2009 Time Capsule much slower in Win 8.1 than in Mavericks

[phositadc]

I was speed testing my old 2009 Time Capsule today to determine if I think I would benefit from an update. I don't know off the top of my head exactly which version it is, but it has gigabit ethernet.

I tested by using a wired gigabit ethernet connection from a Mac on Mavericks using Black Magic disk test, and then using the exact same wired gigabit ethernet connection (just unplugged the cable from the Mac and plugged it into the PC) from my PC on Windows 8.1 using CrystalDiskMark.

On the Mac, I was getting 25 MB/s write and 43 MB/s read.

On the PC, I was getting 12 MB/s write and 22 MB/s read.

The PC is the newer hardware, and--if anything--I was expecting it to be faster.

Anybody have any ideas why it is so much faster on the Mac than on the PC? Or any suggestions for troubleshooting it to try to nail down the issue?

Edit: Just had a thought. I understand that the format of a Network drive doesn't matter in terms of different operating systems being able to read/write to it. But I assume that my Time Capsule is formatted in some OSX format since, before today, I had never used it with anything other than an Apple computer. It shows up and I can read/write to it from Windows, but maybe the formatting is not optimized for Windows. Could that potentially explain the speed difference?

 

[MCAsan]

Since Time Machine runs in the backup doing backups to Time Capsule or other designated drive, how would you benefit from a faster speed of incremental backups? I can see wanting a new Time Capsule for larger backup drives, AC spec wifi, or beam forming of wifi for better coverage. But backup speeds?

 

[phositadc]

I don't use time machine. I often copy large files to my time capsule hard drive, so speed does matter to me....

 

[waw74]

You're correct, the format of the disk doesn't matter, the device the disk is plugged into reads/writes to the disk and converts it to a network protocol.
windows connects via smb macs use afp
so it could be the way the time capsule does SMB.

not sure if this will work, but try...
get the IP of your time capsule, you can get it from airport utility
on your mac, disconnect from your time capsule.
in finder go to "go -> connect to server" or CMD-k
type in "smb://--.--.--.--" but replace --.--.--.-- with the IP of your time capsule


time capsules aren't known for speed, if you're routinely copying large files. you're better off with another NAS, or getting an external drive and sharing it from one of your computers.
If you have a USB3 port on the windows machine i would use that.

 

[phositadc]

You're correct, the format of the disk doesn't matter, the device the disk is plugged into reads/writes to the disk and converts it to a network protocol.
windows connects via smb macs use afp
so it could be the way the time capsule does SMB.

not sure if this will work, but try...
get the IP of your time capsule, you can get it from airport utility
on your mac, disconnect from your time capsule.
in finder go to "go -> connect to server" or CMD-k
type in "smb://--.--.--.--" but replace --.--.--.-- with the IP of your time capsule


time capsules aren't known for speed, if you're routinely copying large files. you're better off with another NAS, or getting an external drive and sharing it from one of your computers.
If you have a USB3 port on the windows machine i would use that.

Thanks. I do have usb3 but multiple computers use the drive so it needs to be network accessible.

What would the second paragraph of your post show me? I'm not at my computer right now and though I understand the instructions, I'm not sure what I would be learning by doing that?

 

[waw74]

it needs to be network accessible.

Yor getting an external drive and sharing it from one of your computers.

you would have to leave that one computer on though.
but if you're accessing from multiple computers, you should look at a NAS, there are several options out there.

What would the second paragraph of your post show me?

it would tell you if the problem is with windows, or the SMB sharing from the time capsule.

 

[Altemose]

Thanks. I do have usb3 but multiple computers use the drive so it needs to be network accessible.

What would the second paragraph of your post show me? I'm not at my computer right now and though I understand the instructions, I'm not sure what I would be learning by doing that?

What firmware are you running on here?

 

[phositadc]

What firmware are you running on here?

On the time capsule? Whatever the latest version is. Airport utility is telling me there are no firmware updates.

 

[Altemose]

On the time capsule? Whatever the latest version is. Airport utility is telling me there are no firmware updates.

So you are at 7.6.4. Try the SMB connection from your Mac and report back.

 

[MacsAre1]

same problem

I haven't run a speed test, but I have a drive plugged in to my Time Capsule to test out a network iTunes library, and observed that it is faster in Mavericks than on Windows 8.1, dual booting on the same computer. It's a Hackintosh, so if anything it should have more problems on the Mac side, but it doesn't. When I open the iTunes library after having it open on the other platform, it updates, which takes some time. On Mavericks, this process completes in about a minute for my large library. On Windows 8.1, this process takes about 5 minutes or so.

Anyone had any luck at getting to the bottom of this issue? I think I'm going to be forced to either buy an additional NAS or just plug directly into my computer.

 

[Altemose]

I haven't run a speed test, but I have a drive plugged in to my Time Capsule to test out a network iTunes library, and observed that it is faster in Mavericks than on Windows 8.1, dual booting on the same computer. It's a Hackintosh, so if anything it should have more problems on the Mac side, but it doesn't. When I open the iTunes library after having it open on the other platform, it updates, which takes some time. On Mavericks, this process completes in about a minute for my large library. On Windows 8.1, this process takes about 5 minutes or so.

Anyone had any luck at getting to the bottom of this issue? I think I'm going to be forced to either buy an additional NAS or just plug directly into my computer.

How is the drive formatted?

 

[MacsAre1]

it's formatted HFS+, the only way a drive can be when plugged into Time Capsule or Airport.

 

[Altemose]

it's formatted HFS+, the only way a drive can be when plugged into Time Capsule or Airport.

Actually, a drive can be formatted in FAT 16, FAT 32, or HFS+. When using HFS+, both AFP and SMB/CIFS can be used. This may explain the discrepancy in speeds as the Mac is using AFP and the PC is using SMB. When using a FAT 16 or FAT 32 formatted drive, AFP is not supported and only SMB/CIFS is able to be used.