Transferring from USB to NTFS hard drive is really slow

Question

I have a second hard drive that I've installed on my system, and copying files from the USB to the hard drive is extremely slow (about 70kB/sec).

Here is my /etc/fstab entry:

/dev/sdb1 /media/Storage ntfs uid=rhys,gid=users,auto,user,exec,rw,sync 0 0

Am I doing something wrong here?

Are you using usb 1.0 or usb2.0? – Prasad RD Jul 19 '12 at 13:49 — Prasad RD, Jul 19 '12 at 13:49
I've tried the USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports. – norway-firemen Jul 19 '12 at 13:59 — norway-firemen, Jul 19 '12 at 13:59
Are you copying several tiny files, or rather big ones? – SirCharlo Jul 19 '12 at 14:11 — SirCharlo, Jul 19 '12 at 14:11
I'm copying big files. – norway-firemen Jul 19 '12 at 14:32 — norway-firemen, Jul 19 '12 at 14:32

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 27 '12 at 04:07

2

Actually, asyncronous copy shouldn't change the speed. It would look like that because the copy happens in background, but you won't be able to unmount the drive any sooner than before. At least with syncronous tranfer when it says "Done", it really is done... but the downside is that the pop-up "Copying" box will hang around for ages.

answered Nov 27 '12 at 04:07

Lighty

21

That's simply not true, whatever you might think in principle. Try changing the option and see the difference for a large file. From /etc/usbmount/usbmount.conf: 'WARNING! The "sync" option may not be a good choice to use with flash drives, as it forces a greater amount of writing operating on the drive. This makes the writing speed considerably lower and also leads to a faster wear out of the disk.' – beldaz Jul 21 '14 at 10:08

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 24 '12 at 21:03

1

Seems as though switching the flag from sync to async fixes the issue.

/dev/sdb1 /media/Storage ntfs uid=rhys,gid=users,auto,user,exec,rw,async 0 0

answered Jul 24 '12 at 21:03

norway-firemen

153

1

See how to deal with hotplug USB devices in http://askubuntu.com/a/500562/237134 – beldaz Jul 21 '14 at 10:09

Transferring from USB to NTFS hard drive is really slow

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