Myhamish Posted February 26, 2005 Share Posted February 26, 2005 I'll start at the beginning. I've been transferring archival video interviews (vhs) to my hard drive then burning them to dvd's with menus. The computer is a p4 2.8 with a gig of ram and running on XP Pro. In case there's any changes that the client wants made, the whole folder is backed up which includes the video, menu files, splashes, graphics and etc. The largest one of these is 6.6 gigs and there are 14 of these so far. So at this point, everything works - dvds burn fine and I can go into the programs to make changes. Here's the problem. The original 120 gig hd is filled so a maxtor 160 gig hd in an outboard "tsunami" (clever marketing name) case was added. It has a usb 2 cable to connect it back to the computer. Basically, it filled halfway to about 70 gigs then started giving a yellow warning dialog box 'delayed write - problem may be with hardware - current information will be lost - etc'- then sure enough everything freezes. This happened with a first 160 gig Maxtor hd, and the computer company lent this second one to see if the problem would occur again which it has. In the computer, start/settings/control panel/system/hardware/device manager/ universal Serial Bus controllers - there are five universal host controllers and the fifth controller down is labelled the Intel® 8201EB USB2 Enhanced Host Controller 24DD and there are 5 usb root hubs listed below. Enhanced means 'usb2'? Does this mean only one usb output is usb2 and I'm plugged into the wrong one or they all are and there's a deeper problem? Stymied by this, any help is appreciated. Thanks. Hamish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Posted February 26, 2005 Share Posted February 26, 2005 I am guessing it is a deeper problem, seems like the HD is getting full, slowing down the writes so that it can't keep up with the USB 2, maybe increasing the buffers would work, maybe not, could be a problem with the drive, have you checked to see if any of the files are corrupted? maybe it is just giving you a warning message, but gulping all of the files anyway, try Scandisk on the external HD... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerohm Posted February 26, 2005 Share Posted February 26, 2005 ---------------- On 2/26/2005 9:28:24 AM Myhamish wrote: Does this mean only one usb output is usb2 and I'm plugged into the wrong one or they all are and there's a deeper problem? Stymied by this, any help is appreciated. Thanks. Hamish ---------------- Although USB 1.1 WILL work it is SO PAINFULLY SLOW (and I DO MEAN slow), I doubt if they are not all USB 2.0. I have been told the USB (2.0 or otherwise) was not really designed as a disk interface. Although it is technically FASTER than Firewire, Firewire seems to be a better choice. I know that doesn't help you out. Could there be updated drivers for the USB controller maybe? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Posted February 26, 2005 Share Posted February 26, 2005 I don't find USB 1 to be painfully slow, not compared to my old IDE HD anyway, I believe the enhanced means it is giving you 5 more USB ports, I think they are all USB 2 and backwardly compatible with USB 1 devices... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myhamish Posted February 26, 2005 Author Share Posted February 26, 2005 ---------------- On 2/26/2005 9:37:34 AM Colin wrote: I am guessing it is a deeper problem, seems like the HD is getting full, slowing down the writes so that it can't keep up with the USB 2, maybe increasing the buffers would work, maybe not, could be a problem with the drive, have you checked to see if any of the files are corrupted? maybe it is just giving you a warning message, but gulping all of the files anyway, try Scandisk on the external HD... ---------------- Thanks for your advice Colin and Jerohm, Sounds like the disc write can't keep up with the usb2 - I'll look into increasing the buffers. I might get another case that has the firewire port and try that (kicking myself that I should have done this in the first place). Thanks for your input. Hamish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrWho Posted February 26, 2005 Share Posted February 26, 2005 Have you tried defragging the harddrive? You may have only used 70GB, but that 70GB can be distributed in such a way that new packets of data are too large to fit in the gaps and the HD isn't able to keep up with splitting it across to new parts of the harddrive. The version of USB should be a mute issue if you've successfully been able to previously transfer information without a glitch...the only difference between the two is the speed of transfer. The protocols are essentially the same (any USB1 device works on a USB2 port...A USB2 device will display a warning if it's connected to a USB1 port on your pc to let you know you won't get the full speed). I doubt the problem is with your USB2 host controller, but reinstalling drivers is always a good thing to do anyway. One thing you might consider is setting up a RAID on your pc so that it's writing to both harddrives at the same time. It divides the work in half between the two so that the HDs have an easier time keeping up. There's also the benefit of having one HD go bad and still not losing any data (at least I think that's what a RAID does...i've never set one up). Anyways, start off with a defrag and see if that doesn't help (it's free and you can set it to run overnite...it does take a while) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerohm Posted February 26, 2005 Share Posted February 26, 2005 ---------------- On 2/26/2005 10:10:01 AM Colin wrote: I don't find USB 1 to be painfully slow, not compared to my old IDE HD anyway, ... ---------------- Believe me, if you tried to transfer 70 Gig over USB (other than 2.0), you would be there all week ! When I bought a larger/faster drive for my laptop, I purchased an external case so that I could still use the old drive. It supports both USB 2.0 and Firewire (400). I also have have a M-Audio Firewire Audiophile (sound card) daisy-chained. Firewire is really painless and seems to perform very well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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