FW800 RAID1 config slow transfer speeds

[kolax]

I have an external hard drive set up in RAID 1 configuration, however it is taking ages to transfer things. 55 minutes to transfer 11GB's. It is literally going at 4MB/s (37Mbps).

Is this because it is having to write the same data to both drives? I've looked at guides on the speeds for RAID 1 configs and they don't seem to go as slow as 4MB/s.

It seems to speed up after a while, and it depends on the file.

Basically, is this normal or have I got some dodgy drives?

 

[cuestakid]

i recently got a similar set-up-I have the mybook studio II 2TB-I believe that the reason that the speeds are slower is because of the fact that data essentially has to be copied twice; once to the mirror and once to the data drive so that may be the reason but I am guessing at this point