Hard disk on USB slowed down

[Etor]

Hi all

My 1,5TB Western HDD connected to USB of my WL500gP v2 significantly slowed down

When I try to copy 500MB file on it, the transfer speed will slow down to 50kB/s. I have it for a year and until last week the speed was always about 2 MB/s.
The file after hours of copying was OK and readable from disk. So I dont understand it.

If I tried to connect with putty and started midnight commander and copy file from and to router disk directly, the speed was very slow too.

I tried e2fsck and the partition was without errors.

Any idea what happened????

[Etor]

I have about 900GB filled. Is it possible that there is some capacity limit that the WL500gP v2 can use?

[Etor]

Maybe I discovered something. After my e2fsck check, the dialog said that there is a 36% non-continuous files.

Maybe this is why the file system is too slow. But how it happened? I never see this fragmentation on Ext3 filesystem

Is it possible to defragment it somehow???

[wpte]

Maybe I discovered something. After my e2fsck check, the dialog said that there is a 36% non-continuous files.

Maybe this is why the file system is too slow. But how it happened? I never see this fragmentation on Ext3 filesystem

Is it possible to defragment it somehow???

It is... with some special expensive tools that are most likely going to break your partition
Best chance you have is deleting and placing back a lot of small files, since EXT3 is self-defragmentating as new files are being written.
36% sounds quite ugly tho

some reading material:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=712384
http://geekblog.oneandoneis2.org/ind..._defragmenting
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=407889
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,18125810

edit: as you can read in the last link, pyfragtools is free:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=169551

[Etor]

Thanks wpte!

But do you think, that pyfragtools are safe? I have no chance to copy it on another drive because of large amount of data (approx 900GB).

And do you think, that 36% non-continuous files is the problem why write speed is now 50kB/s? (Read speed stays at 2MB/s)
If I have 50% fragmentation on windows, the write speed is almost the same, not so much reduced!

[wpte]

Thanks wpte!

But do you think, that pyfragtools are safe? I have no chance to copy it on another drive because of large amount of data (approx 900GB).

And do you think, that 36% non-continuous files is the problem why write speed is now 50kB/s? (Read speed stays at 2MB/s)
If I have 50% fragmentation on windows, the write speed is almost the same, not so much reduced!

Well nobody reported deleted files or whatsoever with using pyfragtools, so I guess it's ok
I'd use it on a PC tho, with ubuntu for example, since it's said to use quite a lot of ram memory

Well reading is easier, since you know where the file fragments are at.
Writing requires the drive to look for an empty place, so that usually causes some slowdown. yet... 50KB/s is really slow, so I doubt if it's all to blame to the fragmentation.

Have you checked bad blocks already? this takes quite some time btw.

[Etor]

Well nobody reported deleted files or whatsoever with using pyfragtools, so I guess it's ok
I'd use it on a PC tho, with ubuntu for example, since it's said to use quite a lot of ram memory

Well reading is easier, since you know where the file fragments are at.
Writing requires the drive to look for an empty place, so that usually causes some slowdown. yet... 50KB/s is really slow, so I doubt if it's all to blame to the fragmentation.

Have you checked bad blocks already? this takes quite some time btw.

I've done e2fsck. Is another way how to check for bad blocks?

[wpte]

I've done e2fsck. Is another way how to check for bad blocks?

bad blocks test is optional in e2fsck, that's why I'm asking

[Etor]

bad blocks test is optional in e2fsck, that's why I'm asking

And how I start it with bad blocks check?
with -c ?

Like:
e2fsck -c /dev/discs/disc0/part3
Sorry I am not so advanced user


Edit: With parameter -c it said, there is no badblocks... If it is par. -c right one

Edit2: I dont know how to run pyfragtool on my Wl500gp
I am in directory with defrag and it says:
[admin@ASUS share]$ defrag /tmp/mnt/disc0_3
-sh: defrag: not found

[wpte]

Edit: With parameter -c it said, there is no badblocks... If it is par. -c right one

Edit2: I dont know how to run pyfragtool on my Wl500gp
I am in directory with defrag and it says:
[admin@ASUS share]$ defrag /tmp/mnt/disc0_3
-sh: defrag: not found

good good, so your harddrive is ok then

as I said, I don't recommend running pyfragtool on the router, but rather on a pc with linux like ubuntu since it requires quite a lot of ram.
If you don't want a dual boot you can also try virtalbox to run ubuntu virtual: http://www.virtualbox.org/ (its free)

also you shouldn't run the defrag on a mountpoint but on a disc partition like: /dev/discs/disc0/part3

and more importantly, NEVER run disc checks or pydefragtool on a mounted partition! you may damage it when it's mounted
You probably can't umount it because it's used by optware programs... so instead you should reboot without starting the optware programs. then you should be able to umount the mountpoint

[avberk]

If i where you i would quickly make a backup of your disk.
It is not unlikely your disk is about to fail.

if you didn't change anything to your configuration(no cable switching or removing cables etc.) then i would remove the power from the asus and your disk. wait a minute and then power the disk and the router again.

if it is still slow in writing (wired network) then i would make a backup if possible and test your disk on a windows machine.

[wpte]

If i where you i would quickly make a backup of your disk.
It is not unlikely your disk is about to fail.

Good point avberk, totally overlooked that.

you can check if your hdd is failing with S.M.A.R.T. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T. (if your drive supports it obviously)

hdd tune (free) does that health check: http://www.hdtune.com/download.html
so you can look up if any values are alarmingly high

[Etor]

Good point avberk, totally overlooked that.

you can check if your hdd is failing with S.M.A.R.T. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T. (if your drive supports it obviously)

hdd tune (free) does that health check: http://www.hdtune.com/download.html
so you can look up if any values are alarmingly high

Disk is OK I think. It is almost new, I buyed it in February... Have 1842 power on hours and according to HD tune the SMART is OK.

Today I will try defragmentation in virtual ubuntu

Edit: so.. its strange, because defrag said that there is no fragmentation and exits...

[avberk]

The story with hardware:

Either it fails quickly after you bought it, or it fails after years of use.

Do some writing tests under ubuntu before you start defragging.

[Etor]

The story with hardware:

Either it fails quickly after you bought it, or it fails after years of use.

Do some writing tests under ubuntu before you start defragging.

Yea I tried to write some files (writing speed was still the same). But defragger under ubuntu says that there is no fragmentation (on the other side e2fsck under ubuntu said that there is 36,6% non-continuous files too).

I think that only copying files and deleting partition will be only way