3.0 at the expected speeds. Okay, it was a different drive (which I no longer have) but my quick test the other day with the WD drive I have lying around at least seems to indicate the problem is with USB 3.0 support more generally, rather than specifically with the Maxtor M3.

I'm going to try reverting to 4.4 and see what happens.

I've also spied an available update to my Mobo's BIOS which includes "Update USB module" in the changelog. Maybe that will do the trick? I'll try the earlier kernel first though as, this issue aside (if it is the culprit), I've had nothing but rock-solid stability and performance from this Mobo so don't want to risk flashing the BIOS unnecessarily.

Thank you for your help and advice so far, I really appreciate it. I'll let you know how I get on.

Edit: Well, unfortunately that didn't work either. Roughly the same speeds with a 4.4.x kernel. I could try a few more but to be honest I don't think I have the will right now. I think I'll back up what I can and then try the BIOS upgrade and see if that does the trick. I'll keep you posted. In the meantime if you have any more advice or suggestions I'd be much obliged.

Thanks again.

[ClixTrix]

Try larger sample sizes to see if an increased period of sustained reading/writing makes a difference.

I'm assuming you are checking the DMESG log for any errors after the tests.

I didn't download any of the BIOS to check the changelog. Interesting find.

I did find my old card's update, and it was firmware released back in 2012. Here's the top of the txt notes file that came with it. Same chip with an add-on PCIe card.

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****************************************************************************
********************** D720200 Design Resources Release ********************
****************************************************************************
 Release Note                                                 June.15.2012
 
 Renesas Electronics uPD720200
 USB 3.0 Host Controller Firmware Updater tool "F303408FWUP1.EXE" 
 for Windows XP, VISTA, 7(x86 and x64)
 
 Copyright (C) 2010-2012 Renesas Electronics Corporation All Rights Reserved
****************************************************************************

"F303408FWUP1.EXE" updates uPD720200 FW from verion 3.0.2.8 or older 
to 3.0.3.4. If the FW version is 3.0.3.4 or later, it does not update.

Note1 : F303408FWUP1.EXE is uPD720200 CS sample or Mass Product whose revision
        ID of PCI Configuration Register is 3h.

Note2 : If uPD720200 is not detected on the target PC, F303408FWUP1.EXE does not
        start to update.

Note3 : If multiple uPD720200s are detected on the PC, F303408FWUP1.EXE does not
        start to update.

Note4 : F303408FWUP1.EXE updates FW regardless of SSID and SVID in the serial ROM.
        (If you want to limit the update target to the device with specific SSID 
         and SVID, you can generate the update file with "FW Updater Generator".)

Note5 : Users must restart or shoutdown after updating the FW.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Release Files
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date        Time        Size    File Name       
2012/06/14  22:01     1840KB    F303408FWUP1.exe

Edit: I'm pretty sure I was running Mint 17 with the card, and probably kernel 3.xx (possibly 3.19). I mainly used the USB 3.0 for my Icy Dock, and probably did most of the work with XP/Win7.


Edit2: Wanted to add some thoughts to those benchmarks on Linux.

1) I'm reasonably certain the benchmarks are random reads/writes, not sequential. The drop in access time from 19.5ms to 10.15 from benching across the entire 4TB drive to 10GB is consistent with that assumption.

2) Note: The benchmarks on Linux Disks utility are in BYTES/Second, not bits/Second. To compare with other results in Windows in bps, you need to do the math and convert (x8). Also, are the benchmarks you're comparing in Windows sequential or random r/w.

[ChildOfMana]

Also, are the benchmarks you're comparing in Windows sequential or random r/w.

Good question. I'm not sure off the top of my head. I'm in work right now so can't check but I'll have a look when I get chance. I'm fairly sure the results are expressed in Bytes per second though, at least as far as I remember, so should be directly comparable (sequential vs random aside that is). Again though I'll check later.

Thanks for the update regarding the chip firmware. I'll see if I can roll-back to a 3.x kernel and try one more time with that before I commit to flashing the BIOS update.

[ClixTrix]

You might want to read this review on your drive and carefully look at the HDTune Pro benchmarks both with and without write caching.

http://goughlui.com/2016/09/28/review-m ... m401tcbgm/

[ChildOfMana]

You might want to read this review on your drive and carefully look at the HDTune Pro benchmarks both with and without write caching.

http://goughlui.com/2016/09/28/review-m ... m401tcbgm/

Interesting. I did turn write-caching off on Windows before performing a second benchmark and the results were largely the same as the first one. Both were much faster than any of the Linux benchmarks.

Does Mint have write-caching enabled by default?

[ClixTrix]

Does Mint have write-caching enabled by default?

I believe that's default for normal HDD/SSD drives on a SATA controller and the term is "async" for mount to enable write-cache. Not sure about USB in all situations....so worth checking. "Sync" is write-cache disabled, i.e. immediate flush-write and wait.

Did notice that your numbers on Linux bench were close to write cache disabled in that review.

[ChildOfMana]

Hello again,

Sorry for the late reply - work tends to get in the way of real life at times!

Once again I really appreciate your input and advice on this.

So I tried mounting the drive with write-cache enabled and it didn't make much difference. It is a little bit faster, but still closer to USB 2.0 speeds unfortunately. Have a look at the attached screen shots to see for yourself.

I've not been able to roll back to a 3.x kernel yet.

I think I'm just going to bite the bullet and flash the latest BIOS update and see what happens. I'll post back here once I'm back up and running. Wish me luck!!

[ClixTrix]

That second benchmark picture you last posted is very very close to the the HD Tune Pro bench of the drive with write caching enabled from the review article.

That simply may be the drives limits. It also suggests the drive might have been mounting with write caching disabled (as speculated).

[ChildOfMana]

Hey,

Sorry again for the delay in replying. Just wanted to post a bit of an update.

The BIOS update does seem to have made a bit of a difference. Not much, but definitely an improvement. I'm benchmarking average speeds of around 60 or so Mbps now with write cache enabled.

I've marked this thread as solved. I'm not 100% convinced it truly is solved given how the drive still seems to perform better in Windows 10 than it appears to in Mint, and that it's still closer to USB 2.0 speeds, but at least it's working well enough now for my needs, so I guess that's a win. Any way you look at it ~60 Mbps is much better than the initial ~1.8 or so Mbps I was getting! And as you point out I may just be bumping up against this particular drive's capabilities.

Thank you for all your help and advice on this, it is very much appreciated.