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Maxicek

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 23, 2004
107
0
I have a 80Gb External USB2 HD, which is formatted NTFS. I used it to store my music, pictures etc. on from my PC Laptop. I am now transferring approx. 40 Gb data to my new 15" PB, but it is extremely slow. It is transferring at about 1Mb/s, giving me copy times of about 10+ hours. Bearing in mind this is my first new Mac in 7 years, my patience in not great!

My questions are:
- Why is it so slow? Is it because it is NTFS format, or is my PB only recognising it as USB1.1 for some reason?
- If it is recognising as USB1.1, how do I check this? And can I fix it if this is the case?
- If there is a problem with my PB recognising my drive as USB2, I may replace it into a different case, probably Firewire, but Firewire and USB2 combined may be good. Any recommendations for a good enclosure? Needs to be available in the UK.

When I am done transferring I intend to re-format the drive as HFS+ and use it for backups. I will be able to use CDs / DVDs for cross platform transfers.

Thanks for any help in advance.
 

Tomaz

macrumors 6502
Feb 24, 2004
311
0
Switzerland
I did the exact same thing and had the exact same problem. I think it's NTFS related not USB1/2. Since not long ago (few months), Osx wasn't even able to read NTFS and it's still unable to write NTFS.
So, I think you gotta live with the 10+ hours of copying (I had to copy more that 60GB...)
Cheers
 

Maxicek

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 23, 2004
107
0
Another thing I forgot to mention was that I left it copying overnight and it stopped and locked up on me. Is this because the PB went to sleep? I was set to never sleep when plugged in, but this morning I noticed that "HD sleeps when possible" (or something like that) was checked. I have now unchecked it, left it copying at home and gone to work.
 
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