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Products => Storage => Topic started by: JonathanR on September 29, 2009, 11:28:00 AM

Title: Slow Link Station Quad 4TB - Mac OS X
Post by: JonathanR on September 29, 2009, 11:28:00 AM
   

Link Station Quad 4TB

Firmware: 1.11

Mac OS X 10.3.9 to 10.4.11

Connected to a 10/100/1000 base ethernet network via a Netgear 8 port Gigabit switch

 

Hi all,

 

I recently purchased and installed a 4TB LinkStation Quad, but I am finding it slow to the point of being unusable, I am afraid. The device is connected to a gigabit port on our Netgear Gigabit switch, with just me copying/reading files on a G5 Mac on the same network - also connected to a gigabit port. It takes an age to even preview what is in a folder, let alone actually open any of the contents.

 

A folder which took just a few minutes to copy to our existing server Mac (just a standard G3 on a 100 base network), is taking over an hour, and just previewing images that reside on the LinkStation within an application such as Quark or Photoshop is painful. Folders contain a mixture of just 3 or 4 100Mb images, or several hundred individual small files, which I know take longer to copy.

 

Hopefully there is a setting somewhere I have got wrong, but I believe I have configured it all correctly. I left the install more or less as it was (Raid 5), and didn't reformat the drives, and only gave it a manual IP address to match the rest of my network.

 

In the office it will only ever have Macs accessing it, over a mixture of OS X 10.3.9 up to 10.4.11, and either 100 or 1000 base ethernet, but we had hoped to allow certain clients ftp access, but if it is this slow over the ethernet network, I daren't even think about suggesting that yet.

 

Is there anything I can do?

 

The only thing that I am using that didn't come packaged with the drive is our own, admittedly old Cat 5 ethernet cable. Could that be the problem? 

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Jonathan 

Title: Re: Slow Link Station Quad 4TB - Mac OS X
Post by: PCPiranha on September 29, 2009, 02:45:35 PM
You wont get gigabit speeds over the network.  This is a NAS device, not a file server.  What kind of transfer rates are you getting?
Title: Re: Slow Link Station Quad 4TB - Mac OS X
Post by: JonathanR on September 30, 2009, 02:11:55 AM
   

I understand I won't achieve gigabit speeds, but I do expect the device to be quicker at copying, opening and moving files around than my 6 year old G3. I am not at work at the moment, but will take a look at the transfer rates when I get into the office later. Thanks for responding.

 

It's a concern because the idea was to make this drive accesible to several people on the network.

Title: Re: Slow Link Station Quad 4TB - Mac OS X
Post by: JonathanR on September 30, 2009, 06:25:05 AM
   I am getting between 10-12 MB/sec to the Link Station, and about 14-17 MB/sec from Mac to Mac on the network. So maybe not so bad then?
Title: Re: Slow Link Station Quad 4TB - Mac OS X
Post by: JoshC on September 30, 2009, 09:49:52 AM
Thats about the usual.  Have you tried to take the switch out of the equation?  Try that and see what rates you are getting.
Title: Re: Slow Link Station Quad 4TB - Mac OS X
Post by: JonathanR on September 30, 2009, 10:17:11 AM
   

Yes, I tried with it connected directly to my G5 Mac, using the ethernet cable that came with the Link Station, and then again back on the network via the switch - copying the exact same files gave near identical timings - although I didn't check MB/s rates.

 

Seems in order and maybe not quite the nippy device I expected, but I have it now and need to use it.

 

Thanks for the input on this. 

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