1 TB Drive Copying Problem

[Tom]

XP Pro SP3

Just installed a Western Digital 1 TB Drive, removed the FAT 32 partition
with Disk Mgt and installed a new partition formatted to NTFS. When I try
to copy files from my older External USB 2.0 drive to this new External 2.0
drive, the copying function stops after a short while and the computer
hangs without finishing the copy operation. I have to reset the computer.

Are they are issues with copying large files or multiple files in XP? Are
there any large drive issues with XP? Some if my drive image files are 30
GB in size.

TIA

 

[R. McCarty]

Likely you're dealing with USB overload. Using a single USB 2.0
external drive will deliver ~25 to 29 Megabytes-per-Second. If
however you use two simultaneous external USB drives and more
importantly do a USB drive to USB drive transfer the speed will
be exceedingly bad. This is because most PCs have a single USB
2.0 (Enhanced Controller/Hub). If you want to permanently use
two external drives you might benefit from installing a separate 2.0
PCI Card and dedicate it to your new Terabyte drive. Otherwise
I'd forget USB and get a eSATA card and access your new drive
with that and an external SATA enclosure. Immediately you'll see
your throughput go from 25Meg to as high as 110 Megabytes.

 

[Onsokumaru]

I don't think this is an XP problem, probably either a chipset or driver
problem.
Find out your make of motherboard and chipset and ask in a hardware group.

As someone suggested it could be an overload problem, causing the proccess
to hang.

How long do you wait? I would think One TB would take quite a while to
copy.

Have you tried copying smaller files first, start with a few GB, then build
up to see if you can determine when the problem occurs.

 

[Tom]

Yes, it is an overload issue. If I copy from the USB drive to a hard drive
and then to the TB drive, all is well.

I thought about a SATA card & external drive, but then I could not
universally use the drive with other computers like I could with USB. I
may rethink my decision.

Thx

Likely you're dealing with USB overload. Using a single USB 2.0
external drive will deliver ~25 to 29 Megabytes-per-Second. If
however you use two simultaneous external USB drives and more
importantly do a USB drive to USB drive transfer the speed will
be exceedingly bad. This is because most PCs have a single USB
2.0 (Enhanced Controller/Hub). If you want to permanently use
two external drives you might benefit from installing a separate 2.0
PCI Card and dedicate it to your new Terabyte drive. Otherwise
I'd forget USB and get a eSATA card and access your new drive
with that and an external SATA enclosure. Immediately you'll see
your throughput go from 25Meg to as high as 110 Megabytes.