Why to slow?

i just got 

WD ShareSpace 4 TB Hard Drives ( WDA4NC40000)

and it’s connected via ethernet to mac

and just trying to sort my files from folder to folder transfering about 1.5 TB takes about 3 days ??


While the network interface *clocks* at 1 Gb/s, there are other factors in the end-to-end stream that are more limiting. Just to name a few: clock speed of the processor (not that fast), disk rotational speed, OS overhead (linux-based) and the file transfer protocol which is either via SMB or AFP depending on what you selected. I found that AFP is a tad more efficient. But you have to open the folder share explicitily using this such as "afp:///“share name”. Do not expect lightening transfer speed as you would get with an enterprise-level NAS device.

–dennis

so the speed is fine i mean there is nothing wrong with the hard drive or the way i set up the network ?

any tips on how to make it more faster?

keep in mind i’m not an expert i barly know how to set up a network

and i have time capsule apple connected to my modem and the WD hard drive connected to time capsul and mac is connected to time capsule via wifi 

thanx

Sharespace is a very, very slow box and WD has refused for years to even try to change that.

Of course, any attempt is limited because the hardware they chose is extremely limited.

So the speed you experienced is normal for a Sharespace - there is likely nothing wrong with it.

There are two tips for making your setup faster:

  1. Don’t use wifi

  2. Don’t use WD products

dngovoni wrote:

 OS overhead (linux-based)

–dennis

Excuse me?  Why should linux take part of the blame here? I have a Thecus and a QNAP, both linux based, not that much more expensive than a sharespace and faster by a factor of many.

The problem with the sharespace is poor planning, poor design. poor implementation, poor performance. It is a sum of it’s parts but the OS chosen  should not take the blame IMO.

+1

I wasn’t “blaming” the OS, but implementation has a lot to do with it. Try to see the bigger picture.  It’s not just the hardware, but how the software is implemented and tuned. Some linux implementations are just better than others. It all has a role in the total solution. Don’t just cherry-pick one item. 

–dennis

Just joined this forum looking for some help with my NAS, and the first post I see is “Why is thie Sharespace so slow?”

Why indeed? I have had the 4TB version for going on two years. Configured in RAID 5, it’s on a gigabit router. Until about two  weeks ago, it was only handling a small Time Machine backup, plus about 250GB in video and audio files. Then I got in close to 1TB of data for a project I’m working on.

I work on both OS X and Windows 7. After trying both AFP and SMB (CIFS), I stuck with SMB for both OSs.  While navigating the directory structure on the NAS is a bit faster through Windows Explorer, the transfer rates, i.e. reading from and writing to the RAID, are slow to the point of making this device completely unusable for anything except backup (which can run unattended at night). All my working data has been moved to an xternal FW drive for now, and I’m looking at getting a new RAID array.

In doing so, I’ve re-evaluated and decided that our small workgroup does not really need a NAS - we don’t access data remotely by FTP, and within the office network, drives can be shared directly from the host computer.

While I realize that data transfer over a gigabit connection will always be slower than via SATA, USB or FW, and that factors other than the data bus play a role, the transfer speed of the Sharespace is ludicrous. No, I’m not expecting “enterprise level throughput”, but a workable speed >9Mbps would be appreciated. There are other NAS solutions in the same class and price range that achieve this…