File Transfer by LAN much faster than Internal HDD File Transfer by SATA

[viktor king]

Scenario:

My brother and I have two Windows 8.1 PC's connected by LAN to a Ubee DDW3610 modem/router, both using MSI 970A-G46 motherboards.

Both have two identical WD 500GB GreenPower mechanical HDDs salvaged from DirecTV HD-DVRs (2x500GB = 1TB storage each).

Issue:

We find that transferring large files by LAN between our two computers is consistently 2x-5x faster than transferring files internally between our own HDDs.

Query:

Normal or Weird? Any solutions if Weird?

 

[smitbret]

Driver issues?

Something has to be clogging the Bus on your system. A good Gigabit system can hit over 100MB/s, but it still has to be served by the storage device(s).

 

[viktor king]

Day 2, still investigating...

 

[Captain_WD]

Hey there viktor king,

This is indeed strange. even with a Gigabit Ethernet card it shouldn't be even close to the SATA1 1.5 Gb/s speeds, let alote SATA3's 6Gb/s and the read/write speeds of a drive. I would suggest checking the drive for any errors. WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostic is a good tool for that. Run both the quick and the extended tests and see if anything is wrong with the results. Here's a link: http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=810&lang=en .
Also, how big and how many files are you transferring inside your drive and how (between partitions, same partition but different folder, etc)?. The problem shouldn't be in the drives since the data that comes from the network is written on the drive by itself so it does work fast. What are the speeds that you are seeing (both during LAN transfer and internal transfer)?

Captain_WD.

 

[viktor king]

The two 'benchmarks' of concern are
1] File transfer from one physical HDD to another on the same motherboard: 12-16MB/sec
2] File transfer from one shared folder to another between two computers connected by router, though, in the past, direct wired connections have been done also 40-70MB/sec

Files are typically Steam backups, large single files such as movies or .rar archives, install packs from free-to-play games - it is generally more efficient for one of us to install a game, the other to copy it over, and let clients such as Steam or Survarium reconcile the presence of installed files and adapt them for our individual licenses/clients.

We will run the diagnostic* on our respective computers, but as a solution it suggests that all or some of our four HDDs are wearing down with errors significant-enough to hinder file transfers even after fresh Windows 8.1 installs.

 

[Captain_WD]

The two 'benchmarks' of concern are
1] File transfer from one physical HDD to another on the same motherboard: 12-16MB/sec
2] File transfer from one shared folder to another between two computers connected by router, though, in the past, direct wired connections have been done also 40-70MB/sec

Files are typically Steam backups, large single files such as movies or .rar archives, install packs from free-to-play games - it is generally more efficient for one of us to install a game, the other to copy it over, and let clients such as Steam or Survarium reconcile the presence of installed files and adapt them for our individual licenses/clients.

We will run the diagnostic* on our respective computers, but as a solution it suggests that all or some of our four HDDs are wearing down with errors significant-enough to hinder file transfers even after fresh Windows 8.1 installs.

The speeds are truly strange. Post the results of the WD DLGD checks so I can see if there is anything wrong with any of the 4 drives.
Also you can check if any cables are loose or the drives are firmly seated in place. Also check in task manager how much of the drives is being used during transfers and what processes are using them (maybe something is putting too much loads on them, slowing them down.
Try defragmentation on all four drives - maybe they are too fragmented.
Also you can disable disk indexing to speed it up a bit.

Captain_WD.

 

[viktor king]

Day 5, will run diagnostics overnight and have results posted 19 Oct 2014.

 

[viktor king]

Not what I expected, the latest version scans everything, and it just says 'Pass'. I was expecting a log file in the Western Digital folder or AppsData, but the Extended Scan just shows a green 'check', and then quickly closes.

 

[Captain_WD]

Not what I expected, the latest version scans everything, and it just says 'Pass'. I was expecting a log file in the Western Digital folder or AppsData, but the Extended Scan just shows a green 'check', and then quickly closes.

If the WD DLGD passes all the tests on all drives, the problem shouldn't be in them at all. I'm guessing then if it's a hardware problem, you should check your MOBO, RAM and CPU or check all drivers, firmware, OS updates and any settings that might affect transfer speeds.

If you want to double-check for bad sectors (something I highly doubt but still) you can simply run chkdsk /r from the CMD and let it finish.

Captain_WD.

 

[viktor king]

After yet another format and reinstall of Windows 8.1 and appropriate AMD Catalyst Chipset drivers, file transfer speeds are in the 40-60MB/sec range.

I have no idea why, but I must assume it to be a software issue.

 

[DreXor akaRobert]

internal transfers on some computers can be bottlenecked between drives as the SATA controller especially if it supports multiple raid configurations, vs over network it's a bulk read and send. similar to networking issues with loopbacks, they are effective but inefficient.

SATA being a serial interface only has so much "pipe" for all the information, consumer based motherboards are usually optomized to read the data, to make performance better vs a server designed mobo is going to normalize the read/write sequences for stability vs performance.