Ubuntu 10.10 USB file transfer slowdown

[Sparky_za]

Hi guys

Well, I have put it as version 10.10, but this happens on every version of Ubuntu I have tried.

When copying a large amount of data to or from a USB drive, file transfer rates will start out at say 25MB/s. Gradually, this will drop to say 10MB/s. Usually this doesn't worry me so much, but today I'm trying to duplicate a drive of 800GB that contains backups. File sizes are all generally around 1GB each. Copying 150GB has so far taken me 4 hours, and the transfer rate just keeps dropping. At this rate its going to take days to copy. I can't use a Windows machine as the drives are formatted using ext filesystem.

Anyone know a work around to this? Already checked the Linux forums, but as I said it seems to be a general problem, maybe right down to the kernel. I know this is a long shot, but maybe someone here knows some secret magic

 

[S3cretz]

Mate your ports have troubles its seems somewhere you've got too much current transfer. Software based you can only do one thing lower the power output to your ports try setting power settings to notebook/laptop or get a new mobo if it doesn't do the same on win maby its a driver based problem leading to increased current flow o yeah to explain increased current = increased heat increased heat = higher resistance on a copper wire having the heat increase by only 5c can be a big difference and if you touch your ports and they are hot to the touch then its alot more than just 5c note : if your ports are only warm to the touch its normal dont stress but when they start burning you you've e got a problem if these are the front ports on your chassis stop using them only use the back ports hope this helps if it doesnt post again on this topic and ill see if I can help you

 

[ponder]

Try adding "pci=routeirq" to your boot options.

This seems to be a common problem and could also be a kernel bug.

Have a read:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=5447719
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=911052
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=793688
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gvfs/+bug/197762

I would just remove the drives from the external housing and connect them to the pc do do big copy operations, direct sata is way faster than usb even when working at full speed.

 

[leojay18]

I had the same problem and tried a few of the workarounds of linux forums. What eventually worked for me was to check the BIOS settings. For some reason usb 2.0 was disabled, possibly happened when installing ubuntu. Hope this helps, I definitely know how frustrating that "bug" is.

 

[nic777]

May I ask what brand of flash drive you have?

I ask because I had a similar problem on a friend's PC and we saw it was an known issue with his Kingston flash drive working in Linux.

 

[MyWorld]

http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthr...ry-slow-in-Ubuntu?highlight=usb+slow+transfer

 

[Griffin]

Nic777 - can confirm I've had a similar issue with certain brands of memory sticks. I've got a Kingston 8Gb memory stick (purchased from an official supplier) which worked 100%, however I had previously purchased a Kingston memory stick which was a fake. It was still a 8Gb memory stick, but the read/write speeds were way off, and for some reason the larger the data I was copying, the more issues I had.

Another memory stick I have is a Lacie 16Gb. When I plug this into Centos, it reads fine, and I can browse/navigate without issue. When I try to copy to it, it takes forever. I believe this could be due to the ReadyBoost technology, else I'm at a loss. On Windows based systems however, its faster than my 8Gb Kingston.

Two ways to check for a fake Kingston memory stick I've found: 1) restart your PC and press the key that allows you to select to boot from USB, check the name of the USB device, if it doesn't state Kingston DataTraveler or similar, it's a fake. 2) Check the memory stick exterior where the words DataTraveler are printed, if you look carefully, you'll see what seems to be two pieces of the name (sticker) spliced together. Return it and get your money back.