[SOLVED] How to set up hard drive for speed and efficiency

[whitelion1284]

I just installed a PCIEx sata 6 expansion card along with a 4tb platter drive.
To get windows to use the entire drive I had to use a different kind of formatting.
It's all working but I wonder if I overlooked something cos data transfer seems a little slow. 157GB took over a 1/2 hour to copy.
So I'm wondering if there are options I should implement like RAID or MSU?
I have no idea what either of those are but they were mentioned in the card's user manual.
So: how do I set this drive up to be as zippy and responsive as possible? (I'd like to play games off it.)
I guess that's it.
Cheers and carry on.

 

[USAFRet]

There is no "speeding up". It is what it is.

 

[whitelion1284]

There is no "speeding up". It is what it is.

So there are no options for improving it's responsiveness? Ensuring that it is using the full 6gb sata connection (as opposed to 3gb) or implementing RAID or MSU?

Right now my data transfer rate is pitiful in a setup that should be blazing fast. And you're saying that that's it?
No offense: but I don't believe you.

 

[USAFRet]

So there are no options for improving it's responsiveness? Ensuring that it is using the full 6gb sata connection (as opposed to 3gb) or implementing RAID or MSU?

Right now my data transfer rate is pitiful in a setup that should be blazing fast. And you're saying that that's it?
No offense: but I don't believe you.

RAID has no correlation with a single physical drive. A RAID 0 (striped) would require 2x of those, and be somewhat faster than the single one you have now.

A spinning HDD cannot saturate a SATA III (6gbs) connection. It just barely fills up a SATA I (1.5gbs) throughput.
It is simply a function of how they operate.

 

[whitelion1284]

Hmmm.
I was under the impression that SSD's were better for accessing lots of random bits of data throughout the drive but slower when read/writing large bits of consecutive data. They also don't have the same issues with chemical degradation like transistor drives and thus are good for long term storage.
Is this not true?

 

[USAFRet]

Hmmm.
I was under the impression that SSD's were better for accessing lots of random bits of data throughout the drive but slower when read/writing large bits of consecutive data. They also don't have the same issues with chemical degradation like transistor drives and thus are good for long term storage.
Is this not true?

No.
SSDs are faster in ALL use modes vs a spinning HDD.
Sequential throughput, access time, seek time, I/O per second, etc, etc.

For "long term storage"...I certainly wouldn't 'write once and put it on the shelf for a decade'.
There have been cases and tests (in extreme conditions) where the SSD loses data after some time.

 

[whitelion1284]

Okay so for long term storage platter drives are the way to go but SSD's rule performance.
Okay...so I need to purchase an SSD for gaming.
Thanks mate.

 

[USAFRet]

Okay so for long term storage platter drives are the way to go but SSD's rule performance.
Okay...so I need to purchase an SSD for gaming.
Thanks mate.

I also wouldn't trust any single drive for "set it, forget it". No matter what type.

 

[whitelion1284]

Oh yeah. I have multiple backups including cloud and external USB drives.