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I'm trying to copy a large amount of data (40GB) to an external SSD. The SSD is the following: SanDisk Extreme Portable SSD 2 TB V2 - USB-C 3.2 Gen2

According to its manufacturer (SanDisk) it can write with 500MB/s. My copying process however is at approximately 500kb/s. I'm aware that the peak speeds can only be reached when copying single large files, but anyway I think I could expect speeds of at least 50MB/s, right?

I'm copying from my Ubuntu computer with a USB 3.0 controller to the SSD which is formated with FAT32. The filesystem that I'm copying from is ext3/ext4 (I have no idea what that is, but that's what my computer says, when I go to the root folder and check properties). I'm copying from my home folder to the external SSD.

The output of lsusb -t looks like this:

/:  Bus 04.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/6p, 20000M
    |__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Mass Storage, Driver=uas, 5000M
    |__ Port 2: Dev 3, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 5000M
/:  Bus 03.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/16p, 480M
    |__ Port 3: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Video, Driver=uvcvideo, 480M
    |__ Port 3: Dev 2, If 3, Class=Video, Driver=uvcvideo, 480M
    |__ Port 3: Dev 2, If 1, Class=Video, Driver=uvcvideo, 480M
    |__ Port 3: Dev 2, If 2, Class=Video, Driver=uvcvideo, 480M
    |__ Port 13: Dev 3, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 480M
        |__ Port 2: Dev 5, If 1, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 1.5M
        |__ Port 2: Dev 5, If 0, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 1.5M
        |__ Port 3: Dev 6, If 2, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M
        |__ Port 3: Dev 6, If 0, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M
        |__ Port 3: Dev 6, If 1, Class=Human Interface Device, Driver=usbhid, 12M
    |__ Port 14: Dev 4, If 0, Class=Wireless, Driver=btusb, 12M
    |__ Port 14: Dev 4, If 1, Class=Wireless, Driver=btusb, 12M
/:  Bus 02.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/4p, 10000M
/:  Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/1p, 480M

My Computer itself also has an internal SSD. When I started the copying process I observed copying speeds of up to 200MB/s which I would be perfectly happy with. But I only saw that for a few seconds and never again since.

As requested, here's a detailed description of my Hardware:

H/W path         Device          Class          Description
===========================================================
                                 system         Precision 7560 (0A69)
/0                               bus            01C06K
/0/1                             memory         1MiB BIOS
/0/400                           processor      11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-11
/0/400/701                       memory         256KiB L1 cache
/0/400/702                       memory         10MiB L2 cache
/0/400/703                       memory         24MiB L3 cache
/0/700                           memory         384KiB L1 cache
/0/1000                          memory         64GiB System Memory
/0/1000/0                        memory         16GiB SODIMM DDR4 Synchronous 32
/0/1000/1                        memory         16GiB SODIMM DDR4 Synchronous 32
/0/1000/2                        memory         16GiB SODIMM DDR4 Synchronous 32
/0/1000/3                        memory         16GiB SODIMM DDR4 Synchronous 32
/0/100                           bridge         Intel Corporation
/0/100/1                         bridge         Intel Corporation
/0/100/1/0       /dev/fb0        display        NVIDIA Corporation
/0/100/1/0.1                     multimedia     NVIDIA Corporation
/0/100/2                         display        Intel Corporation
/0/100/4                         generic        Intel Corporation
/0/100/6                         generic        Intel Corporation
/0/100/7                         bridge         Intel Corporation
/0/100/7.1                       bridge         Intel Corporation
/0/100/a                         generic        Intel Corporation
/0/100/d                         bus            Intel Corporation
/0/100/d/0       usb1            bus            xHCI Host Controller
/0/100/d/1       usb2            bus            xHCI Host Controller
/0/100/d.2                       bus            Intel Corporation
/0/100/e                         storage        Volume Management Device NVMe RA
/0/100/12                        communication  Intel Corporation
/0/100/14                        bus            Intel Corporation
/0/100/14/0      usb3            bus            xHCI Host Controller
/0/100/14/0/3                    multimedia     Integrated_Webcam_HD
/0/100/14/0/d                    bus            4-Port USB 2.0 Hub
/0/100/14/0/d/2                  input          USB Keyboard
/0/100/14/0/d/3                  input          CORSAIR HARPOON RGB WIRELESS Gam
/0/100/14/0/e                    communication  Bluetooth wireless interface
/0/100/14/1      usb4            bus            xHCI Host Controller
/0/100/14/1/1                    storage        Extreme 55AE
/0/100/14/1/2                    bus            4-Port USB 3.0 Hub
/0/100/14.2                      memory         RAM memory
/0/100/15                        bus            Intel Corporation
/0/100/15.1                      bus            Intel Corporation
/0/100/16                        communication  Intel Corporation
/0/100/16.3                      communication  Intel Corporation
/0/100/19                        bus            Intel Corporation
/0/100/1c                        bridge         Intel Corporation
/0/100/1c/0      wlp146s0        network        Intel Corporation
/0/100/1c.2                      bridge         Intel Corporation
/0/100/1c.2/0                    generic        RTS5260 PCI Express Card Reader
/0/100/1f                        bridge         Intel Corporation
/0/100/1f.3                      multimedia     Intel Corporation
/0/100/1f.4                      bus            Intel Corporation
/0/100/1f.5                      bus            Intel Corporation
/0/100/1f.6      enp0s31f6       network        Ethernet Connection (14) I219-LM
/0/6                             bridge         Intel Corporation
/0/6/0                           storage        Toshiba Corporation
/0/0                             system         PnP device PNP0c02
/0/2                             system         PnP device PNP0b00
/0/3                             generic        PnP device INT3f0d
/0/4                             input          PnP device PNP0303
/0/5                             generic        PnP device DLL0a69
/0/7                             system         PnP device PNP0c02
/0/8                             system         PnP device PNP0c02
/0/9                             system         PnP device PNP0c02
/0/a                             system         PnP device PNP0c02
/0/b             scsi0           storage        
/0/b/0.0.0       /dev/sda        disk           2TB Extreme 55AE
/0/b/0.0.0/1     /dev/sda1       volume         1862GiB Windows FAT volume
/0/b/0.0.1                       generic        SES Device
/1                               power          DELL 68ND31C
/2                               power          
/3               /dev/nvme0      storage        KXG60ZNV1T02 NVMe KIOXIA 1024GB
/3/1             /dev/nvme0n1    disk           1024GB NVMe namespace
/3/1/1                           volume         289MiB Windows FAT volume
/3/1/2           /dev/nvme0n1p2  volume         127MiB reserved partition
/3/1/3           /dev/nvme0n1p3  volume         390GiB Windows NTFS volume
/3/1/4           /dev/nvme0n1p4  volume         23GiB Windows NTFS volume
/3/1/5           /dev/nvme0n1p5  volume         989MiB Windows NTFS volume
/3/1/6           /dev/nvme0n1p6  volume         1438MiB Windows NTFS volume
/3/1/7           /dev/nvme0n1p7  volume         536GiB EXT4 volume
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3
  • 3
    If you want fast file transfers, I wouldn't choose FAT32. What computer is it?
    – JohnnyVegas
    Commented Jan 8, 2023 at 13:54
  • @JohnnyVegas Ok sure, but it should still get like more than 50MB/s with FAT32 anyway, right?! It's a Dell Precision Laptop. It's an absolute beast of a computer.
    – Max
    Commented Jan 8, 2023 at 14:24
  • 1
    Consider have dmesg -w or journalctl -kf running and see if new error comes up while you have files copying to the drive.
    – Tom Yan
    Commented Jan 8, 2023 at 15:15

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2

Max, "die Kette ist nur so stark wie ihr schwächstes Glied"! ( German saying: "The chain is only as strong as its weakest part"). I have an older laptop with an USB 3.0 express card inserted that only yields 60-70 MB/sec despite having a fast target. Unfortunately you missed to adequately describe your hardware, the file systems involved etc so that one could guess that you might already be limited to the speed of my laptop.

Isolate the bottleneck! Use h2testw under windows or f3 under linux or just dd to write to your external drive that you should empty before. See what the real sustained writing speed is without having to rely on a slow data source.

Under linux you have the option to copy your source to the null device which should eliminate any copy target speed issues.

I think I could expect speeds of at least 50MB/s, right?

There is nothing to expect.

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3
  • Well there is one thing I know: It's not due to slow hardware. It's a 1 year old Dell Precision 4k€ Laptop. I'll add the output of lshw to the question. I'll try to give some more details on the matter of the Filesystems as well. However I can't empty the harddrive, that could potentially cost me days to do with the current speeds and I can't risk that.
    – Max
    Commented Jan 8, 2023 at 19:38
  • Well, with 60-70 MB/sec I would be totally happy. That's already more than factor 100 better than what I currently have.
    – Max
    Commented Jan 8, 2023 at 19:46
  • 1
    Ok, I solved the issue. It's indeed because of FAT32. When I format the disk in NTFS it works with >100 MB/s
    – Max
    Commented Jan 9, 2023 at 17:22

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