Airport Base Station Extreme Transfer Speed

[Commander Keen]

Hi,

I have a brand new Airport Base Station Extreme and the latest model MacBook Air 2012.

I thought they would work well together but I am having one major issue.

I have two hard drives connected. A (very) old USB2 external hard drive. And a brand new USB3 passport.

The older HD is formatted in the Apple file format. The newer HD is FAT32.

The older hard drive is connecting with AFP. The newer (FAT) hard drive is connecting via SMB.

The older (Apple file format), AFP connected, HD transfers files super fast. It's perfect. However, the newer HD (FAT32/SMB) is transferring at frustratingly slow speeds.

E.G., A 700mb file takes a less than a minute to the old HD. It takes the better part of half an hour or more to the new HD.

Any idea what is the ultimate cause? And, if yes, what's the solution?

 

[justperry]

And, if yes, what's the solution?

Don't use FAT32, simple answer, a better option would be HFS+ or ExFAT.

 

[Commander Keen]

Would love to use exFAT but the Airport Extreme does not support it. Only Apple or FAT32.

Can't use the Apple file system because this HD needs to be portable and be able to plug into various machines.

There must be a way to (a) fix whatever is slowing SMB down; or (b) make it use AFP for the second HD?

 

[justperry]

Would love to use exFAT but the Airport Extreme does not support it. Only Apple or FAT32.

Can't use the Apple file system because this HD needs to be portable and be able to plug into various machines.

There must be a way to (a) fix whatever is slowing SMB down; or (b) make it use AFP for the second HD?

I suspect you want it to be shared to Windows PC's, if that is the case you can't do much about it, blame Windows for not supporting HFS +, there are 3rd party solutions but the bad news is you need to install it on each computer you need the HD to be shared with.

I think, but not sure, that the problem is FAT32, it's slow by default, that is, as far as I know.

 

[marzer]

Would love to use exFAT but the Airport Extreme does not support it. Only Apple or FAT32.

Can't use the Apple file system because this HD needs to be portable and be able to plug into various machines.

There must be a way to (a) fix whatever is slowing SMB down; or (b) make it use AFP for the second HD?

How fast are file transfers to the USB3 drive if you plug it directly into the MBA?

 

[Commander Keen]

If I plug the USB3 (FAT32) drive into the MBA directly the transfers are blindingly fast (a minute or two to transfer a few gigs, rather than close to an hour).

On that basis, I think the problem is the SMB connection rather than the FAT32 drive itself.

Would be interested to hear what others experience. I can't be the only one with the AEBS and a FAT32 drive plugged in?