[SOLVED] backup to SSD very slow

[TwoDogsTwoCats2]

I have a Surface Book 2 - i7 - 16 GB RAM - 500GB laptop and I just bought a WD external SSD to back up the device before I send it in for some minor warranty work (charging port intermittently accepts the charge, but that's a different issue).

The WD is supposed to reach 1GBSec read speeds. The SB2 should be fast, as well.

I'm getting extremely slow transfer speeds - 1 MBSec to maybe 14 MBSec at best.

I'm using the USB3 to USB3 cable that came with the SSD.

Anyone have an idea as to getting this thing moving before I'm out of warranty?

 

[USAFRet]

A lot depends on the data you are transferring.
10,000 small files will transfer a lot slower than 2 large files, even if they are of the same total size.

 

[TwoDogsTwoCats2]

I'm backing up My Documents which contains 60,000 files @ 259 GB's, but even so, I'm getting speeds in the KB per second. I don't really expect the GB per second, but this seems unnaturally slow.

 

[USAFRet]

I'm backing up My Documents which contains 60,000 files @ 259 GB's, but even so, I'm getting speeds in the KB per second. I don't really expect the GB per second, but this seems unnaturally slow.

And that WILL be much slower than expected.
Especially across the USB interface.

When it encounters one large file, you'll see that speed ramp up. Then, in a bunch of smaller ones...back down again.

I hope you're copying just the 'files' in that library, and not the actual library itself.
As in, don't just click on "My Documents", and paste that to the new drive.

 

[TwoDogsTwoCats2]

Aah, I did click on My Documents thinking that it would be easier to navigate back to a folder. Perhaps I should rethink that

 

[USAFRet]

Aah, I did click on My Documents thinking that it would be easier to navigate back to a folder. Perhaps I should rethink that

The problem is...that Library carries the user permissions of the current user, You.
If you were to have need to reinstall the OS, that Library and its contents would need special attention to access.
The files within, however, do not have that restriction.

On the external, you can create a top level folder of "MyDocs".
Copy the whole underlying folder structure from the Documents library into that.
Future problems/headaches averted.