I love my WD My Book Live but I find it to be slow...any other recommendations?

[Imola Ghost]

I've been using a 3TB Western Digital My Book Live which I keep about 200GB of Apple Lossless music 30GB of photos and Time Machine backups routinely.

I've noticed that when I open the drive to access files it takes a 5-8 seconds to open the folder. I have keep my iTunes library on there also which seems to be adding to the time to access music also.

Is there something better, faster available for my use?

This one connects directly to the Apple Extreme Base station via ethernet. Is this the best alternative?

 

[flynz4]

I've been using a 3TB Western Digital My Book Live which I keep about 200GB of Apple Lossless music 30GB of photos and Time Machine backups routinely.

I've noticed that when I open the drive to access files it takes a 5-8 seconds to open the folder. I have keep my iTunes library on there also which seems to be adding to the time to access music also.

Is there something better, faster available for my use?

This one connects directly to the Apple Extreme Base station via ethernet. Is this the best alternative?

In general... Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices tend to have a longer latency to access data. Often, it is because it must go through the network stack which has inherent delays.

Direct Attached Storage (DAS) tends to be lower latency... but then you lose the ability to share the data directly over the network.

Some NAS units are faster than others... but I think DAS is best overall for performance. Thunderbolt DAS leads the pack (at a price).

/Jim

 

[Imola Ghost]

I see, unfortunately my 27" iMac doesn't have Thunderbolt. Maybe a reason to upgrade soon...maybe not until the Thunderbolt drives go down in price.

 

[flynz4]

I see, unfortunately my 27" iMac doesn't have Thunderbolt. Maybe a reason to upgrade soon...maybe not until the Thunderbolt drives go down in price.

Firewire 800 would be the fastest. You can also direct connect USB. Neither requires the network stack to connect.

/Jim

 

[Imola Ghost]

I don't believe this WD MyBookLive has any other connections other than the ethernet...so no USB, Firewire 800 or anything.

 

[hellfried]

Direct connection between NAS and iMac

I just got a WD Mybook Live and the speed over my home network just does not cut it especially for big video files. My first time machine backup to the NAS took a whole 24 hours!
As the NAS does not have any USB or thunderbolt ports my question is this; can I use a Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet Adaptor to transfer big files between my 2012 iMac (which has a thunderbolt port) and the NAS?

 

[FreakinEurekan]

I just got a WD Mybook Live and the speed over my home network just does not cut it especially for big video files. My first time machine backup to the NAS took a whole 24 hours!
As the NAS does not have any USB or thunderbolt ports my question is this; can I use a Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet Adaptor to transfer big files between my 2012 iMac (which has a thunderbolt port) and the NAS?

Time machine backups over LAN will take a long time, but of course once the initial one is done it's hands-off so usually not a problem. However if the performance for regular use isn't fast enough then that is something to look at.

Your iMac has a Gigabit Ethernet port built into it so there is no need for an adapter (the adapter is for some of the laptops that don't have built-in Ethernet). If your MyBook and your iMac are both plugged into a Gigabit-capable switch (such as the switch built into an AirPort Extreme) then you're probably getting as fast a connection as you're going to get. If you're using WiFi for your iMac, or your switch is not Gigabit capable, then you would be able to improve on your current performance.

 

[hellfried]

Thanks freakineureka. So far this has been the most useful advice I have gotten. Indeed after connecting my router/modem to the ethernet port on my iMac I have seen a huge speed increase while transferring files to my NAS (which is also connected to the said router).