Transfer speed

[Peter Linu]

Hiyall,
I have a ten year old Lenovo NAS drive containing about 12Tb of data. I am in the process of transferring the data to a PC configured as a NAS drive. It transfers at a leisurely 5.5Mb/sec!
I have been inside the Lenovo NAS to try to set it up for rsync transfer however it only recognises Windows.

What can I do?

[mikeflan]

Please tell us how the old Lenovo NAS drive is connected. Sata cable?
If USB, you are using USB3?

[Peter Linu]

SATA cable.

[mikeflan]

Are there 2 computers here? One with NAS and another with what? Is the target drive formatted EXT4? How about the NAS?
Network is wired or wifi? How do you make the network connection?

[Peter Linu]

Are there 2 computers here? One with NAS and another with what? Is the target drive formatted EXT4? How about the NAS?
Network is wired or wifi? How do you make the network connection?

The sender is a 10yo Lenovo NAS px6-300d-TIK3ER with 6 physical drives

Screenshot from 2024-03-26 12-18-18.png

I think it is running in ext4 however the png says 'cifs' (Windows?)

Target drive is a 15yo PC with a 10yo i5 motherboard. It is running XFCE and 3 6Tb HDD

Network is wired. Network connection via a Thinkpad T440p.

[coffee412]

Peter,
I looked up the specs on your NAS and I would not expect stellar performance from it.

According to the Specs, Comes with two USB2 ports on back, One USB3 on the front. Has Two nic ports on back for load balancing. Therefore, You most likely have it hooked up via USB2 from the back?

https://www.smallnetbuilder.com/nas/nas ... -reviewed/

My only suggestion would be to do a test. Change the connection to the computer to an actual dual nic on your network. So, Instead of using a usb port use the two network connections - connected to your network and set it up that way. Test your thru put. Of course, This is just a test. At one time I had a synology that I installed that way and it did very well. However, We are talking a 10+ old NAS.

[Peter Linu]

Sounds like I need to buy a new NAS! Any suggestions for a FAST unit for backups?

[coffee412]

Sounds like I need to buy a new NAS! Any suggestions for a FAST unit for backups?

I think the way to actually look at this is like this:

This is a NAS unit which stands for NETWORK ATTACHED STORAGE. So, Why not hook it up as its intended to a switch or router using the two network connections. You might find that your speed actually increases for transfers.

If you buy a new unit it would be intended to be hooked up the same way (NAS) and I do not see where you would benefit from that. Good NAS units are expensive.

Grap two network cables and hook this box up at the router and read the docs on it to access it. Then because its on your network you do not have to worry about its physical location to access it. Its accessed on the network connection instead of a USB.

[Peter Linu]

coffee412,
They both ARE hooked up to a switch and controlled by a Thinkpad (see signature)!
I guess that the problem then is aging HDDs, no?

[mikeflan]

I find this to be interesting reading about CIFS:
https://www.techtarget.com/searchstorag ... ystem-CIFS

"CIFS was considered a chatty protocol that was buggy and had issues with network latency. The protocol was also hard to maintain and not very secure because of the large number of commands and subcommands it processed. It was replaced when Microsoft introduced SMB in Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 R2."

VERY OLD!

[Peter Linu]

Solution?
Obviously the current setup rans at USB2 speed. Since all I want to store is data backup, could I not attach a naked HDD to a USB3.0 docking station to achieve what I want?

[coffee412]

coffee412,
They both ARE hooked up to a switch and controlled by a Thinkpad (see signature)!
I guess that the problem then is aging HDDs, no?

Curious, You have them hooked up via network cables (two of them) but how is it controlled by a THinkpad? They should be hooked into your router and thus controlled by the router.

[Peter Linu]

coffee412,
I have a 5G Modem/Router. The 2 NASs are sent by cable to the switch which is connected via wifi to the laptop which controls what gets sent where.

[coffee412]

coffee412,
I have a 5G Modem/Router. The 2 NASs are sent by cable to the switch which is connected via wifi to the laptop which controls what gets sent where.

Im trying to understand your setup. The laptop is acting like a firewall/router?? The switch is connected via wifi to the laptop??

Get rid of the wireless connection if I understand that right. The main components should all be wired for best performance.

I would set it up so that:

The NAS(s) are directly wired to the router. The switch is directly connected to the router. No wifi should be in the mix. wifi is inherently slow. Especially on file transfers.

What do you have on the laptop that has to control your routing or firewall?

[Peter Linu]

I just connected Thinkpad directly to the switch via Ethernet cable and the transfer speed has jumped to a massive 27Mb/sec!...that's 4 times faster!

[coffee412]

I just connected Thinkpad directly to the switch via Ethernet cable and the transfer speed has jumped to a massive 27Mb/sec!...that's 4 times faster!

Now your cooking

Wireless... yah people say its fast but when it comes to transferring a lot of files you find out how fast it really is.

[mikeflan]

the transfer speed has jumped to a massive 27Mb/sec!

That is what I consider to be USB2 speed, not 5.5Mb/sec. Although on a long copy of hundreds of files it could easily drop to 5.5Mb/sec.

[Peter Linu]

Gentlemen,
I think this is as good as it gets for me without buying new hardware.

Final question; would there be any advantage in getting a USB3.2 docking station for the transfer or would that system simply revert to the lowest common denominator?

[coffee412]

Gentlemen,
I think this is as good as it gets for me without buying new hardware.

Final question; would there be any advantage in getting a USB3.2 docking station for the transfer or would that system simply revert to the lowest common denominator?

You might. As long as you are not using wireless for any of it.

I just happen to check on ebay for the docking station and they are looking really inexpensive. So, Might be worth a try.