External USB 3.0 HD Reliability Question

Well, that's Costco Australia. Don't know about that. But you said "they only sell food" yet the link you provided clearly shows appliances, tires, notebooks, TVs, furniture and more.

If you look http://www.costco.com/, you will see computer parts too. No motherboards or cases, but hard drives, monitors, printers, notebooks, PCs, tablets, RAM, and more.

 

You're right. I need new glasses.

 

And what does that say under your name?

 

Other than a large iso file I can't find any single file on my system much larger than 500MB. Would copying an iso file serve your purpose? Also, why do you think there was a factor of 2 difference in the to/from transfer rates that I measured?

 

Yes, try the ISO. See if there is a difference each way.

 

Brian, sorry about the delay in running this test for you, but I had to attend to some important matters which came up.

The largest single file that I have is an iso file that's 4,255.5 MB in size. With the Seagate (1.5 TB) GoFlex connected to a USB 3.0 port I first copied this file from the GoFlex to my internal (7200 rpm) HDD and then I copied it from the internal drive back to the GoFlex.

Time to copy file from GoFlex USB 3.0 HD to Internal HD = 85 sec.
Transfer rate = 50.1 MB/sec.

Time to copy file from Internal HD to GoFlex USB 3.0 HD = 89 sec.
Transfer rate = 47.8 MB/sec.

Certainly a substantial difference from my previous test (post #22) ....what do you think?

TS

 

TS,

They look good to me. Twice as fast as a USB 2.0 HD.

 

Per Brian's request, I ran some ATTO Benchmarks on my new 1.5TB Seagate GoFlex USB 3.0 (5400 rpm) external portable HD and on my older 300GB Maxtor USB 2.0 (7200 rpm) external desktop HD. So for Brian, and anyone else who is interested, here are the results...

GoFlex USB 3.0 (5400 rpm) HD connected to USB 3.0 port.



GoFlex USB 3.0 (5400 rpm) HD connected to USB 2.0 port.



Maxtor USB 2.0 (7200 rpm) HD connected to USB 2.0 port.



Comments?

TS

 

TS,

They all look fine to me.

 

I find it kind of interesting that the 5400 rpm GoFlex scored a little better on a USB 2.0 port than the 7200 rpm Maxtor (probably due to its much greater density)!

 

TS,

Comparing the performance of your Seagate GoFlex USB 3 drive on the USB 3 port to its performance on the USB 2.0 port I have to wonder about all of the claims re the speed improvement of USB 3 over USB 2.

While I didn't really expect to see the theoretical 10X speed advantage of USB 3 over USB 2, your benchmark results hardly show a 2X speed advantage! As I am also looking to buy a new external USB 3 hard drive, that is extremely disappointing, but thanks for sharing those tests with us.

Cruise

 

I think that has more to do with manufacturer implementation than the usb 3.0 spec.

 

Yeah, I realize that. My disappointment is with TS' Seagate GoFlex, which is a 'slow car on the USB 3 highway'.

 

Guys,

The results TS posted are similar to USB 3.0 results I've seen posted in other forums. The USB 3.0 transfer rate is twice that of USB 2.0.

 

Over time I have no doubt that USB 3.0 hard drives will get faster, but since I'm just using my GoFlex for backups its transfer rate is probably greater than what IFW can 'push through the pipe' (as Brian previously indicated).

TS

 

TS,

While you were deciding on a Portable USB 3 HD did you consider Western Digital's My Passport Essential SE Portable? If so, what made you go with the Seagate GoFlex?

Cruise

 

thing about wd portables is they no longer have a sata connector on them they have the usb plug built onto the drive, so if something with the controller happens you cant pull the drive and use it in another enclosure as well as a lot of the newer ones i have found use all kinds of drives, for instance the 500gb model i have found a hitachi drive and in another a wd. these were all from the same shipment. i use and really like the seagate go flex drives have yet to have any issues. besides the wd's i find have the same or less performance then the seagates i use and sell both.... i did carry the iomega 3.0 drives for a while and really liked those as well but only the aluminum versions. problem i had was getting them when i needed them, but they were priced well and performed a bit better than the seagates and they use samsung drives inside. also note the go flex's from the previous generation some had 7200rpm drives even though they were rated at 5400. the 750gb model i opened a number of to pull the drives and they were all 7200 i cant speak for the newest ones as i have not opened every model yet.

if you want to build one i HIGHLY RECC the hornettek enclosures. their enclosures are built VERY well out of anodized aluminum and have great air flow on some like the shark model (my fave one i use very often) they are the only empty enclosures i stock in my shop. their service is top notch as well. enclosures show very good performance better than i see from my goflex's even with 5400rpm drives installed in the hornetteks. i offer stripping of the black anodize which makes them bright silver as well as doing them in different colors in the shop for them also which is something else i like about aluminum. they sell for a bit more than say the rosewill ones do but they are far better built.

 

Oh? Not with any enclosure I have seen. Yes, the enclosure may not have an SATA connector (though many have eSATA now) the drive inside surely does (at least from my experience) (or if an older enclosure, PATA).

You are suggesting that WD and others use a different interface on their drives that are destined for enclosures. That would not make good business sense as it would mean two complete lines of very similar products and the logistics of maintaining two lines over one is very expensive.

 

Bill, I think the poster was referring to this. I thought I read where the PCB also encrypted the data on their external drives but am not sure. I guess they do not do it on the Elements but on some of their other external drives.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/281510-32-damaged-micro-soldered-elements-external

 

Yes, I did see the 1TB My Passport at Costco. It was just $15 less than the 1.5TB GoFlex so I decided on the GoFlex simply on the basis that for only $15 more it provided 50% greater storage! Each are rated at 5400 rpm and both have a 2-year warranty.

TS

 

On a related topic, I need a longer USB 3.0 cable than the 15" one provided with the GoFlex, but the GoFlex cable has a strange connector on the device (adapter) end. Does anyone know if that's a proprietary connector? ...or is it available from sources other than Seagate?

 

TS,

Your decision certainly makes good sense to me. Re your need for a longer cable, if it is proprietary (and expensive) you could get an inexpensive USB 3 extension (male-female) cable such as this one...

-http://www.amazon.com/Micro-Connectors-E07-303AMF-BL-Superspeed-Extension/dp/B003HC8H26-

Cruise

 

I don't know why that hadn't occured to me!

Thanks Cruise...

 

sorry you are incorrect in fact wd DID remove the sata connector totally from many of their portable drives. they integrated the usb 3.0 connector to the board directly on the controller board of the drive. they have had drives like this for a good couple years. you can see the usb 2.0 version of the internal drive here:

Code:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ebMZogXA7U&feature=related

Code:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zbg8EEMwEsM

here is the thread on hddguru:

Code:

http://forum.hddguru.com/make-usb-passport-essential-drive-functioning-sata-driv-t20794.html

as well as here and note the many of the 3.0 drives have been the same way:

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll287/cyrusfox/IMAG0069.jpg

http://i291.photobucket.com/albums/ll287/cyrusfox/IMAG0068.jpg

need i post more? i can open a 3.0 if need be but its the same way....

 

zfactor,

The guys in the computer shop told me the same thing last year. Is it only WDs that are wired this way?