500GB external USB drive SLOW

[harry_platypus]

Greetings -
I purchased a Venus DS3 external USB 2.0 disk enclosure to use with a
Hitachi Deskstar 500GB PATA disk. I'm running Windows XP Pro SP2, and
the OS sees the drive just fine. I built an NTFS filesystem on the disk
and tried copying some files to it... and it is SLOW. Sequentially
writing a 100MB file takes 1 - 2 MINUTES.

If I replace the 500GB disk in the enclosure with a Seagate 160GB or
Maxtor 250GB disk, I can write a 100MB file in 4 - 5 SECONDS. Likewise,
when I take the Hitachi 500GB out of the enclosure and hook it up to
the system on-board EIDE controller, writing the same 100MB file takes
2 - 3 SECONDS.

It appears that, seperately, there is nothing wrong with either the
enclosure or the disk. But TOGETHER they slow to a crawl. Is there some
kind of disk size limit beyond which USB / EIDE controller circuitry
slows down? Any pointers or suggestions?
Thanks!
Harry

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

Greetings -
I purchased a Venus DS3 external USB 2.0 disk enclosure to use with a
Hitachi Deskstar 500GB PATA disk. I'm running Windows XP Pro SP2, and
the OS sees the drive just fine. I built an NTFS filesystem on the disk
and tried copying some files to it... and it is SLOW. Sequentially
writing a 100MB file takes 1 - 2 MINUTES.

If I replace the 500GB disk in the enclosure with a Seagate 160GB or
Maxtor 250GB disk, I can write a 100MB file in 4 - 5 SECONDS. Likewise,
when I take the Hitachi 500GB out of the enclosure and hook it up to
the system on-board EIDE controller, writing the same 100MB file takes
2 - 3 SECONDS.

It appears that, seperately, there is nothing wrong with either the
enclosure or the disk. But TOGETHER they slow to a crawl.

Is there some kind of disk size limit beyond which USB / EIDE controller
circuitry slows down?

Isn't there a size limiting jumper on that drive? To answer your own question.