speed problems with extern Maxtor HD

[PieterS]

Hi,

I have a problem with a extern harddrive, a Maxtor One Touch 160Gb on usb. I like to use this for live recording, but there seems to be a speed problem.
I have a dual partition laptop, and when I use it on the XP partition, the max. speed i get (with Bobs hdspeed32 tool) is about 12Mb/sec, that pretty nice.
On the same machine, but under windows 2K, I only get 1Mb(!)/sec. My main machine, also Win2K, shows the same behaviour.

is there anyone with the same experience or suggestion?

thanks!

[Shawn]

I shouldn't chime in here because I don't know what I'm talking about..

And I was right!!.. LOL!

:)

[Bob L]

My guess is the Win 2K machine is only getting usb 1.0. You will definitely need to reach usb 2.0 speed.

There are drivers that can help Win 2K get to usb 2.0 if your usb port is 2.0 compatible. Win XP automatically brings you to 2.0 speed.

There are simple inexspensive usb 2.0 boards available with drivers that will take your Win 2K machine up to 2.0

Bob L

[AudioAstronomer]

My guess is the Win 2K machine is only getting usb 1.0. You will definitely need to reach usb 2.0 speed.

There are drivers that can help Win 2K get to usb 2.0 if your usb port is 2.0 compatible. Win XP automatically brings you to 2.0 speed.

There are simple inexspensive usb 2.0 boards available with drivers that will take your Win 2K machine up to 2.0

Bob L

Minor correction, windows XP sp1 and lower requires an update for USB 2.0 to work properly. Sp2 doesnt.

[PieterS]

Ok, I'll check if it is at USB 1.1 or 2.0.

thanks!

Pieter

[Bob L]

Robert,

I am running all my production machines these days on XP SP1 and using usb 2.0 external drives for all my audio video work... no problems... so it seems that it may not need an update in all cases.

Bob L

[AudioAstronomer]

Robert,

I am running all my production machines these days on XP SP1 and using usb 2.0 external drives for all my audio video work... no problems... so it seems that it may not need an update in all cases.

Bob L
I just checked after I said that. MS released a sp1a that doesnt require it.

[Craig Allen]

I have this exact same drive and get 25+ MB/sec on my Toshiba laptop with USB 2. It's not great, but will handle 16 tracks of 24/44.1 easily. I had WinXP SP1 (recently upgraded to SP2) and it was plenty fast. I believe Bob's right in saying that you're probably only running with USB 1.1, but you may have other problems as well. Did you install any of the Maxtor utilities? If so, get rid of them - they may be slowing up the drive (unless, of course, you're using the one touch stuff).

[PieterS]

Buck, I'll try that too. The problems I have arises (is this English?) when I use the drive under Win2K, in XP I get about half your speed, haven't optimized anything yet. I only have to figure out now, how I get Win2K to see the usb2.0 port.

[SoundSuite]

Pieter,
Assuming your ports are 2.0 compliant, you should be able to get usb2 drivers for 2k/xp from the manufacturer...board or system.

USB 1.0 = 1.5Mb/s
USB 1.1= 11Mb/s
USB 2.0= 460Mb/s (theoretical)
*I believe these numbers are correct, I didn't double-check before posting.*

Win2k pro, by default will give you USB1.0, ie, your 1Mb/s
WinXP until the service pack, as stated previously, will default at USB1.1, ie your 11(12)Mb/s

We'll hope its as easy as you need to load the USB2.0 drivers from the manufacturer of the board or system for XP and 2K to unleash it.

Since it does at 12Mb/s in XP, you have at least USB1.1, so you need at least the USB1.1 drivers for 2K if it's not 2.0

Usually, at boot, when it shows your integrated peripherials, it'll show what type USB is on-board.
If not, you can enter the BIOS and look at it too, that'll sometimes tell you.
Other than that, something like PCI sniffer may be the solution to telling you what it is exactly.