3.0 USB External

ICIT2LOL · Apr 8, 2011

Have got a small WD 3.0 USB 320Gb external for back up (Gigabyte GA-H67A-UD3H-B3 mobo) did a back up of 47Gb (system image – new build) and it took 25 minutes to do it.
Is this about right as I thought it would be much quicker than the old 2.0 drives I have been using.

Is there a chance I have missed something in the settings ?do I have to acitvate something?

pparks1 · Apr 8, 2011

Copy the image file to your C drive. Then reboot your machine and time how long it takes to copy the file back. This will give you a good indication of how well your USB 3.0 is performing. If you get more than 25MB/sec....then you are doing better than USB 2.0

ICIT2LOL · Apr 8, 2011

Thanks

Thanks pparks1 I'l give that a burl. - Appreciated!!

whs · Apr 8, 2011

25 Minutes for 45GB is about right - even pretty good. Mine needs 19 minutes for 23GB with a 5400 RPM HDD - see details in post #8 here. USB3 is only a bit slower than USB2 because it is limited by the transfer speed of the HDD. If you were to use an SSD, that would be a different story.

PS: check whether the recovery program can deal with USB3. E.g. the Macrium recovery program (Linux based) does not recognize a USB3 disk.

soho1 · Apr 8, 2011

USB3 is backward compatible with USB2, but to utilize all that speed, you need the USB3 capability in your PC controller too. Buying a controller card is on my to do list.

IownAmoneyPit · Apr 8, 2011

If you plugged your external drive into the blue colored USB 3 ports than you should be OK. I have had some weird up and down speeds transferring images from external USB 3 to external USB 2 though depending on image file type.

Paragon uses archive .arc file format and Acronis True Image WD Edition (Free if you own a WD drive) uses .tib file format but the transfer speeds will vary.

ICIT2LOL · Apr 8, 2011

OK

Thanks you fellows I just checked to do what pparks1 suggested - found no backup.

So have just run it again and 9Mmins for 49Gb so the first backup must have gone walkabout - everything seems ok now.

Oh and yeh the drive is in the blue port - thats what made wonder what the dickens was going on the first time.

Help much appreciated and so quick!!

The drive is a WD 329Gb part number WDBACY5000ARD-00 and has the 3.0 label attached to the lead.

whs · Apr 8, 2011

Hmm, 9 min for 49GB is amazing. I must have a problem with my enclosure or my HDD in it is just too slow. I am imaging from a recent Vertex2 SSD, so that should not be the problem. Maybe my enclosure is no good.

pparks1 · Apr 8, 2011

Is your Macrium image file itself 49GB in size...or was the amount of installed stuff on your hard drive around 49GB that you were imaging?

IownAmoneyPit · Apr 8, 2011

whs said:
PS: check whether the recovery program can deal with USB3. E.g. the Macrium recovery program (Linux based) does not recognize a USB3 disk.

whs has a valid point I had the same problem about 2 years ago when I tried a previous version of Macrium with WD USB 2 Externals The program worked fine within windows for backing up but did not work from the Macrium recovery program/disk as no externals were showing up of which contained my backup image.

A way to test this now is just simply to reboot and insert your Macrium recovery program/disk into the DVD drive and see if your external is detected, if so you are good to go for restoring, if not than as an owner of an WD drive you can use Acronis True Image WD Edition Software as an alternative. I have used this program extensively over the last couple of years on more than 1 computer and even tested backup/restore with my new USB 3 and have not had a failure yet.

You can also choose a high compression setting to reduce backup size conserving valuable HD space.

whs · Apr 8, 2011

pparks1 said:
Is your Macrium image file itself 49GB in size...or was the amount of installed stuff on your hard drive around 49GB that you were imaging?

That is a good question. But even compressed it would still be appr. 27GB - and 9 min is fast for that too. My 23GB (image size) need 19 min with my bum enclosure and a 5400 RPM disk.

Maguscreed · Apr 9, 2011

pparks1 said:
Copy the image file to your C drive. Then reboot your machine and time how long it takes to copy the file back. This will give you a good indication of how well your USB 3.0 is performing. If you get more than 25MB/sec....then you are doing better than USB 2.0

I have achieved over 40mb/sec sustained on usb 2.0...
...am I magic?

GeneO · Apr 9, 2011

If you really want to know, download HD Tune and run the performance test. If the resulting curve starts out high on the outer part of the platter and gradually drops down as it approaches the inner platter, then you are being limited by your hard drive and not USB. If the curve is flat then you are being limited by USB. See Below with a cheap 2.5" drive in an external USB3.0 enclosure. The first is connected to a USB3.0 port and the second to a USB 2.0 port. You can see where the USB2.0 chops the transfer speed.

Also notice that my 2.5" HDD is going at full rate on the USB3.0, but it is only averaging 35 MB/s across the disk. The 2.5" drive is just that slow.

pparks1 · Apr 9, 2011

Well, the max speed of the USB 2.0 spec is 480Mbps. This comes out to roughly 60MB/sec....as a theoretical max. Because of overhead and such, the bus cannot reach maximum speed, but instead tops out around 40MB/sec. So, it's possible under the right circumstances that a drive could reach this max limit. But most drives and devices I have seen and read about, run between 25-30MB/sec most of the time.

whs · Apr 9, 2011

Maguscreed said:
pparks1 said:

Copy the image file to your C drive. Then reboot your machine and time how long it takes to copy the file back. This will give you a good indication of how well your USB 3.0 is performing. If you get more than 25MB/sec....then you are doing better than USB 2.0

Click to expand...

I have achieved over 40mb/sec sustained on usb 2.0...
...am I magic?

If that was Mb. it would be low - but if it was MB, it would be high. I get about 250Mb/sec on USB3 and eSata (which is low) and 450Mb/sec imaging to an internal disk. And that is all from an SSD to a spinning disk. The speed depends a lot on the speed and buffer of the disk itself, not only the data bus.

Maguscreed · Apr 9, 2011

yeah, I always use MegaByte, not Megabit as my standard, as most people seem to have little clue what a megabit is...
The same drive that does that rate on this machine only manages around 25-30 on the machine in the den though. Same cable and all. eSATA is definitely noticeably faster but I can't get it working right with win 7.
I think it's just my motherboard that's becoming dated. Wouldn't have proper drivers for it at all if it wasn't nforce.

ICIT2LOL · Apr 12, 2011

Hiyya sorry late reply

Have been working a lot of lates so late reply.

Now I am going to show my ignorance am not that savvy looked up a Macrium is it soe sort of app for backing up that eveyrone s refering to?

Secondly have just tried another backup, system image, and copy C: psate E: (ext) and the times are all about the same approx 7 - 9 mins <> fewsecs.

My original 49Gb is 24Gb according to the backup images.

I might do a few pics and see what you fellows can make of them because I'm sure that there is WD software on the external from new and perhaps the image is just the difference though 25Gb for the drive set up sofware does seem to be excessive.

Looking at the C: drive it has 884 free of 931 = ?47Gb used space ?

E; is showing 409 free of of 465Gb = 56Gb used space (two backups and one system image including the onboard WD software. So 9Gb is a backup, the onboard WD software, and the rest system image?

Sorry to you blokes but I am totally confused now as to what is happening.

whs · Apr 12, 2011

To answer your questions:

1. yes, Macrium is an imaging program. More here: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html?ltr=I

2. images are usually compressed. The resulting image can be 40 to 60% smaller than the originating data.

3. your disk capacity calculations look about right. But you can also look at the Properties of every record on E (images are records too) and it will show you the size.

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