How to improve transfer speed?

[novetan]

Hope I post in the relevant category.

Let me briefly explain so as to achieve money well spend, or not at all.

The Ravpower is a gadget that transfer image from SD card to a portable disk on the go as back up without the need to bring a laptop. You can’t view any picture, just slot in SD card, press a button, the transfer begins and you can go take a shower.

I’m seeking the fastest way to transfer the images to the portable disk. Here’s the data:

1) Sandisk SD card as shown. I believed the 170mb/s is read speed. Fr google, the write speed seems like 90mb/s.

2) Ravpower port connection is USB 2.0 Type A. Signal rate is 480mb/s

3) The current portable disk am using is an old HDD. Not sure abt the speedIt took 4.5min to transfer 5GB photos which is abt 18mb/s. Its ridiculously slow. I don’t know where’s the choking pt. One photo tour outing of a week would easily reached 200 GB. With the current HDD, that would take 3 hrs!

As layman, my first consideration is to improve the write speed from HDD to SSD. The considerations are:

4) I hv several of the same SD cards. I don’t intend to upgrade the SD card. Don’t wish to spend the money and not sure whether will it make much difference.

5) Ravpower remain unchanged. There is no upgrading of the port to USB 3.0 or Type C connection. Its quite an old design and I can’t find any similar gadget in the market besides another old gadget which is WD My Passport, 8 times the cost of Ravpower.

6) Will a SSD help to speed up the transfer? I hv in mind a particular brand “Crucial” X9 or X10, writes at 975mb/s and 2000mb/s respectively. It comes with Type C connectors at both ends. So I need to get an adapter C to A at Ravpower side. So I believe it will limit the transfer speed by the USB port 2.0 if I’m not wrong.

7) I’m not abt to just spend the money and lets try out and experiment. All the specs are given abv, presumably are correct. Can some techie advise will changing to SDD helps? What other factors that can help to bring to speed?

Tks much.

 

[spyguy10709]

that ravpower device is most likely the "bottleneck" here. But don't take my word for it - test for yourself.

Do the same transfer test, with the same SD card and USB, on a reasonably modern computer. If you get transfer speeds any faster than the Ravpower -- no amount of money you throw at the ravpower setup will make it go any quicker - you've reached it's limit.

I could see where this device and setup would be useful, but it's pretty "pro" and kinda niche. Most people would just shoot with a bigger card (or swap cards) and ingest it later "properly".

 

[novetan]

that ravpower device is most likely the "bottleneck" here. But don't take my word for it - test for yourself.

Do the same transfer test, with the same SD card and USB, on a reasonably modern computer. If you get transfer speeds any faster than the Ravpower -- no amount of money you throw at the ravpower setup will make it go any quicker - you've reached it's limit.

I could see where this device and setup would be useful, but it's pretty "pro" and kinda niche. Most people would just shoot with a bigger card (or swap cards) and ingest it later "properly".

I did made a test already, all transfering the same files.But its not fair to test against using desktop as most of the port are USB 3.0.

Slotting in a old thumb drive, and it was at least 10 yrs old (not sure the speed) took 30 mins. A flash drive 3.0 (I know it doesn't make sense as the port is 2.0) as this the only latest buy I hv, took 10mins 30s. The best timing I achieved was via the HDD which was 4 mins. Hence I just suspect could be the receiving end product. But again I want to be sure is money well spent.

 

[kenoh]

The first thing is the USB 2 port - that is a choke point. While it is 480 mega bits per second, this equates to maybe 50-60 MB per second transfer (in real world use this will be slower)- this is your upper limit a faster drive at the other end isnt going to speed that up.

I did made a test already, all transfering the same files.But its not fair to test against using desktop as most of the port are USB 3.0.

This is your answer here I am afraid. Yes you could go get a Sandisk Extreme and try it and it may well improve the speed a bit but it will not be earth shatteringly faster.

Also, I would rather have my in field backups on a solid state media not magnetic platters as they are not as robust when it comes to being jostled about.

 

[spyguy10709]

I did made a test already, all transfering the same files.But its not fair to test against using desktop as most of the port are USB 3.0.

Slotting in a old thumb drive, and it was at least 10 yrs old (not sure the speed) took 30 mins. A flash drive 3.0 (I know it doesn't make sense as the port is 2.0) as this the only latest buy I hv, took 10mins 30s. The best timing I achieved was via the HDD which was 4 mins. Hence I just suspect could be the receiving end product. But again I want to be sure is money well spent.

Try forgetting what you think you know about ports for a second because that might alleviate some confusion here.

Theoretical transfer limits of standards (ie USB 2.0 vs 3.0) are just that - they're theoretical limits of the connection bus itself -- not the actual transfer speed of whatever is connected.

Case and point - it's totally possible to buy a USB 3.0 flash drive that is slower than a good usb 2.0 drive.

The reality here is that if a transfer is taking longer on that transfer device than it does on the computer with the same storage media -- you've already reached the limit of data transfer speed of that ravpower unit. No amount of money you spend on faster storage drives is going to change that working capacity rate of the ravpower.

Now - why is the ravpower slower than the maximum transfer rate of USB 2.0, let alone more modern standards? Probably because it's got a very minimal CPU/hardware setup inside to save cost and complexity.

 

[Ray2]

I’ve had a few of these devices. Including at least one RAV power. They were all slow. I now ingest to an iPad Pro and, simultaneously, to the cloud. Once started I go out to dinner.

 

[novetan]

I’ve had a few of these devices. Including at least one RAV power. They were all slow. I now ingest to an iPad Pro and, simultaneously, to the cloud. Once started I go out to dinner.

There isn't many similar. Is yours WD My Passport? I had one and kaput in less than 2 yrs. I don't trust WD brand anymore but I must say WD is quite fast. And they won't repeat saving the same files unlike Rav.

If the hotel wifi is weak, it may also take ages to send to cloud. Prob could be worst. Unless u use data

 

[Ray2]

These devices come and go in waves. Some semi conductor manufacturer with capacity on its hands will provide a chipset, typically usb2, and a bunch of no-name or Ravpower type brands will pick them up and provide a device. So far I’ve been through 2 waves with regrettable results. Fortunately I’ve only purchased low end units that were throwaways. The situation is similar for the $500++ units sold by camera stores who sell to pros (B&H). The fact they also regularly cycle through brands suggests to me these expensive ones are a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.

For photo enthusiasts with portable storage needs, one need look no further than their smartphones. While I currently use an iPad Pro, I started with my iPhones. Also slow. But they have a screen, editing and sharing functionality, a degree of control and they work.

We seem to be in a trough. As you point out there aren’t many out there — at this time — including the subject RAV Power. Wait a bit, and they'll be back liberating consumers from their discretionary cash. And only to disappear again once the mountain of bad (legitimate) reviews kills sales.