NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Fastest way to transfer files from external HDD to NAS?
Hey everyone, first post here and I've got a question. I'm sure there's a simple answer, but I'm new to the concept of network-attached storage.
Here's the situation/question:
I have an external hard drive, and I would like to transfer large media files from it to my ReadyNAS Ultra 2+. What would be the fastest way to get these files from my external HDD onto the NAS?
Here's what I have to work with:
ReadyNAS Ultra 2+ (with 1 TB Hitachi Deskstar)
WD external HDD (1 TB, USB 2.0, NTFS format)
Desktop PC with Atheros Gigabit ethernet controller
Router (Linksys WRT54GS; my Ultra 2+ is currently plugged in to this router)
Cat5 cables (of course)
If anyone could give me advice it would be greatly appreciated. Any step by step guide in terms of what to hook-up to where would be even more appreciated!
PS: I've enabled fast writing from USB via the performance tab, but the highest transfer rate I observe going from USB-to-USB is <980 KBps
Here's the situation/question:
I have an external hard drive, and I would like to transfer large media files from it to my ReadyNAS Ultra 2+. What would be the fastest way to get these files from my external HDD onto the NAS?
Here's what I have to work with:
ReadyNAS Ultra 2+ (with 1 TB Hitachi Deskstar)
WD external HDD (1 TB, USB 2.0, NTFS format)
Desktop PC with Atheros Gigabit ethernet controller
Router (Linksys WRT54GS; my Ultra 2+ is currently plugged in to this router)
Cat5 cables (of course)
If anyone could give me advice it would be greatly appreciated. Any step by step guide in terms of what to hook-up to where would be even more appreciated!
PS: I've enabled fast writing from USB via the performance tab, but the highest transfer rate I observe going from USB-to-USB is <980 KBps
3 Replies
Replies have been turned off for this discussion
- Either:
a) Set up a backup job on the ReadyNas to copy from the USB drive to some folder on your Readynas, or
b) If your router has gigabit ports and you have Cat 5e ethernet cable, then it might be faster to do the following: Connect the USB drive to another PC. Make sure the PC and the Readynas are both connected by Cat 5e to your router. Copy the contents of the USB drive from your PC to the ReadyNAS folder (using Explorer, copy, or FTP - or whatever program is your preferred means of copying files). - Just to say a quick thank you for that,
I had an external disk attached to Ultra 2 through USB, and was managing the copy by navigating (using PC) to the readynas and doing copy / paste from usb_hdd_1 to media share. This was painfully slow, and connecting a usb3 external disk to the 'so called' usb3 port on the front of the ultra 2 made no difference.
However, following your advice and doing a 'pc-less' transfer via the backup routine took 1/4 of the time compared to the method above. I guess starting the copy/paste from the pc somehow involves the machine in the read/write process? - anyway thanks your suggestion really helped.
I would be interested in the performance gain of using gigabit ethernet over and above this method, as I am just lacking a gigabit switch to achieve this.
Brilliant - ta - Glad to hear your feedback and that it helped. Yes, the first approach you tried will move your files as follows USB->Readynas->Ethernet->PC->Ethernet->Readynas->RAID so it's very slow. The slowest part of the link is most likely the USB->Readynas. Even with USB3 (of course both the cable and the external drive must be USB3 capable) it seems that others have reported that the Readynas Ultra CPU (atom) is too underpowered to really benefit from the additional bandwidth for USB3 vs USB2.
I haven't actually tried this myself but if you are curious it is possible to connect a PC directly to the Readynas via ethernet without requiring a switch in between (http://sphardy.com/web/readynas/how-to- ... r-readynas). USB->PC->Ethernet->Readynas->RAID is likely even faster (since it frees the Readynas from the work of transferring data via USB).
NETGEAR Academy
Boost your skills with the Netgear Academy - Get trained, certified and stay ahead with the latest Netgear technology!
Join Us!
