New
#1
Write-caching - or no?
I am in the middle of backing up a large amount of data, about 5TBs of files all the same size (11MBs), from one USB3 external HDD to another.
I have noticed, frustratingly, that although after a reboot, the speed is reasonably OK, this usually doesn't last long and the transfer becomes slower, with frequent bouts of up to 15 seconds where no files seem to be copied. (I usually use TeraCopy, or a batch script for copying). This happens whatever I try (running the transfer in Safe Mode, for instance) and Windows 10 doesn't really seem much netter than Windows 7.
Killing time during copying (5TBs takes a couple of days usually), I was browsing the internet looking for articles about how I might improve this copy speed (nothing useful so far) and came a cross a couple of articles suggesting that setting drives to 'Better performance' - with Write-Caching enabled could actually reduce performance, and at best benchmarks reproduced there showed that any increase in read/write was marginal.
I have usually set a drive to Better performance as soon as I have bought it, enabling write-caching. (Why is it, in Device Manager/properties/Policies, some of my USB drives only have the 'top half' of the options, that is, 'Removal Policy', but the bottom half of the window is missing - the Write-Caching Policy part?).
I tried changing a few of my HDD drives back to 'Quick Removal'. (My internal SDD drives - I have no internal HDDs - I have left on Better performance). I have noticed no change yet in transfer speeds at all as a result.
I wondered what any 'gurus' here might think of all this.
Thanks,
Martin