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undies1993

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 10, 2011
842
6
Ann Arbor, Michigan
I have a Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Ultra Portable with USB 3.0. I am only get the speed that I have attached in the picture. Thought it would be faster than this.
 

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Chundles

macrumors G5
Jul 4, 2005
12,037
493
Is this transferring from a USB 3.0 device as well? (Yes, yes it is. Probably a good idea to read the first line before looking at the pretty pictures...)

I did a 35GB data transfer from a USB 3.0 external portable drive, took ~6 minutes. Waaay faster than USB 2.0.

That ends up being just shy of 100MB/s. Transferring from a 5400rpm laptop drive I'd say that was about right. Would probably be higher from an SSD.

USB has a max theoretical transfer speed of 4.8Gb/s = 600MB/s but due to overheads etc you'll never see that sort of speed. But considering USB 2.0 theoretically delivered only 60MB/s at most it's significantly faster.
 

undies1993

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 10, 2011
842
6
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Is this transferring from a USB 3.0 device as well? (Yes, yes it is. Probably a good idea to read the first line before looking at the pretty pictures...)

I did a 35GB data transfer from a USB 3.0 external portable drive, took ~6 minutes. Waaay faster than USB 2.0.

That ends up being just shy of 100MB/s. Transferring from a 5400rpm laptop drive I'd say that was about right. Would probably be higher from an SSD.

USB has a max theoretical transfer speed of 4.8Gb/s = 600MB/s but due to overheads etc you'll never see that sort of speed. But considering USB 2.0 theoretically delivered only 60MB/s at most it's significantly faster.

It is transferring from the HD of the rMBP. It is flash storage, basically SSD. I used Black Magic Disk Speed Test. It is free from the Mac App Store. I get speeds in the 400mbs with the Flash Storage on the rMBP.
 

charlieroberts

macrumors 6502a
Feb 5, 2007
595
111
It is transferring from the HD of the rMBP. It is flash storage, basically SSD. I used Black Magic Disk Speed Test. It is free from the Mac App Store. I get speeds in the 400mbs with the Flash Storage on the rMBP.

It doesn't seem that low. You have a 5400rpm hard drive on USB 3.0... portable hard drives are not much faster than that.
 

waloshin

macrumors 68040
Oct 9, 2008
3,339
173
If the harddrive is slow USB 3.0 is not going to magically make it faster. 70 Mb/s sound about normal for any harddrive that is not ssd.
 

undies1993

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 10, 2011
842
6
Ann Arbor, Michigan
If the harddrive is slow USB 3.0 is not going to magically make it faster. 70 Mb/s sound about normal for any harddrive that is not ssd.

Didn't know. Thank you.

----------

If the harddrive is slow USB 3.0 is not going to magically make it faster. 70 Mb/s sound about normal for any harddrive that is not ssd.

So even if I had the Thunderbolt Adapter, it wouldn't be much faster?
 

Chundles

macrumors G5
Jul 4, 2005
12,037
493
Didn't know. Thank you.

----------



So even if I had the Thunderbolt Adapter, it wouldn't be much faster?

Nope. A 5400rpm drive isn't able to go much faster than that as others have pointed out. It's not so much the speed the connection can handle but the speed the device can cope with. If you had a new, fast SSD on the end of that USB 3.0 cable you'd see much faster speeds.

Even with your current setup the speed you're seeing is at least double what you'd see in a real-world situation with USB 3.0.
 

undies1993

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 10, 2011
842
6
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Nope. A 5400rpm drive isn't able to go much faster than that as others have pointed out. It's not so much the speed the connection can handle but the speed the device can cope with. If you had a new, fast SSD on the end of that USB 3.0 cable you'd see much faster speeds.

Even with your current setup the speed you're seeing is at least double what you'd see in a real-world situation with USB 3.0.

Possibly. It transferred around 200 gigs in 30 something minutes.
 

dank414

macrumors member
Jul 20, 2011
91
6
That some fast speed write. Something I've been looking forward to for some time. Can't wait to see the read/write boost when I get my new MBP~:D
 

charlieroberts

macrumors 6502a
Feb 5, 2007
595
111
The MBP times are amazing, to say the least.

if you want to spend money to get faster transfers, look for external hard rives that are 7200rpm (still doesn't matter if USB 3 or ThunderBolt) Or ever external SSD drives. Elgato makes an external Thunderbolt SSD thats wicked fast.
 

undies1993

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 10, 2011
842
6
Ann Arbor, Michigan
if you want to spend money to get faster transfers, look for external hard rives that are 7200rpm (still doesn't matter if USB 3 or ThunderBolt) Or ever external SSD drives. Elgato makes an external Thunderbolt SSD thats wicked fast.

I just bought this one a couple months ago so I'm not ready to get a new one yet, but I will keep that in mind. Thank you.
 

dmk1974

macrumors 68020
Sep 16, 2008
2,389
464
I just ran the BlackMagic speed test on my 2012 11" base MBA with my new 1.5 TB Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex on a USB 3.0 connection and got about 80-85 on both read and write.

For comparison, when I ran the same test but with my Toshiba Canvio USB 2.0 drive, I only got 19-23 write and 27-31 read.
 
Last edited:

rookpsu

macrumors member
Jul 10, 2008
87
1
Philadelphia
I just picked up the latest offering from Seagate (3TB Backup Plus) to leverage my new MBA's USB 3.0 port. Apparently it's the successor to the GoFlex line. Anyhow.. I ran quick test a moment ago and it was exhibiting some impressive speeds.

DiskSpeedTest.png
 

undies1993

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 10, 2011
842
6
Ann Arbor, Michigan
I just picked up the latest offering from Seagate (3TB Backup Plus) to leverage my new MBA's USB 3.0 port. Apparently it's the successor to the GoFlex line. Anyhow.. I ran quick test a moment ago and it was exhibiting some impressive speeds.

Image

Wow, fast speeds. What kind of drives do they have in it?
 
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