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PNY StorEDGE 128 GB

L

LogicX

macrumors newbie
Jan 2, 2012
1
0
StorEdge 128GB Encrypted journaled filesystem speed slow

I was having troubles with my StorEdge performance. I'm running the latest Macbook Air 2013 model, running OSX Mavericks 10.9.1.

When using DiskUtility to format it as ExFAT black magic would report ~60MB/sec write and 90MB/sec read.

When I would format it as OSX Journaled, Encrypted my performance would plummet to <10MB/sec write, and ~50MB/sec read.

I reformatted numerous times and narrowed it down to the encryption setting.
I then followed these directions to just format it as journaled, then right-click the drive and 'encrypt'. Solved my problem! I'm now encrypted, and performance is where it should be.

No idea why that worked; but really glad performance improved 5x!
 
D

DmbShn41

macrumors 6502
Jun 22, 2009
295
2
The speed if this drive all depends on 1) the model of Macbook you are using, and 2) the format of the card.

Fastest configuration I've seen so far, is a 2013 MBA 13", due to its SDXC running over the USB3 connection, formatted for MacOS Journaled. Other formats may slightly decrease the speed, and that's mainly due to the OS writing to a format different than its drive is formatted. Bets I can explain it.
Previous Macbook configurations will result in slower speed, due to the SDXC not on a USB3 connection. It will revert to USB2 I believe.

If I'm wrong, please convince me.

Thanks~
 
D

DmbShn41

macrumors 6502
Jun 22, 2009
295
2
acastic said:
can you use this SD card and install a windows bootcamp partition on it?
Click to expand...


While some folks have had decent success running a virtual machine off of these SDXC cards, it's not recommended to run a full on Bootcamp partition. Speeds are less than desirable for this particular application, plus you will have a host of disk error issues as the OS is not meant to be installed or to write to a SDXC. Doesn't mean its not possible if you need to do it quickly, and only temporarily.
 
Dweez

Dweez

macrumors 65816
Jun 13, 2011
1,248
10
Down by the river
michaelsviews said:
Can you put this in the slot and leave it in safely including traveling , say if you put it in a case and or sleeve?
Click to expand...

Since the day I put the card into my 13" MBA it's only been removed twice, so I could xfer data to a MBP. Otherwise it stays plugged into the MBA when at home and traveling for work.
 
M

MrAnderson69UK

macrumors newbie
Feb 28, 2014
4
0
Hi all,

I've just purchased one of these 128Gb StorEDGE cards and was a little unimpressed with it write performance - certainly no where near the 62.8MB/s shown in Black Magic above with the 2013 MBA by 'Dweez'.

I'd tried both Master Boot Record/exFAT (as shipped) and GUID Partition/OS X Journaled and didn't get above 47MB/s.

I re-formatted back to exFAT while in GUID partition but it made it worse.

I then downloaded SD Formatter 4 from sdcard.org and reformatted (Full slow mode) and it's back as Master Boot Record/exFAT and 46MB/s.

Read speeds were consistent on either format at 82-86MB/s

I've added the drive to Spotlight Privacy in case it was indexing.

Mine is installed in a rMBP Mid 2012 - 16Gb Ram 256 SSD.

Interestingly, when I look at the card reader device in System Information the SD Card is formatted as exFAT with Content: Windows_NTFS. Odd because I thought exFAT was an extension of FAT32 and not NTFS

I've got MacFuse/FUSE for OS X (2.6.1) installed with NTFS-3G driver (the last free one from 2 Oct. 2012) but it's currently Disabled, so shouldn't be affecting performance.

I'm going to carry on tinkering for a bit...

Cheers
Mr A
 
D

DmbShn41

macrumors 6502
Jun 22, 2009
295
2
MrAnderson69UK said:
Hi all,

I've just purchased one of these 128Gb StorEDGE cards and was a little unimpressed with it write performance - certainly no where near the 62.8MB/s shown in Black Magic above with the 2013 MBA by 'Dweez'.

I'd tried both Master Boot Record/exFAT (as shipped) and GUID Partition/OS X Journaled and didn't get above 47MB/s.

I re-formatted back to exFAT while in GUID partition but it made it worse.

I then downloaded SD Formatter 4 from sdcard.org and reformatted (Full slow mode) and it's back as Master Boot Record/exFAT and 46MB/s.

Read speeds were consistent on either format at 82-86MB/s

I've added the drive to Spotlight Privacy in case it was indexing.

Mine is installed in a rMBP Mid 2012 - 16Gb Ram 256 SSD.

Interestingly, when I look at the card reader device in System Information the SD Card is formatted as exFAT with Content: Windows_NTFS. Odd because I thought exFAT was an extension of FAT32 and not NTFS

I've got MacFuse/FUSE for OS X (2.6.1) installed with NTFS-3G driver (the last free one from 2 Oct. 2012) but it's currently Disabled, so shouldn't be affecting performance.

I'm going to carry on tinkering for a bit...

Cheers
Mr A
Click to expand...



Remind me as I don't remember, is there USB3 on the 2012 rMBP?
 
Dweez

Dweez

macrumors 65816
Jun 13, 2011
1,248
10
Down by the river
MrAnderson69UK said:
Hi all,

I've just purchased one of these 128Gb StorEDGE cards and was a little unimpressed with it write performance - certainly no where near the 62.8MB/s shown in Black Magic above with the 2013 MBA by 'Dweez'.
Click to expand...

Try running the test a few times in a row. Initially the card seemed slow, but after running Black Magic 4-5 times and the write performance steadily increased (as well as varied quite a bit from run to run). Seems odd to me too, but I can't offer any type of explanation at this time.
 
M

MrAnderson69UK

macrumors newbie
Feb 28, 2014
4
0
Dweez said:
Try running the test a few times in a row. Initially the card seemed slow, but after running Black Magic 4-5 times and the write performance steadily increased (as well as varied quite a bit from run to run). Seems odd to me too, but I can't offer any type of explanation at this time.
Click to expand...

I've seen that too. It's like the format to Mac OS X Journaled is a quick format and as you write to the disc or sd card, it formats as it occupies space. It's all a bit weird and hit's'miss with these SD Cards and slots across the Macbook range (Pro's and Air's) - perhaps Apple improved the slots further on the MBA 2013.

I've got it formatted as a Mac OS X Journaled GUID partition and returning 40-50MB/s write and a pretty consistent 85-86MB/s read and after a rounds of Black Magic testing, it gradually slowed to 8-11MB/s write but then returned to 45-50MB/s. If I leave it running, it will go up and down between these two extremes. I'm wondering if the Journalling is added more reading and writing to each data write operation and as the journal data is minuscule in comparison to the data, and below 4k it may have a negative effect on performance. Just a thought and by no means a scientific explanation - I'd need to read up of the filesystem format more.

Anyway, I've accepted the performance I'm getting and have actually started using it now!!!
It was only a £15 premium on a Transcend 128Gb Class 10 x600 (I think 60MB/s Write / 95MB/s read) normal SDXC card which would have stuck out by a fair amount and then I'd have probably had the same performance I've got with this StorEDGE card. Eventually I would have taken a knife to it, gradually shortening it taking care to stop before getting to the silicon inside!!!
 
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