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djc45

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 24, 2009
11
0
Having solved a problem with my new Lacie d2 thunderbolt 3 external drive, thanks to help on another thread, I now seem to have speed issues with the drive which I am hoping someone who has the drive, or similar can tell me if my expectations are wrong, or if there is a speed issue with the drive.

I am assume I am supposed to have a new thread for a different issues, rather than continuing on the other thread, if I am wrong mods, I apologise, feel free to move.

The drive seemed to take a while to copy files, so I ran blackmagicdesign to test speed. I am getting the following results:

Lacie 6tb Thunderbolt 3 d2 professional (connected via thunderbolt 3 cable supplied with drive) - 40.7MB/s write / 47.8 MB/s read

Old 2tb usb 3.0 drive, connected via usb 3.0 cable supplied with drive - 106.1 MB/s write / 136.1MB/s read

Given that I paid a considerable premium for the extra speed of a thunderbolt 3 drive over what I could have got an equivalent or larger capacity usb 3.0 drive for, I'm really concerned that the thunderbolt is considerably slower than the old usb 3.0 drive.
Can anyone who knows this drive confirm for me that my numbers are off from where they should be, and that I'm not going mad.

Is there anything I need to do at the Mac Catalina end to enable full speed on the thunderbolt 3 port? I can't imagine that there is. I am running an iMac 5k 2017. the other thunderbolt 3 port is in use, running my additional 1080p monitor.

I appreciate any advice anyone can give, as I'm really having issues with this drive, and need to get some video editing jobs done, and had hoped for extra speed over the now almost full 3 year old usb 3.0 drive, and certainly don't want a speed drop with this new drive.
Thanks
Duncan
 

tyc0746

macrumors 6502
Apr 3, 2019
259
102
Liverpool, UK
What format is the drive?

Mine Lacie Rugged delivers about the same as your's (38MBs & 45MB/s), but it's formatted as NTFS (for Mac & PC use).

One of MacOS Extended format internal HDDs gives 112MB/s write & 144MB/s read, and my NTFS-formatted external SSD stick gives 423MBs & 419MB/s.

BTW, if it's the black D2 Professional then it's is USB-C/USB3.1 not Thunderbolt - but that shouldn't be causing any slow down, but it will be formatted as EXFAT - and that WILL be causing some slowness, as it's meant for compatability rather than speed. A reformat into MacOS Extended (journaled) should give you closer to Lacie's claims.
 
Last edited:

djc45

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 24, 2009
11
0
I swapped the thunderbolt socket the drive was plugged into, and now I'm getting speeds consistently in the 243 MB or thereabouts range. Which I'm happy with.
Not sure why I needed to swap ports, as the second display now plugged into that origonal port is also working fine.
 

cponto

macrumors newbie
Sep 23, 2016
22
14
Having solved a problem with my new Lacie d2 thunderbolt 3 external drive, thanks to help on another thread, I now seem to have speed issues with the drive which I am hoping someone who has the drive, or similar can tell me if my expectations are wrong, or if there is a speed issue with the drive.

I am assume I am supposed to have a new thread for a different issues, rather than continuing on the other thread, if I am wrong mods, I apologise, feel free to move.

The drive seemed to take a while to copy files, so I ran blackmagicdesign to test speed. I am getting the following results:

Lacie 6tb Thunderbolt 3 d2 professional (connected via thunderbolt 3 cable supplied with drive) - 40.7MB/s write / 47.8 MB/s read

Old 2tb usb 3.0 drive, connected via usb 3.0 cable supplied with drive - 106.1 MB/s write / 136.1MB/s read

Given that I paid a considerable premium for the extra speed of a thunderbolt 3 drive over what I could have got an equivalent or larger capacity usb 3.0 drive for, I'm really concerned that the thunderbolt is considerably slower than the old usb 3.0 drive.
Can anyone who knows this drive confirm for me that my numbers are off from where they should be, and that I'm not going mad.

Is there anything I need to do at the Mac Catalina end to enable full speed on the thunderbolt 3 port? I can't imagine that there is. I am running an iMac 5k 2017. the other thunderbolt 3 port is in use, running my additional 1080p monitor.

I appreciate any advice anyone can give, as I'm really having issues with this drive, and need to get some video editing jobs done, and had hoped for extra speed over the now almost full 3 year old usb 3.0 drive, and certainly don't want a speed drop with this new drive.
Thanks
Duncan
Hi Duncan, could you tell me if you are on the latest version of MacOS Catalina: 10.15.5?

Thank you!
 
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