Author Topic: Very slow USB drive usage  (Read 5134 times)

Offline vAfotoriporter

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Very slow USB drive usage
« on: May 29, 2011, 09:08:35 AM »
I am using the latest Beta that expires in a few days on a MacBook Air 11" 1.6GHz 4GB RAM 128 GB.

I have troubble opening contact sheets from folders on a G-Drive Mini USB drive. PM gets very slow even unresponsive if I try. Even if no other data is being moved on USB just the PM funcitions.

I would need to heavily use photos on the USB drive - if I could. But it seems I can only use what is on the tiny SSD of the MacBook Air. I doubt it would be a hard drive issue rather my guess is PM. I hope it can be changed with the next beta or final version.
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Offline Kirk Baker

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Re: Very slow USB drive usage
« Reply #1 on: May 29, 2011, 10:38:30 AM »
Szurkebarat,

I am using the latest Beta that expires in a few days on a MacBook Air 11" 1.6GHz 4GB RAM 128 GB.

I have troubble opening contact sheets from folders on a G-Drive Mini USB drive. PM gets very slow even unresponsive if I try. Even if no other data is being moved on USB just the PM funcitions.

I would need to heavily use photos on the USB drive - if I could. But it seems I can only use what is on the tiny SSD of the MacBook Air. I doubt it would be a hard drive issue rather my guess is PM. I hope it can be changed with the next beta or final version.

Unlikely.  We're about to release version 4.6.7 as it stands.

How fast can you transfer files to and from the drive?  What is the format of the drive?

-Kirk

Offline vAfotoriporter

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Re: Very slow USB drive usage
« Reply #2 on: May 31, 2011, 03:19:51 AM »
Szurkebarat,

I am using the latest Beta that expires in a few days on a MacBook Air 11" 1.6GHz 4GB RAM 128 GB.

I have troubble opening contact sheets from folders on a G-Drive Mini USB drive. PM gets very slow even unresponsive if I try. Even if no other data is being moved on USB just the PM funcitions.

I would need to heavily use photos on the USB drive - if I could. But it seems I can only use what is on the tiny SSD of the MacBook Air. I doubt it would be a hard drive issue rather my guess is PM. I hope it can be changed with the next beta or final version.

Unlikely.  We're about to release version 4.6.7 as it stands.

How fast can you transfer files to and from the drive?  What is the format of the drive?

-Kirk


I did not do speed tests (nor do I know how to measure it) just try to use it and feel it terribly slow especially with PM.

I have two G-Drive Mini 500GB drives both have single partition of OSX Journaled.
Working on Mac, OSX, iOS and with some Canons.
Allways shooting RAW.

http://www.volgyiattila.hu

Offline Kirk Baker

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Re: Very slow USB drive usage
« Reply #3 on: May 31, 2011, 06:08:22 AM »
Szurkebarat,

I am using the latest Beta that expires in a few days on a MacBook Air 11" 1.6GHz 4GB RAM 128 GB.

I have troubble opening contact sheets from folders on a G-Drive Mini USB drive. PM gets very slow even unresponsive if I try. Even if no other data is being moved on USB just the PM funcitions.

I would need to heavily use photos on the USB drive - if I could. But it seems I can only use what is on the tiny SSD of the MacBook Air. I doubt it would be a hard drive issue rather my guess is PM. I hope it can be changed with the next beta or final version.

Unlikely.  We're about to release version 4.6.7 as it stands.

How fast can you transfer files to and from the drive?  What is the format of the drive?

-Kirk


I did not do speed tests (nor do I know how to measure it) just try to use it and feel it terribly slow especially with PM.

I have two G-Drive Mini 500GB drives both have single partition of OSX Journaled.

You say 'terribly slow especially with PM.'  So it seems slow in other applications like the Finder or Photoshop?  But just more so in PM?

To do a speed test just select a group of large files amounting to a gigabyte of data and copy it to your drive.  Time it with a watch, or the menubar clock showing the seconds.  Write back with the timing you recorded.  That will give us the rough write speed of your drive.  Unplug the drive and wait 30 seconds.  Plug the drive in again.  Copy the same set of files back to your main drive and record the time.  That will give us the rough read speed of the drive.

PM is more sensitive to slow devices than other applications that in general work with only a single file at a time.

-Kirk

Offline Sven

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Re: Very slow USB drive usage
« Reply #4 on: May 31, 2011, 12:08:22 PM »
A nice and free of charge MAC speed test utility is the "AJA System Test".
It will ready and write a definable amount of data and measures the performance of the chosen drive.
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Offline vAfotoriporter

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Re: Very slow USB drive usage
« Reply #5 on: May 31, 2011, 01:28:26 PM »
Thanks for the ideas, I will try to measure the speed when I will have the time for it.

At the moment I try to work on local files stored on the MacBook Air, but it cannot hold that much so I have to keep files on external drives. But what has been once moved to the USB drive that is slow to use.

I either move all the files back to the MBA what takes a lot of time - or open the folder containing them on the USB drive what seems also slow...
Working on Mac, OSX, iOS and with some Canons.
Allways shooting RAW.

http://www.volgyiattila.hu