VERY slow external hard drive

Hello,

I just set up 1T seagate external USB drive. I'm trying to copy 223 gB of data over to it. I dragged and dropped the folder on to the new drive. However it says it will take over 30 hours to copy. The drive has a red light that indicates when its writing. The red light will flash for about five seconds, and then go dormant for a few minutes, then flash for five seconds again. In other words, it seem to be writing the files VERY intermittently. I don't have any other applications running so I'm not sure why it's behaving this way.

Any advice?

-radicalkat

It is going to take a long time to copy 200GB+ of data via USB. Nothing unusual.

It's slow even for small files!

Thanks for the response.

The drive is slow even for individual files of sizes around 500Mb. It starts out copying fine. It says "less than a minute." Then the hard drive stops for a couple of minutes. Eventually it starts copying again, but just for 1 to 5 seconds. Then it stops again. This continues until it's done. A file that it said would take less than a minute, ends up taking more like five minutes.

-radicalkat

That is too long.
It should be able to transfer a 500MB file in under a minute.
Try a different cable if you've got one.
If not, at least try un-connecting and reconnecting the cable.

Tried it

Thanks for the feedback. I tried using a new cable. Same problem. I rebooted, ejected and reconnected the drive, turned off time machine, turned off my anivirus software. Nothing seems to stop this intermittent behavior!

Any other suggestions?

-Adam

What kind of Mac are you using the drive with? Are you sure it supports USB 2.0? If you're using a hub, are you sure the hub supports USB 2.0?

Does the drive support Firewire? If so you could try using that instead...

Answers

I have an intel iMac purchased last June. So, it's definately USB2. The enclosure supports only USB2 which I thought would be plenty fast. And it is very fast when it's actually transferring data. The problem is that it only transfers data for 1-5 seconds at a time and then takes a break for a couple of minutes in between! I'm not sure why it's transferring in such short bursts with such long delays in between!

-Adam

are they big files or loads of tiny files that are transfering

what other USB devices are attached to the same bus

file size

They are individual media files between 200 and 500 MB that I have tried transferring in groups and individually. Same problem. I have also tried to transfer large groups of small files (word and powerpoint docs). Same thing.

Any hubs or other devices connected?

other devices

I have the follwing devices connected

USB printer
Wireless Router


I have a 500mb firewire 800 drive connected, but it's not turned on. I tried turning it on and doing file transfers. That drive behaves normally. The drive writes until the file is done transferring. Not the intermittent writing the USB drive does.

-Adam

USB even USB2 is not so hot on Macs and is oh so slow. Suggest Firewire as Aptmunich suggests.

radicalkat said:

The drive is slow ... It starts out copying fine. It says "less than a minute." ... Then it stops again ... A file that it said would take less than a minute, ends up taking more like five minutes.

Click to expand...

If it were me, I'd be asking for a replacement external hard drive or a refund. Reading again through the OP and responses, I'd say there's a problem with the write mechanism or the USB controller in the enclosure. As it's still near-new, you should get a free replacement.

thanks

I'm going to take it to the store where I bought it. THey said they could check it out and give me a replacement if necessary. I'll report back with the final results in a couple of days.

-Adam