mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
No good reviews anywhere. I'll be using it now in an XP-32 SP2 system, and later in a Win7-64 system. Any suggestions? Thanks.
Reliable FW 800 Card, PCI or PCIe
- Thread starter mubs
- Start date
Howell
Storage? I am Storage!
I have one I don't need. I'd have to check on the speed. Interesteed?
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
Sorry for the long post.
Thanks, Howell. I already have a FW-400 card.
Story is, my internal drives are dying (both of them). It's partly my fault because I haven't cleaned my machine in some time, and the last time I took out the dirty air intake filter, I didn't have a replacement handy and never did put one in. I think the breather holes on the drives got clogged.
Anyway, I purchased a WD 1-TB External with USB-2 and FW-800 ports with the intent of backing up all the data. I specifically wanted one with a FW port because the transfer rate would be faster than USB-2. Or so I thought.
Transfer rates with the on-board VIA-based FW-400 was between 3.3 and 9 MB/sec. Even paint dries faster and grass grows quicker. I put in an add-on FW-400 Texas Instruments-based card; no improvement. The external HDD came with quality cables, and the FW-800 cable came with an adapter to stick it into a FW-400 port. Obviously I am using the adapter. At this point I don't know if the FW-800 port on the external is bad, or the throttling down from FW-800 to FW-400 is the problem.
Using the USB-2 interface give me consistent transfer rates of about 18 MB/sec. These were measured unscientifically using my eyeballs, a stopwatch, and Windows' file transfer pop up.
Net, I don't mind buying a FW-800 card, but all the reviews suck. I don't even care if it's a PCI card that'll only work in XP-32. I can always buy another PCIe card for Win7-64 later and pollute the earth more. But is there a card that works is the big question.
Thanks, Howell. I already have a FW-400 card.
Story is, my internal drives are dying (both of them). It's partly my fault because I haven't cleaned my machine in some time, and the last time I took out the dirty air intake filter, I didn't have a replacement handy and never did put one in. I think the breather holes on the drives got clogged.
Anyway, I purchased a WD 1-TB External with USB-2 and FW-800 ports with the intent of backing up all the data. I specifically wanted one with a FW port because the transfer rate would be faster than USB-2. Or so I thought.
Transfer rates with the on-board VIA-based FW-400 was between 3.3 and 9 MB/sec. Even paint dries faster and grass grows quicker. I put in an add-on FW-400 Texas Instruments-based card; no improvement. The external HDD came with quality cables, and the FW-800 cable came with an adapter to stick it into a FW-400 port. Obviously I am using the adapter. At this point I don't know if the FW-800 port on the external is bad, or the throttling down from FW-800 to FW-400 is the problem.
Using the USB-2 interface give me consistent transfer rates of about 18 MB/sec. These were measured unscientifically using my eyeballs, a stopwatch, and Windows' file transfer pop up.
Net, I don't mind buying a FW-800 card, but all the reviews suck. I don't even care if it's a PCI card that'll only work in XP-32. I can always buy another PCIe card for Win7-64 later and pollute the earth more. But is there a card that works is the big question.
I had too many SILENT DATA CORRUPTION issues with FW 800 as well as the occasional delayed write failures. 
I don't think it is critical to your situation anyway, because something else is a bottleneck. FW400 is good for 40 MB/sec. sustained. Did you try another FW cable?
I don't think it is critical to your situation anyway, because something else is a bottleneck. FW400 is good for 40 MB/sec. sustained. Did you try another FW cable?
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
Something wrong here? My FW400 setup gets 40MB/s sustained all the time. VIA chipset onboard connected to enclosure whicj has an Oxford FW chipset.
I would suspect either cable or crappy controller on the drive.
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
Thanks guys. Since I need a FW-800 port to FW-400 port cable, I don't have another one to test the speeds with. I actually will be very happy if get 40 MB/s sustained! Perhaps it is indeed the crappy onboard FW chip in the WD external. Beats me though why they would advertise it that way and then put such lousy parts in it.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
18MB/sec over USB hi-speed is also abnormally slow on any modern drive. You should be seeing around 25MB/sec and if you aren't, I think you should consider that part of the issue as well.
Even 5400rpm 2.5" drives can sustain 25MB/sec over USB hi-speed.
Even 5400rpm 2.5" drives can sustain 25MB/sec over USB hi-speed.
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
I have bad sectors on the source drives, and I don't know if that has anything to do with these speeds.
I did find an MS hotfix for FW performance in XP SP2: KB885222. Don't know if it'll help.
I suspect it can't be the WD drive itself; if a drive has a capacity of 1 TB, it's fairly recent, ain't it? When I have time I'll compile a list of all WD 1 TB drives past and present to see what the worst case scenario will be in terms of spindle speed, access time, etc. WD will "only guarantee capacity", not any other spec for external drives. Unfortunately, it was the only brand available here at the moment I needed it, and I had to back up my data before my drives hosed themselves.
What's the best way to test these speeds out? A few large (500MB+) files, or lots of small files, or a mix of the two? Should I create a RAMDisk, put the source there and then try a copy to the external?
I did find an MS hotfix for FW performance in XP SP2: KB885222. Don't know if it'll help.
I suspect it can't be the WD drive itself; if a drive has a capacity of 1 TB, it's fairly recent, ain't it? When I have time I'll compile a list of all WD 1 TB drives past and present to see what the worst case scenario will be in terms of spindle speed, access time, etc. WD will "only guarantee capacity", not any other spec for external drives. Unfortunately, it was the only brand available here at the moment I needed it, and I had to back up my data before my drives hosed themselves.
What's the best way to test these speeds out? A few large (500MB+) files, or lots of small files, or a mix of the two? Should I create a RAMDisk, put the source there and then try a copy to the external?
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Your best case scenario is going to be copying a large file. I usually use .VOB files as a reference point if I'm looking at transfer rates.
And bad sectors don't normally kill performance on a whole drive, not unless they're all over the drive, and at that point, the drive is probably unusable.
And bad sectors don't normally kill performance on a whole drive, not unless they're all over the drive, and at that point, the drive is probably unusable.
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
My new drives have been tested, installed, partitioned and formatted. Copying data back to them from the external.
I did try to install the hotfix I posted about earlier, but my system said it was already installed (from SP3, I guess). But the registry didn't have the entries mentioned in the hotfix. I put those DWords in.
Now the best speed I've gotten for FireWire-400 out of the external is 35.1 MB/s. This was reading from the external and writing to a virgin partition, the load consisting of 25 files in 2 folders for a total of 44,800.2 MB. The files were mostly 2GB each (OS Images). The odd thing is that the desktop drive's (Samsung 320 GB) busy light was on 60% and off 40% of the time, so it wasn't that the writes were slowing down the transfer.
I'm happy I got at least this much. Remains to be seen if I can squeeze a bit more using a FW-800 card in the desktop.
Looks like Greg's favorite vendor, Granite Digital sells one. So does ADS, which is bundled with Unibrain's drivers. Unibrain themselves make FW cards as well.
I'll research these when I have time.
Meanwhile, I suggest those that use FW check their registry settings.
I did try to install the hotfix I posted about earlier, but my system said it was already installed (from SP3, I guess). But the registry didn't have the entries mentioned in the hotfix. I put those DWords in.
Now the best speed I've gotten for FireWire-400 out of the external is 35.1 MB/s. This was reading from the external and writing to a virgin partition, the load consisting of 25 files in 2 folders for a total of 44,800.2 MB. The files were mostly 2GB each (OS Images). The odd thing is that the desktop drive's (Samsung 320 GB) busy light was on 60% and off 40% of the time, so it wasn't that the writes were slowing down the transfer.
I'm happy I got at least this much. Remains to be seen if I can squeeze a bit more using a FW-800 card in the desktop.
Looks like Greg's favorite vendor, Granite Digital sells one. So does ADS, which is bundled with Unibrain's drivers. Unibrain themselves make FW cards as well.
I'll research these when I have time.
Meanwhile, I suggest those that use FW check their registry settings.
ddrueding
Fixture
Granite Digital is not cheap, but they are very good. If you are looking for something solid, they are a good choice.
Pradeep
Storage? I am Storage!
35MB/sec is the best I've got out of FW 400 as well. It's all in the bridge chip. And as you have seen the hotfix for XP.
Both ADS and Granite Digital have good gear, I can recommend both as vendors.
BTW there is the faster FW spec coming up in terms of actual product:
http://www.daptechnology.com/index.php?id=640
Both ADS and Granite Digital have good gear, I can recommend both as vendors.
BTW there is the faster FW spec coming up in terms of actual product:
http://www.daptechnology.com/index.php?id=640
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
I bought Unibrain's FireBoard800-e™ V.2 1394b OHCI PCI-Express adapter for $69.
I tested with a 2GB OS image file. Copying from a Samsung 320GB SATA drive to the external, I get 67.5 MB/s.
Copying back from the external to the second Samsung 320GB SATA drive gives me 62.1 MB/s.
There have been reports of users getting 78 MB/s on FW-800. There appears to be something else wrong with my system, as Merc pointed out. Even my USB2 speeds are low according to him.
I am starting another thread for that.
I tested with a 2GB OS image file. Copying from a Samsung 320GB SATA drive to the external, I get 67.5 MB/s.
Copying back from the external to the second Samsung 320GB SATA drive gives me 62.1 MB/s.
There have been reports of users getting 78 MB/s on FW-800. There appears to be something else wrong with my system, as Merc pointed out. Even my USB2 speeds are low according to him.
I am starting another thread for that.
Yes, but the market is now mostly aerospace. At least they use Cannon connectors rather than the wretched 9-pin FW type. USB 3 will take over from FW800 in the consumer market.
I used FW extensively in the early-middle 2000s and typically achieved 40MB/sec. from FW400 vs. 75MB/sec. for FW800.