USB drive = slow system performance

[brijazz]

I have an external USB drive attached to my iMac. I've noticed that whenever there's heavy read/write activity on the drive (such as un-raring a large file or transcoding a video that’s stored there), my whole system feels sluggish. Can anyone comment on this?

 

[MrCheeto]

More likely, it has to do with your INTERNAL drive trying to write the files that are coming off of the USB drive. Happens to me when transferring TO the computer, not so much the other way around.

 

[brijazz]

it has to do with your INTERNAL drive trying to write the files that are coming off of the USB drive

I'm doubting that that's the issue. For example, I'll download a torrent straight to the USB drive, unrar it and transcode it without ever moving it to the internal drive.

Moreover, it seems to be worse since I upgraded to 10.6.3. Could my problem be connected to one of the multiple USB-related issues that have been reported along with its release? I guess I'll have to wait 'till 10.6.4 to know for sure.

 

[bengtc]

Try to reformat the usb drive