Time Machine and slow "high speed USB"

[mac'in'toss'ed]

Hi guys!
I am trying to backup my MB SR, Leopard using time machine on a Freecom USB 500 gig hard drive. It is going really slow🙁 and i wonder if there is any way to increase the speed of the backup and utilize the so called "high speed USB" .
Thanks,
Mac'in'toss'ed

 

[Eraserhead]

No, USB is actually not that quick. Especially if its the first backup that will take a while.

 

[mac'in'toss'ed]

Okay, but it has been about 6 hours now and it is only 8GB of backup as yet of the 35GB!

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

Hi guys!
I am trying to backup my MB SR, Leopard using time machine on a Freecom USB 500 gig hard drive. It is going really slow🙁 and i wonder if there is any way to increase the speed of the backup and utilize the so called "high speed USB" .
Thanks,
Mac'in'toss'ed

I don't think so, time machine basically just copies all of your data from one disk to another, so it is the same as dragging it from the finder to the other disk albeit in a much better organization.

you could try quitting all other apps, but USB is very slow, and that's as fast as "high speed USB" gets.

 

[TEG]

USB 2.0 is only fast in short bursts, not in long drawn out transfers. Firewire is much better for that kind of data duty.

TEG

 

[Eraserhead]

Okay, but it has been about 6 hours now and it is only 8GB of backup as yet of the 35GB!

Maybe the second 1/2 will go quicker. I'm sure my first Time Machine took about 12 hours though...

EDIT: I was also using Firewire.

 

[logana]

Okay, but it has been about 6 hours now and it is only 8GB of backup as yet of the 35GB!

Just a thought - it sounds like it is running at USB 1.1 speed - check in about this Mac - more info that it is actually connected to the high-speed USB bus.

Sometimes it does not recognize the higher speed.

 

[mreg376]

Okay, but it has been about 6 hours now and it is only 8GB of backup as yet of the 35GB!

That's a bit slow. I have a new Imac and Time Machine backed up about 25GB in about 15 minutes. And that was to an external drive I hobbled together from a previously used 250GB SATA drive in a hard disk enclosure.

 

[EB66]

usb is terrible compared to firewire....bottom line

and esata is even better

 

[mreg376]

usb is terrible compared to firewire....bottom line

and esata is even better

But does it really matter with the Time Machine backup system that will be working in the background?

 

[mac'in'toss'ed]

Just a thought - it sounds like it is running at USB 1.1 speed - check in about this Mac - more info that it is actually connected to the high-speed USB bus.

Sometimes it does not recognize the higher speed.

Though my backup is done quite some time ago, but the USB was indeed high speed