[SOLVED] uneven transfer speeds on m.2 ssd - Help! I have tried everything, read everything, and the problem persists!!!

[zimpah]

Okay, so I just finished building a NAS/Server using the following:

Asrock Taichi Ultimate Z390
Intel i-3 9100F
8gb DDR4-2400 Kingston Hyper Fury CL15
3x 2TB Sabrent Rocket QLC m.2 SSD (RAID 0)

It's running Openmediavault, using the 10gbe network port.

My main PC is almost identical, it's got the following hardware:

Asrock Taichi Ultimate Z390
Intel i-7 8086K (overclocked to 5ghz)
16gb DDR4-3600 G.Skill TridentZ CL15
2x 1TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus m.2 SSD (no RAID)
2x 10TB Optical HDD (RAID 0)

Everything is working as expected, and i'm getting transfer speeds of around 1.2gb/s from the NAS to one of the Samsung m.2 drives in my desktop. But the other gets terrible transfer speeds. I have it set up so that one of the m.2 drives has Windows 10 and my programs, and the second m.2 drive has all my data (music, pics, videos, documenst, etc...). The Windows m.2 drive has crazy fast network transfer speeds, but the data m.2 drive is a dog. It starts at around 400mb/s for about 1 second, then flatlines at around 9mb/s.

I have tried over-provisioning both m.2 drives. I have trim enabled on both, I have tried reformating the slow drive and starting with an empty fresh drive, I have tried switching the m.2 slots the drive is installed into, and everything else I can think of. Nothing works.

So I thought, i'll split the Windows m.2 into 2 partitions, one for windows, one for data and just get rid of the slow m.2 drive. So I partitioned the windows m.2 drive and the same damn thing happens. Windows partition has 1.2gb/s transfer speeds and data partition goes from 400mb/s down to 9mb/s. But the two partitions are the same drive!

Can someone please tell me what the #%#^ is going on???? I can only presume that it's just a bug in Windows. Nothing else makes sense. But I have never seen or heard of this before.

Thank you all!

 

[cdrkf]

Okay, so I just finished building a NAS/Server using the following:

Asrock Taichi Ultimate Z390
Intel i-3 9100F
8gb DDR4-2400 Kingston Hyper Fury CL15
3x 2TB Sabrent Rocket QLC m.2 SSD (RAID 0)

It's running Openmediavault, using the 10gbe network port.

My main PC is almost identical, it's got the following hardware:

Asrock Taichi Ultimate Z390
Intel i-7 8086K (overclocked to 5ghz)
16gb DDR4-3600 G.Skill TridentZ CL15
2x 1TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus m.2 SSD (no RAID)
2x 10TB Optical HDD (RAID 0)

Everything is working as expected, and i'm getting transfer speeds of around 1.2gb/s from the NAS to one of the Samsung m.2 drives in my desktop. But the other gets terrible transfer speeds. I have it set up so that one of the m.2 drives has Windows 10 and my programs, and the second m.2 drive has all my data (music, pics, videos, documenst, etc...). The Windows m.2 drive has crazy fast network transfer speeds, but the data m.2 drive is a dog. It starts at around 400mb/s for about 1 second, then flatlines at around 9mb/s.

I have tried over-provisioning both m.2 drives. I have trim enabled on both, I have tried reformating the slow drive and starting with an empty fresh drive, I have tried switching the m.2 slots the drive is installed into, and everything else I can think of. Nothing works.

So I thought, i'll split the Windows m.2 into 2 partitions, one for windows, one for data and just get rid of the slow m.2 drive. So I partitioned the windows m.2 drive and the same damn thing happens. Windows partition has 1.2gb/s transfer speeds and data partition goes from 400mb/s down to 9mb/s. But the two partitions are the same drive!

Can someone please tell me what the #%#^ is going on???? I can only presume that it's just a bug in Windows. Nothing else makes sense. But I have never seen or heard of this before.

Thank you all!

That is really weird.... if it's doing this with 2 partitions on the same drive that points towards it being a windows problem.

I take it this is with a fresh install of Windows 10? If it's an older install you could try performing a clean boot to see if any software is interfering with the transfer somehow....

Also as a test you could create a bootable linux usb key and test the drives under linux

 

[zimpah]

That is really weird.... if it's doing this with 2 partitions on the same drive that points towards it being a windows problem.

I take it this is with a fresh install of Windows 10? If it's an older install you could try performing a clean boot to see if any software is interfering with the transfer somehow....

Also as a test you could create a bootable linux usb key and test the drives under linux

That's my thought as well. It's always Windows whenever some bizarre problem turns up.

It's not really a fresh install of windows. It's freshly installed, but from an image. The image is probably a year old, with windows updates and all my programs included. I'd hate to do a fresh Windows install because a lot of my software will probably be lost. But i may have to.

How do I create a bootable linux usb key? And to be honest, what could it tell me? I've tested both m.2 drives using the Samsung software and Crystal Disk. Both have typical read/write speeds. And since it's acting like this even though the two folders are on the same drive, I can't imagine it could be a problem with the drive.

If i'm going to do a fresh Windows install, what is your opinion on the usefulness of doing a dual m.2 RAID 0 Windows boot install? Since I have two matching m.2 drives, it almost seems like it would be silly not to. And I'm in the habit of imaging my OS regularly, a drive failure wouldn't be much of a problem.

Thanks for your help BTW! I appreciate it

 

[cdrkf]

That's my thought as well. It's always Windows whenever some bizarre problem turns up.

It's not really a fresh install of windows. It's freshly installed, but from an image. The image is probably a year old, with windows updates and all my programs included. I'd hate to do a fresh Windows install because a lot of my software will probably be lost. But i may have to.

How do I create a bootable linux usb key? And to be honest, what could it tell me? I've tested both m.2 drives using the Samsung software and Crystal Disk. Both have typical read/write speeds. And since it's acting like this even though the two folders are on the same drive, I can't imagine it could be a problem with the drive.

If i'm going to do a fresh Windows install, what is your opinion on the usefulness of doing a dual m.2 RAID 0 Windows boot install? Since I have two matching m.2 drives, it almost seems like it would be silly not to. And I'm in the habit of imaging my OS regularly, a drive failure wouldn't be much of a problem.

Thanks for your help BTW! I appreciate it

Configuring the two drives in Raid 0 might be the best solution actually - that way they will be treated as a single drive by Windows. I don't think you'll get a noticeable performance benefit as the drives are already really fast but having only a single volume sounds like it might resolve your issue.