After I transferred about 50 GB and saw how slow it was, I flashed the firmware to the latest version. The external drive format is fat32. I would have converted to XPS but I had to get the data off first.
I had sent an inquiry to Buffalo tech support and below is the response I received.
Unfortunately, the LinkStation products are a little on the slow side comparedto a direct transfer from PC to PC or from a PC to a USB disk.Usually 1GB of data will take about 3 to 5 minutes to transfer. Assuming 3minutes which would be the absolute fastest, it would be a nearly 12 hourtransfer. At 5 minutes/gig it would take about 19.The speeds you are seeing are about normal for this particular device.
Below is another email I received from Buffalo.
This is a limitation you are likely to see across most manufacturer's consumerlevel NAS drives. Due to the small form-factor on these devices the bottlenecktends to be the processors and small memory configurations. If you're lookingfor a NAS with full USB2.0 transfer speeds, you are most likely going to wantto avoid consumer end products and go to the SOHO or Enterprise end units.
I hope this information helps someone out because I wasted a lot of time researching products only to find the wrong solution for my needs. I wish manufacturers would be honest in their specs and just say that the USB transfer rates are no where close to what they should be or just eliminate using the USB for anything other than a print server.
