Extremely slow file copy from USB 3 external Seagate on MacBook

I copied my iPhoto file of 20GB onto a new Seagate USB external drive from my 2011 MacBook in about 20 minutes over USB 2.0. I am copying up the same file from the same drive on my newer 2012 MacBook pro and it is taking 7 hours. The newer MacBook has a 750GB SATA SSD and is equipped with USB 3.0. Why would it take so much longer to copy from the drive to the newer Mac using a faster USB spec?

Well, I solved this myself with some searching on other threads. I turned off Spotlight indexing on the drive, and killed the copy job, disconnected and reconnected the drive, and the copy is now going quite fast. Will be done in lest than 5 minutes.
System Preferences> Spotlight>Privacy> Press the + and added the external drive.
Apparently, this is the default behavior of Spotlight, and the indexing was causing the bottleneck.

Similar Messages

  • Extremely slow file copying over airport extreme network

    Hi,
    I have an Airport Extreme Base Station (10/100) network, also connected to the internet. When copying files from my MacBook Pro to a USB drive connected to the base station, OR when copying files to another computer (a windows machine) the throughput maxes out at about 700 KB/sec which is 10 times slower than when copying to the USB drive connected directly to my MacBook Pro. Although I have updated everything to the latest and greatest versions, I still have very slow file copy speeds. It's always been this way. I've read dozens of threads for potential fixes but none of them have helped. I am using Activity Monitor to measure the throughput and also timing the copy of a 10GB file. At these speeds, that file takes 4 hours. Useless.
    My base station is within a few feet. I've tried different channels, 2.4GHz, 5GHz, getting rid of WPA, you name it. At first I thought it might be some issue with the USB drive connected to the base station, but copying to another computer on my network is the same. It is very frustrating.
    Any insights would be greatly appreciated.

    Thanks. I thought about buying the TC but I'm worried that if my network is operating slowly, which it appears to be, that I'm not going to get the throughput. I also noticed that my windows machine which is on the same network accesses the internet faster as well. I'm wondering if it is something with my MacBook.
    BTW - I went to school in Pittsburgh. Great great town.

  • Extremely slow file transfer from wifi server to MacBook Pro

    I am experiencing extremely slow file download speeds from my wifi server to my MacBook Pro. I have just carried out a test - transferring a 16.5Mb folder took 8 mins, 24 secs. Transferring the same folder to my iMac G5 takes less than 3 seconds. Also, copying the same folder from my MacBook Pro to my wifi server only takes 22 seconds. Any suggestions PLEASE!!!!!

    Try getting it on the Mac using something other than iPhoto.
    In Windows, it would simply be a matter of opening Explorer and copying the file(s).  I'm fairly certain that Mac has a similar feature, but I'm not familiar with Macs.
    Not really an iPhone issue... more of an issue with the application being used to import the file.

  • Extremely slow file downloads from the 'net (Pavilion G5460uk)

    We have an HP Pavilion G5460uk desktop with Windows 7 (64-bit) updated to SP1 and current, and use IE10 and Chrome. Protection is by Norton360 supported with Spywareblaster and Spybot S&D, and also access to Norton 'Eraser', ESET scanner and Sophos virus remover.  The PC is ethernet-cabled into the router but with also use other laptops etc wirelessly (all all these are working fine, with the same antivirus setup etc, without the problems we have on the HP desktop).
    Performance on the internet seems fine EXCEPT that the desktop is now extremely slow at downloading any files (to the point that it is timed-out on the servers).  It is impossible to download anything large onto it directly from the 'net(we are using the other PC's to transfer files) - although MS updates seem to get on OK. 
    We tried HP 'Support Assistant' which recommends two updates: Ralink Wireless Network Controller (sp58084) & 802.11n WLAN (sp60924) updates.  Of course we cannot download these directly but it is unclear whether these are relevant to the problem anyway.
    It does not appear to be a network/internet, software currency or virus issue.  Some setting somewhere?  Please can someone advise on what now needs to be done.
    This question was solved.
    View Solution.

    Matter now resolved!   We thought that we had covered everything before bringing it here.  But just one dodgy router port connection is all it takes.  Thanks for your time.

  • Slow File Copy from Local MacBookPro HD to Synology 270+ NAS Station

    Hi,
    I have been reading through a similar problem from BO, but his problem was making copies between 2 external drives.
    My problem, is using Finder, copying 90Gbs from the local iTunesMusic folder, to a Music folder on the NAS, by draging 'drop. It's not a slow copy, it's... endless. I was not able also to cancel the copy by clicking the "x" on the window.
    I have tried to use iTunes with the Library\Import option, it was fast at beginning, but then it gets very slow. There were around 15000 files to copy, and during 2 full days, it has copied around 7000.
    I have canceled everything, shutdown and reboot, and tried to copy them through Finder by d'drop, also very slow.
    It really looks that when a directory/folder has too many subfolders, Finder has to run through all the FAT, every time, and then try to make the copy.
    Please help, I am a 1 year hold Mac user, I have heard that Mac didn't manage very well with "tons of files", but this is hard to accept.
    Regards,
    Gi

    Ok, I think I've figured out the solution, to a large extent.
    Apparently there is an attribute for SMB protocol that controls send buffer size and receive buffer size, on the server. On FreeNAS that is set to 16384 as default for both. I've upped it by 10x to 163840 for both, and looks like that solved the speed issue for "downloading" from NAS. Now my speed over WiFi for NAS to MBP transfer is peaking at 130mbps, and around 100mbps for "upload".
    But one thing it did not solve is the consistency of the speed, while "upload" to NAS stayed rather consistent (around 80-100), the "download" transfer jumps A LOT, I'm talking a range of 500 kbps to 130 mbps, and everywhere in between. Seems to be completely random, it will sustain ~100 for some time, but at times will drop to 500 kbps, jump around for some time and then go back up to peak. Just plain random.
    But at least I can now transfer 200MB file in about 15 seconds or so, on average, over WiFi.
    Hoping the SMB consistency will be improved in the next OS release, but then again, I heard people were hoping for that for the past year or so. We'll see.

  • Slow file transfer from USB 3 hard drive connected to EA6300

    Hi,
    I have a 1T external hard drive USB 3 connected to my EA6300 and I have a transfer rate of 3MB/s on my macbook air (AC wifi).
    If I connect the HD to my imac and create a network share I go up to 25MB/s (from macbook air). So it's not a wifi issue, I suspect more an issue at the USB / resource management level.
    Did someone experience the same issue? 
    Thanks for you help

    Hi,
    What is the brand and model of your external hard drive? It might be a compatibility issue.
    I have a 1TB Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex (portable) and it doesn’t have a problem. I made sure that the firmware of my router is updated and did a reset  after the upgrade and configured it manually.  Also, I removed the hard drive before I did the router update.
    I used another hard drive and both of them have no issues with transfer rates.
    I do believe that your transfer rate concern is directly related to the usb hard drive compatibility of EA6300.
    You might need to check this website so you can see if your hard drive is compatible with your router.
    List of tested USB hard drives and printers for the Linksys Smart Wi-Fi Router, EA6300

  • Extremely slow file copy

    Have a NAS and copying a file to it is taking forever!  I saw a 258 GB copy start up and register 480 days estimated time!

    are you connecting to the NAS via ethernet or WiFi?

  • Copying from USB NTFS device with Dolphin (KDE) causes 100% CPU usage

    I am copying +/- 30 GB of Music files (flac) from my external USB HDD which is formatted as NTFS.
    I have installed ntfs-3g and am experiencing near 100% CPU usage. What's wrong?
    Additional info: I am using KDE and initiated the copying through dolphin. KDE's system monitor only shows CPU usage near 100%, but no processes in the process view could be responsable.
    Thanks!

    What mount options are used for that ntfs drive?
    Edit: There are many similar threads but I couldn't find a solution other than trying out some kernel and cpufrequtils fun.
    Last edited by karol (2011-01-16 18:12:15)

  • -36 I/O Error copying from one external drive to another? Ugh...help?!?

    Hardware:
    Apple Powermac Dual 2.5 GHz G5
    512 MB RAM
    External Drive 1: LaCie 250 GB (Firewire 800) (contains 150 GB data) (formatted MacOS Extended)
    External Drive 2: LaCie 400 GB (Firewire 800) (contains NO DATA) (formatted MacOS Extended Journaled)
    Software:
    Mac OS 10.4.3 (Tiger)
    I've sucessfully run the firmware updater (http://www.lacie.com/support/drivers) "LaCie Update Tool v1.3.3" for both LaCie drives to the latest version - 107.
    Background:
    Before I updated to the latest firmware and before I changed Drive 2 to journaled, I had problems copying files from both drives to the other. I get this error: "The Finder cannot complete the operation because some data in "filename here.ext" could not be read or written. (Error code -36)."
    I did some research (http://www.appleerrorcodes.com/) to discover that Error -36 is an I/O error.
    My goal is to reformat Drive 1 (250GB) to journaled. After some reading, I have decided to do that for both of my external drives.
    Question:
    I'm at the point now where I need to copy the data from Drive 1 to Drive 2 and this error is still occuring. I need to 1) understand why it's happening and 2) find a solution so I can copy this data from Drive 1 to Drive 2.
    Future Question:
    Once the data is copied, I will then reformat to journaled. I'm then going to decide between scheduled backups or setting up a RAID, but I'll post this issue as a separate question. I first need to understand and fix this copy I/O stuff.
    THANKS!
    Dual 2.5 GHz G5   Mac OS X (10.4.3)  

    Using the Disk Utility with the Mac OS, I just realized that I can't verify or repair disk permissions on either of these external LaCie drives. I can on my startup internal disk, but not the external ones. Any idea why?
    I replaced the FW800 cables, but I still cannot copy from one external to the other. The connections are like this:
    Drive 1 (250 GB) is connected to the back of my G5 via FW800.
    Drive 2 (400GB) is connected to Drive 1 via FW800 cable.
    I'm in need of some help!
    Robert
    Dual 2.5 GHz G5   Mac OS X (10.4.3)  

  • Cannot Boot MacBook from an external seagate hd

    I'm trying to boot osx from an external seagate hd on a recent MacBook via it's USB port. The external hd has a GUID max osx journaled partition and has osx installed on it.
    I can use either option restart or system pref / startup disk to select the external hd as the startup disk. The external seagate hd will happily act as startup disk for my iMac via it's USB port. But the MacBook stubbornly resists. It recognizes the external hd as bootable, but simply attempts to reboot and then shows a greyed advisory dialog: please hold the power button to turn off this MacBook. The MacBook turns off. I turn it back on and it goes through the same loop of trying to reboot of the external hd, turn off dialog etc... Eventually I just unplug the external hd once it is powered down and turn the MacBook back on so that it can reboot of it's internal hd.
    So my question is: why won't this MacBook boot from a working osx installed GUID partitioned external hd ?
    Thanks for any suggestions.
    Bill..

    Kappy,
    Thanks for the prompt reply. Both the MacBook ( purchased 2 months ago brand new from Apple) and iMac (the iMac boots of the external Seagate hd) are running OSX 10.6.8 while the Seagate is by definition running the Snow Leopard Osx 10.6 install (Apple supplied Osx DVDs ).
    I could try and update the externl hd OSX version to 10.6.8 on the iMac.
    I'll this idea and get back to you.
    Thanks again,
    Bill...

  • Slow Files Copy File Server DFS Namespace

    I have two file servers running on VM both servers are on different physical servers.
    Both connect with dfs namespace.
    The problem part is both servers never have same copy speed.
    Sometime very slow files copy about 1MBps on FS01 and fast copy 12MBps on FS02.
    Sometime fast on FS01 and slow on FS02.
    Sometime both of them slow..
    So as usual I reboot the servers. Doesn't work.
    Then I reboot the DC01 also doesn't work. There is another brother DC02.
    After I reboot DC02, one of the FS become normal and another FS still slow.
    FS01 and FS02 randomly. They never get faster speed together.
    Users never complain slow FS because 1MBps is acceptable for them to open word excel etc.,.
    The HUGE problem is I don't have backup when the slow FS days.
    The problem since two weeks I'm giving up fixing it myself and need help from you expert guys.
    Thanks!
    DC01, DC02, FS01, FS02 (Win 2012 and All VMs)

    Hi,
    Since the slow copy is also occurred when you tried the direct copy from both shared folder, you could enable the disk write cache on the destination server to check the results.
    HOW TO: Manually Enable/Disable Disk Write Caching
    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/259716
    Windows 2008 R2 - large file copy uses all available memory and then tranfer rate decreases dramatically (20x)
    http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/3f8a80fd-914b-4fe7-8c93-b06787b03662/windows-2008-r2-large-file-copy-uses-all-available-memory-and-then-tranfer-rate-decreases?forum=winservergen
    You could also refer to the FAQ article to troubleshoot the slow copy issue:
    [Forum FAQ] Troubleshooting Network File Copy Slowness
    http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/7bd9978c-69b4-42bf-90cd-fc7541ccb663/forum-faq-troubleshooting-network-file-copy-slowness?forum=winserverPN
    Best Regards,
    Mandy 
    We
    are trying to better understand customer views on social support experience, so your participation in this
    interview project would be greatly appreciated if you have time.
    Thanks for helping make community forums a great place.

  • NTFS issue: video files copied from Arch won´t load on other devices

    Hi!
    I'm having this odd issue... I'll start from zero:
    I have a 1TB external HDD (usb3, iomega). It has an NTFS filesystem since it was always my Windows backup drive. Since I've buyed a Digital TV that supports video playback from external drives and almost any video format, I'm using it as a movie/etc device. Previusly I had installed Ubuntu... but since I've installed Arch, any video file that I copy to the external HDD won't work on the TV. When I try to reproduce those files copied from Arch on the TV it hags and reboot several times.
    I don't know where to start. I've installed ntfs-3g-fuse package for mounting r/w without root privileges... and my user is part of "disk" and "storage" group.
    Any ideas?
    PD: Sorry, I'm not an english speaker... If it's not legible I'll try to write it again.

    Usually crash on access indicates damaged filesystem. For example drive was removed without umount-ing it.
    For start you can run file system check on your drive from Windows - "chkdsk /f X:"
    You also can run it as "chkdsk /f /r X:" to check for bad-blocks (though it is not so critical now days).
    Keep in mind - NTFS is proprietary system so 'ntfsfix' from ntfsprogs in Linux could help sometime but do not hold you breath with it.
    Better find Windows for Windows filesystem.
    Or you can just recreate files system from scratch with mkntfs - all data on the drive will be lost, obviously. But you do not need windows for that.
    Regards,
    Eugene.

  • No write access to files copied from a CD-ROM

    Hello:
    I have searched and found a few topics on fixing permissions on files copied from CD-ROM that are read only. I would like to know if there is a way to prevent the problem. I routinely get files burned on Windows machines and I can copy the folders and enclosed files to my desktop but both the folders and the files inside show up with "Read Only" permissions.
    While it is possible to fix it, I would have thought that if they are copied from a CD-ROM to my desxtop that I should automatically have write access to them. Any ideas on what might be causing this?

    Repartitioning and reformatting will remove all the information on the drives. You will prefer to backup any data you wish to save. You can do that by transferring those files to one of the two drives using a Windows computer or by purchasing a third drive that can be OS X formatted to which the data on one of the Windows drives may be copied. Then repartition/reformat one of the Windows drives for OS X and copy the data from the third drive to this drive. Then copy the data on the remaining Windows drive to the now empty third drive, repartition/reformat the second Windows drive. Finally, copy the data from the third drive to the second Windows drive.
    There is really no need for a Time Capsule nor would it be preferred since you will now have three perfectly good external drives to use for backups and/or storage.

  • How do i copy from an external hard drive to iMac?

    When copying from an external hard drive, when the box 'select your disc' comes up - I am unable to continue.

    I suspect the external HD is formatted in NTFS, by default a Mac can write to one but it cannot be written to from one. How you overcome this is to download and install the NTFS-3G Download.
    Roger

  • I have chosen to fil migrate from old ibook to new MacBook Pro using Time Machine after establishing admin account. I now have two admin. accounts and wish to delete the later one and transfer files manually. I am worried I will loose both accounts. ??

    I have chosen to fil migrate from old ibook to new MacBook Pro using Time Machine after establishing admin account. I now have two admin. accounts and wish to delete the later one and transfer files manually. I am worried I will loose both accounts. ??

    Use the Office for Mac and ignore using Parallels for that. If you have PC only apps you have to run that are MS Windows only then consider Parallels. Just transfer your main PC, using Migration Assistant.  If you don't know how then simply read over Pondini's article called Lion or Mountain Lion Setup Assistant tips and look for the section on migrating from a PC. Millions have done what you are about to, it's far from leading edge these days, if you go to an Apple Store to purchase they will offer this as a service, something you might be interested in.

Maybe you are looking for

  • How to change the start up page in Portal Framework..

    Hii guys... I have created a webcenter portal framework application, with two new pages - a myLogin page and a Document page(which will display content from webcenter content). The pages are working fine. I simply want to display the myLogin page whe

  • How can I transfer song rating, play to my new computer?

    Hi!!!! I am using window 7 on my old laptop right now. I would like to transfer all of my song along with rating and play to my new computer which is also using window 7. Does anyone know how to do it? I have try home sharing but I just transfer only

  • Notes History within WEBCLIENT IC

    All, Within the interaction history section of the WEBCLIENT IC, after confirmation of business partner and IBase,  a "Notes History" link is available. The "Notes History" seems to be collecting logs of notes which were entered within a transaction

  • New computer, how to move songs?

    I have a large itunes library on my old laptop and would like to move that library over to my new laptop. What must be done to accomplish this? Thank you

  • JDBC 1.2 for SQL 2008

    Hi Gurus, I searched in SAP Marketplace and saw that the JDBC adapter 1.2 posted there is for SQL 2005 server only. May I know where I can download a JDBC 1.2 adapter for the 2008 SQL server? I'm working with XI 7.0. Thanks all. Regards, SAPenthusias