Lag when copying files

SvenBent

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Sep 13, 2008
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when i try to copy some files fomr my computer ( 2x hdd in raid0) to my wife computer ( SSD) my entire computer seems to lag.
The courser get laggy an my games get very choppy (dropping from 60fps to below 30)
Also i see a huge spike of CPU aktivity in system & kernel process (PID 4)

ive tried differnet copy program to see if any wold copy the files more nicely for the system.

terra copy - no change
copy faster - no change unless set down to below 50% copy speed then there is imrrovemetn but its very slow transfering files
xcopy /j ( for uncached transfers) - no change
Robocopy with /igp:10 - no change
robcopy woith /igp100 - improvemtens but transfer speed drops to 1/10

I've tried reducing I/o priorty on windows copy files/terra copy but it seems like the still are dependign on system * kernel process for the actual moving of data which i can't change I/o priority on


Is there any advice how to do copy of larges files without being inflected by huge performance regression ?


--- system info --
sender:
Windows 7
I7 3700K @4.4
4x 8gb of cairsor DDR 3 2133mhz ram
Samsung 850PRO (OS disk)
2x velociraptor 300gb in raid0 (data disk beeing copied from)

Reciever:
Windows 7
I7 2700k @ 4.4
4x4GB balistix DDR 1600GHZ ram
Kingston V300 SSD ( OS disk and disk beeing copied to)
 
QOS issues or settings

Flaky NIC or router/switch

Anti-virus scanning while copying
 
How are you connecting the two machines? Just built in HomeShare or Windows File Sharing (SMB)? I’ve never found that to be terribly efficient at much of anything, apart from
being inconsistent and frustrating.

Very large files I usually drop to old school FTP - seems to be fast enough and allows for resume if it gets interrupted for whatever reason. Then again I tend to lean towards Linux ways anyway.

SFTP or SCP seem like they would do the same thing, but by default are encrypted and will
have a good deal of overhead managing that on a fast transfer.
 
If the file copies are going through your edge device, possible they are swamping it with too many packets. This would be the case if both machines are connected directly to the edge router. If so, try putting a gig switch off of the router and then connect the two computers to the switch. This way, the only traffic the router sees is actual traffic to/from the Internet.
 
QOS issues or settings

Flaky NIC or router/switch

Anti-virus scanning while copying

No AV was running

might just have to set up QoS



How are you connecting the two machines? Just built in HomeShare or Windows File Sharing (SMB)? I’ve never found that to be terribly efficient at much of anything, apart from
being inconsistent and frustrating.

Very large files I usually drop to old school FTP - seems to be fast enough and allows for resume if it gets interrupted for whatever reason. Then again I tend to lean towards Linux ways anyway.

SFTP or SCP seem like they would do the same thing, but by default are encrypted and will
have a good deal of overhead managing that on a fast transfer.

If the file copies are going through your edge device, possible they are swamping it with too many packets. This would be the case if both machines are connected directly to the edge router. If so, try putting a gig switch off of the router and then connect the two computers to the switch. This way, the only traffic the router sees is actual traffic to/from the Internet.


connected with cat 5 cables to a 24 port buffalo 1gbit switch... the wifi/internet router is connected to this switch as well. wifi/router should not be part of the transfer path.
and the transfer speed itself is fine at 122MB/s
 
Update

also might not be network related/
transfering files from my computer drive to same drive gives the same amount of severe lag on anything... soo its disk I/O related :(
 
sorry I misunderstood your issue.

Have you checked SMART on your storage devices? If it has errors or something that will definitely impede your system.
 
sorry I misunderstood your issue.

Have you checked SMART on your storage devices? If it has errors or something that will definitely impede your system.

Where I'd start. Sounds like disk perf is tanking.
 
run iperf traffic between your two machines and see what rates you get. This will eliminate the disks from the equation.
 
sorry I misunderstood your issue.

Have you checked SMART on your storage devices? If it has errors or something that will definitely impede your system.

no smart issues. C5 and C6 are all 0 raw value, I run smart checks on everyboot

Updated intel rapid store driver. tried a couple of diffrent cache options (Write through and writeback with flush disabled). still the same effect.


run iperf traffic between your two machines and see what rates you get. This will eliminate the disks from the equation.
The speed of the transfer is fine. Getting above 100MB/s also the issue is also there with just disk to disk copying. So network itself has been removed as suspect.



Googling around it seems to be a common issues that windows handle file copying pretty crappy in a multitasking situation.
but no solutions so far :(
 
May want to run some other disk utilities - SMART isn’t all that great in my experience at detecting impending failure. Could be as benign as a failing cable.

Another good check would be to see if it’s just a particular drive or any drive in the system.
 
No AV was running

might just have to set up QoS

connected with cat 5 cables to a 24 port buffalo 1gbit switch... the wifi/internet router is connected to this switch as well. wifi/router should not be part of the transfer path.
and the transfer speed itself is fine at 122MB/s

If the 122MB/s xfer speed is accurate, that equates to about 976mb/s or 97% of your gig port capacity. And that assumes zero overhead and zero collisions. It could be that your copy speed is TOO good and simply swamping your network port. Your thought of QoS might be the answer if you can assign the game a higher quality then the copy.
 
Unless I'm just missing what you're saying...
Sounds like your hard drives simple can't keep up with what you're asking out of them. Things have always been this way, especially with mechanical disks (your 2x velociraptor 300gb in raid0). To me this all sounds normal. For testing purposes move some files to the 850 Pro then copy files from that disk to your wife's PC. Is it better than your velociraptors?
 
If the 122MB/s xfer speed is accurate, that equates to about 976mb/s or 97% of your gig port capacity. And that assumes zero overhead and zero collisions. It could be that your copy speed is TOO good and simply swamping your network port. Your thought of QoS might be the answer if you can assign the game a higher quality then the copy.

Update:
also might not be network related/
transfering files from my computer drive to same drive gives the same amount of severe lag on anything... soo its disk I/O related :(


I found out it was not network related.


Unless I'm just missing what you're saying...
Sounds like your hard drives simple can't keep up with what you're asking out of them. Things have always been this way, especially with mechanical disks (your 2x velociraptor 300gb in raid0). To me this all sounds normal. For testing purposes move some files to the 850 Pro then copy files from that disk to your wife's PC. Is it better than your velociraptors?
if it normalt that you can copy files witth severly impacticing speed of something that has almost no I/O request, its seems like a pretty bad design.
even adjusting CPU & I/O priority does nothing



SSD -> HDD = still severe lag in games (fps dropping form 60 to 8-13)
SSD -> SSD = no severe lag
 
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Back in the day this would happen with IDE transfers vs SCSI because IDE needed the CPU for transfers. It sounds like sort of the same thing going on for some reason where disk IO is swamping the CPU.

I'd try to copy to an external usb 3.0 drive and see what those results look like. Also, I'd try a usb 3.0 disk to other usb 3.0 disk (bypassing sata completely) and see what that looks like. If the usb only copy is also being affected, sounds like a software issue somewhere. Otherwise, could be a software or hardware issue with the sata controller (I'd be leaning towards software--like something from a windows update).
 
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