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eSATA Faster than USB?


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Hello everyone, I am having difficulty understanding the speed of my external hard drive. I have a 3.5" Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB (with SD1A firmware!) in a Vantec NexStar CX (eSATA/USB) external enclosure. Now when I copied over a folder with around 60 or so 800MB video files from my PC (in sig) over eSATA it took around 100mins! Over USB it only took me around 30mins! I do not know why the eSATA is being so slow :angry:

I am using the supplied eSATA bracket and cable which came with the enclosure. My internal drive is going fine, and USB transfers are nice and fast. Any help on why eSATA is going so slow for me would be greatly appreciated!

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i'd say check for new SATA drivers for your motherboard. I've gone away from USB to firewire for my external hard drive, loads faster than USB, but my drive doesn't have eSATA, so I can't jump that far.

you might also want to try a different eSATA cable.

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Normally E-SATA should be much faster.

Which Windows are you using? Have installed the latest Updates and drivers?

I have the latest chipset drivers (no SATA driver though-IDE mode!) and am using Windows XP Pro SP3.

i'd say check for new SATA drivers for your motherboard. I've gone away from USB to firewire for my external hard drive, loads faster than USB, but my drive doesn't have eSATA, so I can't jump that far.

you might also want to try a different eSATA cable.

I might try to install the SATA drivers very soon then. And if that doesn't help, then I will swap the cables over.

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<snip>I have the latest chipset drivers (no SATA driver though-IDE mode!) and am using Windows XP Pro SP3.<snip>

In IDE mode, the transfer rate is limited to IDE-speed ;) If you want your thing to go faster, you should check your BIOS for the AHCI option and enable it. There is a sticky here that will help you jump to AHCI from IDE mode without reinstalling your whole OS.

Good luck!

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<snip>I have the latest chipset drivers (no SATA driver though-IDE mode!) and am using Windows XP Pro SP3.<snip>

In IDE mode, the transfer rate is limited to IDE-speed ;) If you want your thing to go faster, you should check your BIOS for the AHCI option and enable it. There is a sticky here that will help you jump to AHCI from IDE mode without reinstalling your whole OS.

Good luck!

Yeah I thought that could help a bit. And increase general HDD performance on my internal drive too. OK I will do that then see what happens.

Where exactly is the sticky? I can only find a sticky on how to integrate SATA drivers using nLite...

EDIT: I found it.

EDIT 2:Its only for ICH9 southbridges! The instructions do not go with the ICH10 drivers. Any help???

EDIT 3: Found a guide on the net and enabled AHCI mode. Worked OK. Now I will test out the external HDD and see if its faster!

Edited by Zenskas
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