Hard Drive Transfer rates

I have been testing the hard drive data transfer rates on my Vista Intel
Q6600 computer by copying (using Explorer) two folders between drives
and partitions.

Internal hard drives are 250 GB 7200 rpm SATA 300 with 16 MB memory
First drive with two equal partitions C: and D:
Second drive with two equal partitions E: and F:

External USB2 drive 250 GB SATA 7200 rpm 8 MB memory

The results are as follows - copying the folder from the D: internal
drive

_Copy_a_folder_containing_16_video_files_total_2.5 2_GB_from_D:_drive.
_
To External drive 1 min 44 secs - transfer rate 24.2 MBps
To C: drive on same hard disk 1 min 25 secs - transfer rate 29.6 MBps
To E: drive (different disk) 0 min 46 secs - transfer rate 54.8 MBps
To seperate folder on same partition 1 min 25 secs - transfer rate 29.6
MBps

_Copy_a_folder_containing_701_files_total_1.04_GB_ from_D:_drive_

To External drive 0 min 50 secs - transfer rate 20.8 MBps
To C: drive on same hard disk 0 min 49 secs - transfer rate 21.2 MBps
To E: drive (different disk) 0 min 22 secs - transfer rate 47.3 MBps
To seperate folder on same partition 0 min 47 secs - transfer rate 22.1
MBps

I also tested the transfer rate using a USB2 flash drive plugged into a
socket on the motherboard - the transfer rate was a measly 0.74 MBps

My computer is set up with the Vista OS and all programmes on the C:
drive and all the data files (Documents, Pictures, Videos etc) on the D:
drive - which is on the same hard disk.

My E: drive is used for Acronis backups of the C drive and my F: drive
for Second Copy backups of all data.

It is clear from my tests that data transfer is faster when moving
files from one hard drive to another - it is twice as fast as moving
data between partitions on the same drive.

Does this mean that I would be better to reorganise the computer so
that the OS and programmes are on a separate hard disc to the one
storing Documents and data files...?


How is your computer set up in this regard - and why ...?


--
alanho

Dump the 7200 rpm drives to start. Go big on the RPM if your looking for
transfer speed.

"alanho" wrote:

>
> I have been testing the hard drive data transfer rates on my Vista Intel
> Q6600 computer by copying (using Explorer) two folders between drives
> and partitions.
>
> Internal hard drives are 250 GB 7200 rpm SATA 300 with 16 MB memory
> First drive with two equal partitions C: and D:
> Second drive with two equal partitions E: and F:
>
> External USB2 drive 250 GB SATA 7200 rpm 8 MB memory
>
> The results are as follows - copying the folder from the D: internal
> drive
>
> _Copy_a_folder_containing_16_video_files_total_2.5 2_GB_from_D:_drive.
> _
> To External drive 1 min 44 secs - transfer rate 24.2 MBps
> To C: drive on same hard disk 1 min 25 secs - transfer rate 29.6 MBps
> To E: drive (different disk) 0 min 46 secs - transfer rate 54.8 MBps
> To seperate folder on same partition 1 min 25 secs - transfer rate 29.6
> MBps
>
> _Copy_a_folder_containing_701_files_total_1.04_GB_ from_D:_drive_
>
> To External drive 0 min 50 secs - transfer rate 20.8 MBps
> To C: drive on same hard disk 0 min 49 secs - transfer rate 21.2 MBps
> To E: drive (different disk) 0 min 22 secs - transfer rate 47.3 MBps
> To seperate folder on same partition 0 min 47 secs - transfer rate 22.1
> MBps
>
> I also tested the transfer rate using a USB2 flash drive plugged into a
> socket on the motherboard - the transfer rate was a measly 0.74 MBps
>
> My computer is set up with the Vista OS and all programmes on the C:
> drive and all the data files (Documents, Pictures, Videos etc) on the D:
> drive - which is on the same hard disk.
>
> My E: drive is used for Acronis backups of the C drive and my F: drive
> for Second Copy backups of all data.
>
> It is clear from my tests that data transfer is faster when moving
> files from one hard drive to another - it is twice as fast as moving
> data between partitions on the same drive.
>
> Does this mean that I would be better to reorganise the computer so
> that the OS and programmes are on a separate hard disc to the one
> storing Documents and data files...?
>
>
> How is your computer set up in this regard - and why ...?
>
>
> --
> alanho
>

I would not consider your results as really meaningful pertaining to
accuracy. How did you perform timing - keep in mind that one sec delay or
jump involves meaningful data amounts - also master vs slave has effect.

Regarding "...data transfer is faster when moving
files from one hard drive to another - it is twice as fast as moving data
between partitions on the same drive..." - not surprising - transfers
bewteen partitions are non-sequential read/writes - disk to disk are
sequential.




"alanho" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> I have been testing the hard drive data transfer rates on my Vista Intel
> Q6600 computer by copying (using Explorer) two folders between drives
> and partitions.
>
> Internal hard drives are 250 GB 7200 rpm SATA 300 with 16 MB memory
> First drive with two equal partitions C: and D:
> Second drive with two equal partitions E: and F:
>
> External USB2 drive 250 GB SATA 7200 rpm 8 MB memory
>
> The results are as follows - copying the folder from the D: internal
> drive
>
> _Copy_a_folder_containing_16_video_files_total_2.5 2_GB_from_D:_drive.
> _
> To External drive 1 min 44 secs - transfer rate 24.2 MBps
> To C: drive on same hard disk 1 min 25 secs - transfer rate 29.6 MBps
> To E: drive (different disk) 0 min 46 secs - transfer rate 54.8 MBps
> To seperate folder on same partition 1 min 25 secs - transfer rate 29.6
> MBps
>
> _Copy_a_folder_containing_701_files_total_1.04_GB_ from_D:_drive_
>
> To External drive 0 min 50 secs - transfer rate 20.8 MBps
> To C: drive on same hard disk 0 min 49 secs - transfer rate 21.2 MBps
> To E: drive (different disk) 0 min 22 secs - transfer rate 47.3 MBps
> To seperate folder on same partition 0 min 47 secs - transfer rate 22.1
> MBps
>
> I also tested the transfer rate using a USB2 flash drive plugged into a
> socket on the motherboard - the transfer rate was a measly 0.74 MBps
>
> My computer is set up with the Vista OS and all programmes on the C:
> drive and all the data files (Documents, Pictures, Videos etc) on the D:
> drive - which is on the same hard disk.
>
> My E: drive is used for Acronis backups of the C drive and my F: drive
> for Second Copy backups of all data.
>
> It is clear from my tests that data transfer is faster when moving
> files from one hard drive to another - it is twice as fast as moving
> data between partitions on the same drive.
>
> Does this mean that I would be better to reorganise the computer so
> that the OS and programmes are on a separate hard disc to the one
> storing Documents and data files...?
>
>
> How is your computer set up in this regard - and why ...?
>
>
> --
> alanho

On Mon, 24 Dec 2007 07:20:00 -0600, alanho wrote:

>It is clear from my tests that data transfer is faster when moving
>files from one hard drive to another - it is twice as fast as moving
>data between partitions on the same drive.

Yes, that's because the two disks can work simultaneously. It is
to be expected.

>Does this mean that I would be better to reorganise the computer so
>that the OS and programmes are on a separate hard disc to the one
>storing Documents and data files...?

This depends on many factors. The swapfile is a crucial file if
you don't have much RAM.

It all depends very much on what you do with the computer. One
question is this:

What are you doing on the computer when you perceive it as slow?
In other words, what exactly, which processes, would you like to
accelerate?

Generally there are different ways to make a computer faster.
Often the most cost-effective and most effective overall is to
add RAM. Sometimes a faster hard disk or one with NCQ (Native
Command Queueing) enabled does the trick. As a heavier measure,
a system of two or more disks, RAID 0 or RAID 1, perhaps RAID 5,
can lead to increased speed, albeit at a high cost of reduced
reliability, cooling problems, more noise, higher complexity,
higher cost, etc. Very occasionally a more powerful processor
helps. And there is defragmentation, see
http://winhlp.com/node/82 .

>How is your computer set up in this regard - and why ...?

I have one large hard disk with one large partition and a couple
of external SATA hard disks for backup. The hard disk is
NCQ-capable, and NCQ is enabled, which accelerates multiple
simultaneous copying processes wonderfully.

Hans-Georg
--
No mail, please.