PreClear using USB-SATA adaptor - how slow? (SOLVED)


HDRW

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I'm going to updrade my array by initially going to a 4TB Parity drive (from 2TB) and then upping some data disks.

My server is full, with 4 SATA drives, so I thought I'd PreClear the 4TB disk using a USB-SATA adaptor (USB 2).

Connected up, started the PreClear tool, and started it running with no changes to the parameters (Pre- and Post-Read set to happen).  That was yesterday...

 

So far it's reading:  Pre-Read: 1% @ 0 MB/s (21:41:39)

 

Nearly 22 hours to do 1%!  Is this the expected speed using USB 2, or is there something else happening?  I need this to finish well before Christmas, but at this rate it won't even have finished the Pre-Read by then...

 

The only other options I have are to use eSATA (don't have the cable for this) or to get a 30-day trial of UnRAID and fire up another machine with it, connect this drive internally, and use that for the preclear, which is quite a bit of hassle (I need to find a suitable machine first).

 

Any thoughts/advice, please?

 

Cheers,

Howard

 

Edited by HDRW
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Well after 48 hours it crapped out entirely, so I suspect the USB-SATA adaptor is faulty.

Tried again using a USB  "dock" where the drive plugs into the top, and it went much faster (20MB/Sec) but it only showed the 4TB drive as 2TB - may be a limit of this dock, so I'm now waiting for a USB 3.0 - SATA adaptor to turn up.

 

Incidentally, this server has an eSATA port - would that be expected to work with UnRAID?

 

Cheers,

Howard

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19 minutes ago, HDRW said:

Incidentally, this server has an eSATA port - would that be expected to work with UnRAID

As far as Unraid is concerned eSATA should look just like another SATA device as eSATA is just slightly different cabling compared to SATA.    A lot depends on how well the eSATA support at the disk end of the link is implemented.

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Well I couldn't get eSATA to work (I suspect a power problem) , so I went with a USB 3.0 PCI-Express card in the machine, and a USB 3.0 Docking station (where the drive plugs in from the top) which has its own power supply.

 

It shows the drive correctly as 4TB and the preclear is now running along nicely at a tad over 200MB/sec, so I think I can confirm that my first USB-SATA adaptor is duff, and my USB 2 dock only handles 2TB!

 

Thanks for all the advice, folks.

 

(I can't see how to add "SOLVED" to the title, or I'd do that)

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