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Problem transfering large amount of files to share RRS feed

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    I just installed WHS.  Previously I had XP pro running as a home server.  Now I am trying to move all my movie, music and document collection to WHS.  Initially, I tried by simply copying from an unmanaged HD to a share all from within WHS (I understand this methodo is unsupported).  That failed: it created all the directories/sub-directories but they were empty.  Then, I took the HD containing all the data put it on another machine, copied the content and pasted in the WHS share.  While this seems to be working it is taking a loooong time: 114GB @ 1.09MB/sec = 29 Hours!  And this is just for 114GB.  I have 1.5TB still to do and I'm using gigabit ethernet.

    So the question is am I doing something wrong here?  I am sure I'm not the only one moving large files to WHS...

    Tuesday, February 15, 2011 8:50 PM

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    Across the network will take that kind of time.  It's ALWAYS better to use an external hard drive to transfer that amount of data.  In my case, I copied 1.4TB of data.  Get Teracopy, install on both your source computer and your WHS server.  I installed a 2TB disk in the source computer, and used Teracopy to copy the data to the 2TB disk.  I then placed the 2TB disk in an external hard drive enclosure connected to my WHS by USB.  I logged onto the desktop via RDP of my WHS then used Teracopy to copy the contents of the disk into one of the "Share" directories.  It still took hours, but I just let it run overnight.

    Wednesday, February 16, 2011 8:28 AM
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    ...]  Initially, I tried by simply copying from an unmanaged HD to a share all from within WHS (I understand this methodo is unsupported).  That failed: it created all the directories/sub-directories but they were empty. [..

    This would be the prefered way.
    However you should allways copy through the shared directory. E.g. \\{myservername\{sharename}

    Do not use d:\\shares\{sharename} as this would eventual fail or at least create lost of problems.
    - Theo.

     

    No home server like Home Server
    Wednesday, February 16, 2011 10:43 PM
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    Thanks for the suggestion.  I will give it a try.  However it has now almost been 2 days of copying just over 100GB of data and the speed as gone down to 880KB/sec.  I know my network is not the culprit.  I just can't see being able to use WHS this way.  A backup of the various machines will take nearly as long which is inconceivable.  So there must be something wrong but I don't know where to even start...
    Thursday, February 17, 2011 4:35 AM
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    Definitely not normal. You should be able to copy with speeds ranging from 10 to 60 MBytes/sec (Cat6/Gigabit Ethernet). On 100Mbit/sec connections speeds upto 10 MBytes/sec are to be expected.

    Check transfer speeds when copying a large file from one client to another client in your network.
    If the problem is on the server only, check/replace your cabling, NIC-drivers, etc.

    Alse Note that transfers to shares that have duplication enabled will tend to be slower. Disable duplication on a share when copying large amounts of data helps. You can enable file duplication once done.
    Client backups should only take a long time for the initial backup. After that only data that was added/changed will be transfered. For day-to-day use my clients backups take less then 30 minutes.

    - Theo.

    No home server like Home Server
    Thursday, February 17, 2011 8:25 PM
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    How old are your drives?   I had a similar problem and determined that I had a drive with bad sectors that was slowing the whole system down.   if you have a drive more than 2.5 years old it may be wise to pull all the data off it and run an extended bad block test by downloading the appropriate tool from the drive manufacturer.  if your drives are newer it would also be wise to see if a firmware update is available for the drives.
    WHS_retail version
    Wednesday, February 23, 2011 5:15 PM
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    Confirming,
    A problematic drive even though it may currently not be noticed by WHS as such can slow down the server considerably.
    - Theo.
    No home server like Home Server
    Wednesday, February 23, 2011 8:25 PM
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