Extremely slow shared folder data transfers on server itself.

[techtips]

Good morning everyone,

I am on my old HP EX490 media server doing some much needed maintenance of the files on it and I've come across something quite disturbing to me.

I am moving data from one shared folder (videos) to my other shared folder (uTorrent) and the transfer rate is about 4.09 MB/s!!!

Concerned, I ran HD Tach on my EX490 and each 2TB WD/Seagate drive returns an average read between 93 MB/s to 100 MB/s.

I did notice that HD Tach identifies my hard drives as Sata 150 (Sata 1 = 150MB/s ). The EX490 is capable of Sata 2 disk speeds (300MB/s).

Easy internal expandability with tool-free expansion bays allowing
you to add additional SATA I or SATA II disk drives. Or expand
your storage capacity externally using the 4 USB ports and the fast
eSATA port.

Here is what I am referring to:

Any suggestions on why the EX490 under HD Tach program is reporting my drives as a Sata 1 connection/speed?
lastly, any ideas why the horrible transfer speeds? I am not transferring across the network. This data is being moved along on my WHS EX490 box.


Thank you

 

[drescherjm]

I assume nothing else is accessing the disks involved during the move. Perhaps you have high fragmentation?

 

[HammerSandwich]

We could use more details about the pool/share configuration. Pending that, I'll speculate wildly.

You should check SMART & event logs, just to be sure that it's not hardware.

Looks like you're moving from a local drive letter to an SMB share. Even with both on the same server, this can force Explorer to copy/delete ALL the data, rather than change just the directory entries. You should see faster results by moving from D:\Data\Videos\ to D:\Data\uTorrent\ or whatever applies.

Assuming you have folder duplication across the 2 storage drives (because it's Windows Home Server), you're reading & writing to both HDs simultaneously. Add some fragmentation, throw in WHS's generally weak performance, and 4MB/sec is plausible.

 

[techtips]

We could use more details about the pool/share configuration. Pending that, I'll speculate wildly.

You should check SMART & event logs, just to be sure that it's not hardware.

Looks like you're moving from a local drive letter to an SMB share. Even with both on the same server, this can force Explorer to copy/delete ALL the data, rather than change just the directory entries. You should see faster results by moving from D:\Data\Videos\ to D:\Data\uTorrent\ or whatever applies.

Assuming you have folder duplication across the 2 storage drives (because it's Windows Home Server), you're reading & writing to both HDs simultaneously. Add some fragmentation, throw in WHS's generally weak performance, and 4MB/sec is plausible.

Sorry, as I'm not a n00b with computers, I am a n00b regarding data and servers haha

So I'll do my best.

Currently my EX490 home server has:
-Intel Q9550s core2quad CPU
-4GB DDR2 memory
-8TB (2tbx4) WD Green drives.


I am moving files from SMB share to SMB share...such as \\ServerName\Videos to \\ServerName\Public, see below from a screenshot earlier.:

I have tried to cut/copy and it's about the same performance.


I do have folder duplication/drive extender across my 4 drives (2tb each). I thought that the folder duplication would somehow work after a data transfer has occurred and not during.

 

[HammerSandwich]

I am moving files from SMB share to SMB share...such as \\ServerName\Videos to \\ServerName\Public, see below from a screenshot earlier.:

Earlier pics show T:. Is it mapped from \\ServerName\?

Either way, I still suspect SMB might be getting in the way. If you're remoted into the server, you can - and should - work with the HDs directly. If not, try it at least once.

I do have folder duplication/drive extender across my 4 drives (2tb each). I thought that the folder duplication would somehow work after a data transfer has occurred and not during.

I believe you are correct here. Sorry - it's been a while since I WHSed.