Troubleshooting slow writing speed with external WD: 1 MB/s

WD External Drives External Drives for Mac
1

Hi,

I’ve been using a Western Digital My Book Essential Edition WD5000C032-002 500Go USB 2.0 for a couple of years to backup another external hard drive I have. I use SuperDuper on a MacBook Pro running OSX 10.8.5 to do nightly, incremental backups.

Lately, I decided that the drive would served another purpose and backup another drive. So I started a new backup. For the first pass, before the incremental backup can start, a full clone must be produced. I noticed that the writing speed of the disk was very slow (see below).

I did speed tests with Blackmagic Disk Speed Test: it’s around 1 or 2 MB/s. I did my tests using two different USB cables (3-4 feet). Those USB cables were connected to my MacBook Pro. I did “Verify” and “Repair” the disk using DiskUtility: no error came up, the disk seems to be in order. I nonetheless use DiskWarrior to rebuild the directory anew. It didn’t fix the speed issue. I also did reboot the computer during the test, plug and unplug the USB cables and unplugged/replugged the HD power supply.

Is the disk failing (I’ll buy another one) or is there other tests to run?

Thanks.

2

Did you test if the same transfer speed is experienced when transferring files from the Mac to the drive?

The connection could be slower considering the transfer comes from one external drive to the other.

3

Hi,

Thanks for the feedback. You wrote: “Did you test if the same transfer speed is experienced when transferring files from the Mac to the drive?”

Yes. As I have mentionned I did all my tests with the drive plugged directly in my laptop.

You also wrote: “The connection could be slower considering the transfer comes from one external drive to the other.”

Indeed. I’m aware of that. But in any case, a 1 MB/s writing speed is abnormal for a USB 2.0 connexion. Even on a 5400rpm HD.