Transfer speeds for internal drive/FireWire

I have a 2 yr old PowerMac G5 with a single 160 Gb hard drive, so I have an internal drive bay available that has a 150 MBps SATA controler. Does that mean I won't get the expected speed from one of the big Seagate or Maxtor internal SATA drives with 1.5 or 3 Gbps transfer capacity?
If that's true, would I get faster transfers using an external drive via FireWire 800?
Thanks!

The maximum transfer speed of the 1.5 Gbps is actually about 1.2 Gbps (80% efficiency), or 150 MBps. So, in theory the 3 Gbps interface would be about twice as fast.
However, no single drive can achieve throughput at even the 1.2 Gbps level, so you're really not missing anything if you put in a drive with a 3 Gbps interface on it.
FW800 is 800 Mbps or 100 MBps at 100% efficiency. Real world transfer speeds would be in the 80MBps range at best. That's also a pretty tough speed to reach for a single drive. My 10,000 rpm 150GB Raptor drive can benchmark at or above that level, but many drives won't be able to.

Similar Messages

Transfer speed from Hard Drive

Am I correct in thinking that data access is faster from an internal drive than an external one?
I've got a stock MBP (5400 rpm?) drive and an external Firewire drive that runs at 7200 rpm. Is it faster to use the external drive as a scratch disk for video capture? Is it just as fast as an internal 7200?

It's going to be faster with the 7,200 RPM drive. If they were both the same RPM, I'd go with the internal, but since the external is a faster drive, it should more than make up for the slight difference in transfer speed with Firewire.
So, yes, you are correct in that an internal drive would be faster, but since your internal is slower than your external, this is nolonger the case. Use the external for a scratch disk.
Alternatively, you could consider having a 7,200 RPM drive installed in place of your existing 5,400 RPM drive. But that can be a complicated matter, and a topic for another discussion...
MacBook PRO 17 Inch Mac OS X (10.4.7)

3rd Party SATA raid cards for internal drives?

All --
Apart from the discussion as to if RAID actually benefits a home desktop system, I am wondering if anyone has the lowdown on using 3rd party SATA raid cards to support the INTERNAL hard drives on the Mac Pro series?
My Mac Pro is still slated to be built at Apple and for now I have the minimum memory and HD spec being requested at Apple, with the plan to upgrade the memory and drives from OWC or another vendor.
I've toyed with the idea of utilizing Disk Utility's software RAID features (e.g. RAID 0 for scratch disks, RAID 1 for boot, RAID 0+1 for all else.) I've also toyed with the notion of searching for a hardware raid solution which would allow me to transfer the internal SATA cable runs from the motherboard to a host adapter card for an internal multi-channel experience (with options to create and break mirrors to external devices for backup purposes.)
So....
Has anyone experience or utilized 3rd party hardware raid controllers which can connect to the internal HD bays? Are there limitations to this (ie, does the boot drive HAVE to reside off the internal motherboard controllers, or can an internal hardware controller successfully boot the system) of which ought be noted?
Finally, in the event that a host adapter card cannot drive the interna bays, can anyone give feedback to hardware SATA cards to power external drive bays with support for Disk Utility (to allow RAID1 pairings of internal drives to external snapshot-backup drives)?
Thanks for your time,
Ian Poulin
Richmond, Va

I am wondering if anyone has the lowdown on using 3rd party SATA raid cards to support the INTERNAL hard drives on the Mac Pro series?
There are many 3rd party controllers that support the internal HDs if an internal iPass connector is used. The problem is that some are bootable but most are not.
The Areca ARC-1680ix-12 and the HighPoint RocketRAID 4320 are bootable. However, the system cannot be installed via the Apple DVD. Instead the user needs to clone a boot drive with the proper drivers to the boot volume on the controller and then boot from the 3rd party controller.
The other issue I found is that these controllers do not support Boot Camp. If Boot Camp is desired, my recommendation would be to leave the internal HDs on the Mac Pro internal bus intact and use the 3rd party controller for external storage. This method provides four internal bays that are bootable, support Boot Camp and can be used for system backups. I use the 3rd party controller for external storage for large RAID sets and hot swapping hard disks.
With the internal bays intact and external hot swap RAID storage available the user can support Boot Camp, multiple system volumes and large external RAID sets. From my experience using a 3rd party controller with the internal HD bays always has some limitations. The user usually does not realize it unit later when Boot Camp does not work or the computer fails on a system upgrade or the controller does not work at all with a new version of Mac OS X.
Staying with the standard internal Mac Pro bay configuration will be the best configuration to avoid compatibility issues with future versions of Mac OS X. It is rumored that the new Snow Leopard may require 64-bit drivers. If that is the case, I would expect most if not all existing 3rd party controller drivers to fail. Some drivers will be upgraded after a few months while others may not. Having the internal Mac Pro SATA controller intact should at least allow the Mac Pro to boot if my guess about compatibility issues is correct.
can anyone give feedback to hardware SATA cards to power external drive bays with support for Disk Utility (to allow RAID1 pairings of internal drives to external snapshot-backup drives)?
There are a large number of external controllers that work with Disk Utility. Here are some of my favorites.
1. FirmTek SeriTek/2SE2-E and the SeriTek/5PM
http://firmtek.stores.yahoo.net/sata5pm2se2.html
http://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/firmtek/5pm/
2. Sonnet Tempo E4P
http://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/sonnet/mac-pro/
3. DAT Optic eSATA_PCIe8
http://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/datoptic/pcie8/
Have fun!

Too slow transfer speed for Toshiba 3.0

Hi there
i just purchased a toshiba 3.0 external hdd.
I use windows 7 genuine.
My pc specs are pretty ok cos i am able to run heavy games like crysis 2.
The problem is, My external hdd has slow transfer rates. This problem i started facing aroung 3 months ago. My hdd is out of warranty.
My USB ports are ok and i connect it to primary port.
The transfer speeds are just around 10MBPS and sometimes it drops to KBPS!!!!
Also, it does not copy some files and gives error "Failed to read from source disk" or something like that.
There is no Virus in it, I have enabled write-cache. I have defragged it.
My OS is fine and also, i checked it on other OSes.
Also, i have tried using "check disk for errors" with proper procedure but it hangs somewhere in the middle after it processes 500000 sectors or so.
I got my HDD from my cousin as he no more used PC and without any cover so i dont have any idea of model (although if there is any utility to find model then please notify me).
Also, it worked fine during then. Me and my cousin are from India only.
How can i fix this issue?
Please help me.
Message was edited by: Jaskaran
null

Please dont understand me wrong but if the case is urgent call Toshiba hotline in your country or contact nearest Toshiba service provider.
This is user-to-user forum only.

Using external scsi for internal drive.

Hi people. I have a beige g3 desktop and recently bought a sound card (pro tools project pci) that has a scsi port for external drives. The card wont work without a drive atached, and I was wondering if I could use a 50 pin centronics to 50 pin internal cable adapter to use an internal scsi inside the g3.
External scsi cases are cheap but I am trying to make some sort of portable set up and would love to avoid them.
I saw adapters on the web but could not find any here (argentina) and it is a headache to get one sent here.
Anyone have any experience with this?
Thanks in advance
Pepo

I've never used the Digidesign Pro Tools Project card, so is the external hard drive strictly needed to terminate the card's SCSI bus or does the card's configuration software require it? If you just need termination, is the card's external port the HD-50 SCSI-2 type? If so, would this active terminator solve the problem? If the interface isn't the correct one to match the one on the PCI card, could you connect a Centronics-50 active terminator to the end of the cable?
If you need to have a hard drive connected with the setup, were you planning on running the external cable through an unused PCI slot opening in the back? For a clean-looking installation, you could install an adapter like this one, in place of the PCI slot's blank cover. Unfortunately, it prevents the use of the PCI slot for other cards, and this adapter has an external DB-25 port, requiring the adapter to Centronics-50. A standard 50-conductor SCSI ribbon cable would connect between the hard drive and the interior port on the adapter card. I don't know if you've noticed, but just behind the left-side drive bays in the G3 desktop, you'll see a removable piece of metal that closes off the inside corner of the drive bay chassis. You can remove that piece of metal, and provide a path for the drive's data cable to reach the PCI slot area of the computer. It's easier than routing the cable back through the slot behind the CD-ROM drive, which is usually too crowded with cabling anyway.

Need for internal drives?

Can I install MacOSX from an FireWireCDDrive on a FireWire HardDrive when the Mac contains no more internal drives?

Depends on the mac. Not all machines will boot from the firewire bus. What machine are you trying this with?

Slow Transfer Speeds For File Transfer Manager 5.0 Build 0032

I have a 20Mbit internet connection. When I download from the Microsoft download site I can get files downloading at reported speeds of up to 1.7 Mbytes per second.
When downloading from the TechNet Benefits section I have to use the Transfer Manager and I can only get speeds that vary between 30-80 Kbytes per second. Rarely any faster.
I am using XPPro & IE7 straight out onto the Internet via my router / firewall. No proxy server.
What can I do to speed the process up or bypass the File Download Manager?
Regards.

Thanks for your feedback Tekky. FYI there is also a forum specifically for TechNet Website Feedback which is the more appropriate place for TechNet Subscriptions questions at http://social.technet.microsoft.com/forums/en/tnfeedback/threads/
There are many suggestions in this post about improving your network speeds when downloading from MSDN and TechNet subscriptions sites. Here is one more place to look for tips, which we have linked to from our Downloads and Product Keys FAQ (MSDN version, TechNet version):
The website for the Microsoft File Transfer Manager, particularly their troubleshooting page which includes additional discussion on configuring the FTM and on slow transfer speeds.
As Julie stated above, you can call TechNet Customer support and they can take you through some additional troubleshooting and diagnostic steps to assist. Julie has linked to the support phone numbers in her reply.
Thanks,
Mike Kinsman

WD3200KSRTL Caviar 320 GB SATA for internal drive? ok?

Hi all, I just wanted to make sure that this drive would be ok for an extra internal drive (actually it will be my 3rd internal) on my MacPro 2.66. I'll be using this drive for my Bootcamp/Windows partition also.
Western Digital WD3200KSRTL Caviar 320 GB SATA 3.5-Inch Hard Drive
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FBSREU/ref=cmcr_pr_producttop
So, I just wanted to make sure it would be compatible with my MacPro?
And was also curious to see if anyone has had any issues with that specific drive?
If someone had another recommendation for a drive in the same price range I'd be curious to hear also. I do need to get it on Amazon though as I have a gift certificate I'd like to use up.
Thanks!
Jeff
Message was edited by: JeffrySG

I always edit out any 'ref' on links.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FBSREU/
I think you could do better though for slight more but high performance and excellent drive.
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Western%20Digital/WD6400AAKS/
http://www.barefeats.com/harper14.html
Boot drives:
http://www.barefeats.com/harper9.html
But as to whether it works, yes.
WD now has new Caviar line. Same price.
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=299

Size limit for internal drives?

I have a G4 Silverdoor with dual 1.25 GB processors. Currently, it has three internal drives, 120 GB each. Is there a size limit to the fourth drive? I was thinking about getting a 400 or 500 GB internal drive.

Is this your system? Mac Upgrades
They say:
Internal Hard Drive Upgrades
The PowerMac G4 Quicksilver can can take internal IDE hard drives of sizes up to 120GB. Up to two extra drives can be added alongside your existing hard drive - a straight replacement is obviously possible as well.
If you want to use a larger hard drive you will need to install a high-spec IDE controller into a PCI socket. See the expansion cards section at the end of this page for details on available cards.
It is also possible to use the new SATA drives in this machine, with the purchase of a SATA controller card.
G4 AGP Mac OS X (10.4.8) RAM: 1.12 GB; ATI 9800.

Slow large file transfer speed with LaCie 1T firewire 800 drives

I am transferring two large files (201gb and 95gb) from one LaCie 1T firewire external drives to another one (using separate connections to a PCI Express firewire 800 card in my Quad G5. The transfer time is incredibly slow – over for hours for the 201gb file and over 2 hours for the 95gb file.
Does anyone have any ideas why this is so slow or what I might try to speed up the transfer rates?
Thank you.
G5 Quad 2.5 8GB DDR2 SDRAM two SATA 400GB Mac OS X (10.4.5)

You posted this in the Powerbook discussion forum. You may want to post it in the Power Mac G5 area, located at http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=108

External enclosure for internal drive?

If I replace the 80 GB hard drive that will be coming with my Macbook with a lareger drive running at 7200 RPM, I would like to convert the stock one into an external drive.
Can anyone recommend a specific "enclosure" that will convert the 2.5" with the SATA interface, offer both USB and firewire connections, and for a cheap price??? I would really appreciate the insight, my search thus far has me scratching my head....

Unfortunately there isn't a cheap Firewire enclosure yet. There is a really good USB one, which I have <a href="http://cavemonkey50.com/2006/07/coolgears-25-inch-sata-to-usb-hard-drive- enclosure/"
reviewed on my website</a>.
As far as Firewire v. USB, it depends what you'll use the drive for. If it's just for occasional backup or file storage, USB will work fine for you. However if you want to transfer huge files back and forth between the drive often, you'll definitely want a Firewire connection. There is a great benchmark comparison that you should check out to see the actual performance difference. Now just keep in mind that the MacBook only has a Firewire 400 port.

T400S full SSD speed for secondary drives (eSATA, ultrabay, dock)?

Does the T400s delivier the full speed of SSDs (SATA-II 3 Gbps, ex: 220MB/Sec seq transfer of the X25-M) when the SSD is used
- in ultrabay
- on eSATA port
- on eSATA port of the Mini Dock (Plus Series 3)
The T400 seems to deliver the full speed of SSDs when used as primary drive:
http://forums.lenovo.com/lnv/board/message?board.id=T400_series_ThinkPads&message.id=12616

Many thanks for your responses. In the meantime I have purchased Vertex 2 Sata II drive and the installation has gone perfectly. This new drive is giving me a far better experience - first noticed in the speed of installing my software: Office, VS2010, SQL 2008R2 etc. Blindingly fast!
As for alignment - the previous installation was checked and was aligned. In fact I have read that Win 7 will automatically align when installed to an SSD.
My hope is that this newer version of SSD with the Sandforce controller will not degrade as the original one did. The difference in performance from new to 18 months of use was quite significant!
Cheers and thanks again,
David E (Sydney)

SATA to SATA transfer speed for 975x PUE

hi guys, i'm using this 975x PUE currently and having this problem. when i tried to copy large data files from a SATA HDD to another SATA HDD it always takes very long time to complete. ofcoz both HDDs are internal and no RAIDS card installed.
eg : copy files about 160GB size take more than 12hrs..
i think it shouldnt take such a long time to copy such huge file. this dont happen to me in my previous pc. can anyone advise pls?

thanks hoshigami, to be honest your pc spec is as good as anyone else but i hope you have sata2 hdd and not sata1 as they are much faster than sata1 when it comes to transferring of data. also i assume your ddr2 is ddr2 800.
when i cloned about 30gb from one hdd to another hdd it took about 25 minutes therefore 160 should not take more than 2 hours in fact much less as cloning is slower process than just copying..
as far as bios is concerned there is no parameter in which it can speed up transfer of data but what you can do is go into bios then click on default setting then click yes and save and exit. and also before copying you defrag your hdd a few times or use speeditup [link below] for further defraging.
http://www.geardownload.com/system/speeditup-free-highly-recommended.html
also do you have FAT32 or NTFS file management., also your hdd 7200 RpM or 5400 RPM.
i think your prob lies with the fact you try to copy 160gb in one go by doing that large chunk of data is scattered on your hdd without being defraged.
i would first copy about 20 to 30gb then defrag hdd a few times then copy further 30gb and defrag....and so on..
to be honest i can not think of anything else . lets see what others have to say. good luck

Should I Get A PCI Sata Card For Internal Drives

I'm transferring Files from old G4 to a new G5 and it's taking forever. The sata drives seem to work slower. When I transfer the same way(Firewire)on my G4 it's much faster. Someone said to get a PCI sata card and hook up my internals to that instead of the factory connection. That it's faster that way. I'm going to have to burn to dvd and transfer that way, but it seems to defeat the purpose. Any suggestions are appreciated.
G5 Dual Core 2.0 with 2.5 GB and 2 250 Drives

Come to think of it, the last time I needed to transfer some media from my G4 to G5, the quickest and easiest way (mind you they are in separate rooms), was to pop out the G4 drive and use one of these cheap IDE USB adapters. Since the G5 is USB2, the process was pretty quick.
My guess about the G5 in target mode is there must be some kind of overhead, but the SATA is FAR and away faster than the FW connection between them, so a SATA card won't help.
Shane Ross and I are currently using "popsicle stick" internal RAIDs in our G5s. See this thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/click.jspa?searchID=-1&messageID=2162848
Patrick

What format do I use for internal drive?

I want to install a new internal harddrive into my Macbook. What format should I use for it?
Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
Mac OS Extended
Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)
Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive)
MS-DOS (FAT)
ExFAT
I know MS-DOS(FAT) is what I should use for external to work on mac and windows. Can't remember which to use for the internal. I have an Intel-based Mac.
Thanks for your help.

I use SuperDuper for cloning my OSX volumes and it does not change the size of the destination partition to the size of the source partition.
So, you can make the destination partitions size to your liking and the cloning will not change it afterwards.
Keep in mind that SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner cannot clone a BootCamp Windows partition to a new harddisk, only OSX partitions.
But Parallels doesn't need to have a Windows partitions but is mostly just two files plus the Parallels app on your OSX partition.
And therefor it would be cloned with the rest of the OSX.
Stefan

Transfer speeds for internal drive/FireWire

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