Great HD for Video, Vegas

[Jeff Harper]

I have just finished testing the new WD Black 1TB drive and want to recommend it highly. I am happier with this drive than any I have owned, including the Velociraptor. This drive actually exceeded my expectations. It is stable, stable, stable. Oh, and it is fast.

It is without question faster and MUCH more stable than any of my Samsung 1TB drives. The newer WD Black is the new temporary king.

Most importantly, my computer is transferring 150GB files without a hiccup. The PC continues to run as if there is nothing going on, it is fantastic.

Transfer speed started at 113 MBPS, but the killer is the speed NEVER dropped below 102 MBPS, and that was at the end.

On top of all that, I cannot hear it.

I am a hard drive enthusiast, and I must say I am extremely enthused with this drive.

[Jason Donaldson]

Jeff, What OS are you running. I have both XP and Vista, all updates installed on both and I am having MAJOR speed issues transfering files through any USB connection on my PC (whether its the built in USB on my MB or the USB PCI card). By major, I mean 111KBPS...it is taking about 7 minutes to transfer 150 MB worth of MP3s onto either a SanDisk $GB USB Stick or my External HD, both through USB....I am at a loss and have tried everything

[Ian Stark]

Jason, I think this is an internal SATA drive Jeff is talking about, not a USB drive.

I expect this thread wll be moved elsewhere but a couple of things to check or think about. Your speeds do seem unusually slow so these may not be part of the cause at all:

1. Are there any USB 1.1 links in your chain?
2. Have you got lots of USB peripherals hanging off the same port/hub?
3. Have you checked for viruses etc recently?
4. Is there lots of other stuff going on in the background when you are trying to transfer?
5. Are you attempting more than one transfer session at a time?
6. Are the files you're copying all coming from the same internal drive? Does everything else run smoothly and at speeds you'd expect?
7. Are you using Explorer to transfer files or something else?

Just a few things to mull over. As I say, may not be of any help at all but you never know!

[Jeff Harper]

Ian is correct, I am talking about an internal drive. Of course, with an e-sata drive enclosure you can reach similar speed as with an internal.

[James Harring]

Originally Posted by Jason Donaldson

Jeff, What OS are you running. I have both XP and Vista, all updates installed on both and I am having MAJOR speed issues transfering files through any USB connection on my PC (whether its the built in USB on my MB or the USB PCI card). By major, I mean 111KBPS...it is taking about 7 minutes to transfer 150 MB worth of MP3s onto either a SanDisk $GB USB Stick or my External HD, both through USB....I am at a loss and have tried everything

A couple thoughts for you here... If the performance is consistently bad, look for a common thread.
1) Isolate the problem - plug ext HDD or flash drive into another pc, determine if issue follows the PC or the Ext HDD. Some ext hdd's use inferior usb chipset. May have to replace if ext HDD case. Be sure any "drive limit" jumper on the ext hdd itself is set correctly. Because it is common to beoth your flash drive and ext. hdd, it's probably your pc. But this is relatively easy/quick to do, is why I put it first.

If it appears to be the PC:
1) Flash the bios on the PC
2) Update the motherboard chipset driver on the PC - I am referring to the north/south bridge specifically as well as all the components in the chain from your external drive to internal hard disk. I've fixed many many "wierd" issues this way. Bios/chipset should be updated in tandem.
3) Ensure you don't share that hub with anything that's really slow, like a cd-rom or mouse.

USB = bus a bus is a common pathway for all devices on it. Inserting a very slow device can impair the performance of the bus. To test, unplug everything from the one USB except the ext HDD (or flash). See if it makes a difference.

Finally (not common) There's a number of patches/hotfixes out there for USB in WinXP.
Problems may occur when you try to transfer files to or from a device that is connected to a USB 2.0 hub in Microsoft Windows XP
You experience a delay when you transfer data over a USB port and CPU usage increases to 100 percent on a computer that is running Windows XP with Service Pack 2
May want to look at them.

One final comment - if you end up replacing the ext hdd case (and controller) I'd recommend you get one that does USB and firewire. Firewire creates it's own endpoints, so performance is far more consistent. I personally do not like USB for reasons you are experiencing. Also, I try to find USB cards with cirrus logic or NEC chipset (not easy to do).

[Jason Donaldson]

Thanks guys...been away for awhile but I will try your suggestions