Slow transfer rate

[Niels_1987]

Hello

Just got a question about my disc transfer rate. I have 3 drives:
- 1x SSD with Windows installation
- 1x WD 1TB internal drive for storage
- 1x Seagate expansion 2TB external drive for storage

I'm trying to copy a large amount (80GB) of files all in the range of 10MB - 50MB (RAW + JPEG Photo's) from my WD internal hard drive to my external 2TB external hard drive. Sometimes my transfer speed is decent and in the range of 50MB - 90MB/s but it also drops frequently to speeds <5MB/s and sometimes for prolonged periods (15+ seconds) to 0 MB/s. I question if this is normal disc behavior (i know the disc has to rotate to access the data on the drive which can cause transfer speed to drop) but is it normal that it drops this much and for relative long periods of time?

I looked into my task manager performance tab and there I see that when the disc active time of my D drive (seagate 2TB) reaches 100%, the disc transfer rate drops to 0 (see screenshot). Does this make sense?

When buying this external disc I vaguely remember the theoretical max speed to be somewhere in the 120MB/s. Although I understand that my internal drive is the bottleneck sometimes as well (at least that's what I think to see in the performance tab) and that the 120MB/s is a theoretical value, the average speed of this 80GB transfer comes down to +/-22MB/s in the end. Am i just impatient or is this incorrect disc behavior?

Thanks a lot!

Greetings Niels

EDIT: I see I only can upload a picture through a URL. If needed I can do that later.
EDIT2: I also tried transferring a large amount of data from the SSD to the external drive. Same problem: speed is sometimes decent but drops to 0MB/s for prolonged periods of time.
EDIT3: while doing a transfer of the SSD to the external drive I got the following error; 0x80070037the specified network or resource device is no longer available (external disk is still connected) Can this have to do anything with it?

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hey there, @Niels_1987!

It sounds like you might be dealing with some sort of failure in the connection to the external drive or the HDD itself. I'd strongly recommend backing up all your data from it somewhere else and make sure you have a copy safe and sound. Afterwards, check how the external would react to a different computer system and try using a different USB cable and USB port on yours. If that doesn't improve the transfer rate, check the external drive's health and SMART status by running its manufacturer's brand-specific diagnostic utility . Just make sure you run both the short & the long tests.

Hope this helps. Let me know how it goes!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[Niels_1987]

Hey SuperSoph_WD

Thanks for your reply and what to do's!

I've tried the following:
1) Different USB port: same problem
2) different computer: will try in a moment
3) Cable: I can't change it unfortunately as it is a USB to seagate(?) cable and this is the omomly copy I have
4) Transfer from external drive to internal drive: all good with the transfer speed capped by the internal drive
5) Transfer from internal drive to internal SSD: all good with transfer speed capped by internal drive
6) Tests with Seagate software: short drive self test: pass | short generic: pass | long generic: running and no problems so far

I'll let you know the outcome of the other tests

 

[Niels_1987]

Ok it says long generic: fail.

What to do with this?

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Can you share the SMART attributes from the diagnostic tool?
Unfortunately, @Niels, if the HDD fails the long generic test, I'm afraid it's damaged. Mechanical hard drives should pass all their brand-specific diagnostic tests! I'd strongly recommend you check the warranty of the external drive on its manufacturer's official website. If it's still covered you should be able to RMA it and get a replacement from their customer support.
Back up as much of the data as you can somewhere else and then consider replacing it! You shouldn't trust your data with a drive that is not 100% healthy!

Keep me posted if you have any additional questions.
SuperSoph_WD

 

[Niels_1987]

Hi Supersoph_WB! Thanks again for your reply! In the meantime I've send the hdd back to seagate as it was still under warranty (it was brand new actually... ) unfortunately I didn't run Smart so I do not have the statistics for you.

Thanks again for all your help!

Greetings Niels

 

[Niels_1987]

Just got my new drive in. Works perfect