usb flash drive speeds.

[spacecabbie]

Ok i understand there is difference in usb drive speeds but is this normal ? (have tried a 16gb kingston and 128gb patriot both are rated voor high speeds) Again i understand that means nothing but for them both be SO SO slow i am just wondering the orignal plextar jumpdrive p10 is in the main usb port on the mother board the others are tried in the back both according to the manual are 3.0 interfaces.

Code:

da0: <Kingston DataTraveler 3.0 PMAP> Removable Direct Access SPC-4 SCSI device
da0: Serial Number 60A44C425091B2B0A987B1BB
da0: 400.000MB/s transfers
da0: 14784MB (30277632 512 byte sectors)
da0: quirks=0x2<NO_6_BYTE>

da1: <Lexar USB Flash Drive 1.00> Removable Direct Access SPC-4 SCSI device
da1: Serial Number 13060311500102115516
da1: 400.000MB/s transfers
da1: 15268MB (31268864 512 byte sectors)
da1: quirks=0x2<NO_6_BYTE>

Code:

/dev/da0
        512             # sectorsize
        15502147584     # mediasize in bytes (14G)
        30277632        # mediasize in sectors
        0               # stripesize
        0               # stripeoffset
        1884            # Cylinders according to firmware.
        255             # Heads according to firmware.
        63              # Sectors according to firmware.
        Kingston DataTraveler 3.0       # Disk descr.
        60A44C425091B2B0A987B1BB        # Disk ident.
        No              # TRIM/UNMAP support
        Unknown         # Rotation rate in RPM
        Not_Zoned       # Zone Mode

I/O command overhead:
        time to read 10MB block      0.231208 sec       =    0.011 msec/sector
        time to read 20480 sectors  28.643098 sec       =    1.399 msec/sector
        calculated command overhead                     =    1.387 msec/sector

root@freenas-server:~ # diskinfo -c /dev/da1
/dev/da1
        512             # sectorsize
        16009658368     # mediasize in bytes (15G)
        31268864        # mediasize in sectors
        0               # stripesize
        0               # stripeoffset
        1946            # Cylinders according to firmware.
        255             # Heads according to firmware.
        63              # Sectors according to firmware.
        Lexar USB Flash Drive   # Disk descr.
        13060311500102115516    # Disk ident.
        No              # TRIM/UNMAP support
        Unknown         # Rotation rate in RPM
        Not_Zoned       # Zone Mode

I/O command overhead:
        time to read 10MB block      0.081868 sec       =    0.004 msec/sector
        time to read 20480 sectors   7.699264 sec       =    0.376 msec/sector
        calculated command overhead                     =    0.372 msec/sector

Code:

/dev/da1
        512             # sectorsize
        16009658368     # mediasize in bytes (15G)
        31268864        # mediasize in sectors
        0               # stripesize
        0               # stripeoffset
        1946            # Cylinders according to firmware.
        255             # Heads according to firmware.
        63              # Sectors according to firmware.
        Lexar USB Flash Drive   # Disk descr.
        13060311500102115516    # Disk ident.
        No              # TRIM/UNMAP support
        Unknown         # Rotation rate in RPM
        Not_Zoned       # Zone Mode

Seek times:
        Full stroke:      250 iter in   0.094207 sec =    0.377 msec
        Half stroke:      250 iter in   0.094443 sec =    0.378 msec
        Quarter stroke:   500 iter in   0.188203 sec =    0.376 msec
        Short forward:    400 iter in   0.150568 sec =    0.376 msec
        Short backward:   400 iter in   0.150590 sec =    0.376 msec
        Seq outer:       2048 iter in   0.770676 sec =    0.376 msec
        Seq inner:       2048 iter in   0.770281 sec =    0.376 msec

Transfer rates:
        outside:       102400 kbytes in   0.815926 sec =   125502 kbytes/sec
        middle:        102400 kbytes in   0.723232 sec =   141587 kbytes/sec
        inside:        102400 kbytes in   0.721401 sec =   141946 kbytes/sec

root@freenas-server:~ # diskinfo -t /dev/da0
/dev/da0
        512             # sectorsize
        15502147584     # mediasize in bytes (14G)
        30277632        # mediasize in sectors
        0               # stripesize
        0               # stripeoffset
        1884            # Cylinders according to firmware.
        255             # Heads according to firmware.
        63              # Sectors according to firmware.
        Kingston DataTraveler 3.0       # Disk descr.
        60A44C425091B2B0A987B1BB        # Disk ident.
        No              # TRIM/UNMAP support
        Unknown         # Rotation rate in RPM
        Not_Zoned       # Zone Mode

Seek times:
        Full stroke:      250 iter in   0.529691 sec =    2.119 msec
        Half stroke:      250 iter in   0.544346 sec =    2.177 msec
        Quarter stroke:   500 iter in   1.090630 sec =    2.181 msec
        Short forward:    400 iter in   0.670570 sec =    1.676 msec
        Short backward:   400 iter in   0.704952 sec =    1.762 msec
        Seq outer:       2048 iter in   2.891329 sec =    1.412 msec
        Seq inner:       2048 iter in   2.912497 sec =    1.422 msec

Transfer rates:
        outside:       102400 kbytes in   2.211083 sec =    46312 kbytes/sec
        middle:        102400 kbytes in   2.224987 sec =    46023 kbytes/sec
        inside:        102400 kbytes in   2.330657 sec =    43936 kbytes/sec

 

[joeschmuck]

Please understand that I'm not trying to be a prick here but this is not a FreeNAS topic, however since I was just looking at purchasing some fast USB flash drives yesterday I will go ahead and provide you some constructive feedback.

While the USB 3.0 standard may be 625MB/s the reality is 400MB/s in practice you will find that due to less than perfect controllers and slow memory speeds, you typically will not get these kinds of speeds. Now think about it, a typical SATA II Transfer rate is 300MB/s and SATA III is 600MB/s theoretical but some of the best SSDs out there don't even reach those speeds but they are pretty darn fast. But Wait There Is More! So the fastest USB Flash drive I've found to date is the Patriot 128GB Supersonic Rage 2 which has a claimed read rate of 400MB/s and write rate of 200MB/s but that is USB 3.1 so I'm not sure how it would perform on USB 3.0, probably similar. I'm tempted to purchase one to use as my critical data backup storage, I currently use a Super-Talent Express RAM Cache 16GB stick which is actually pretty fast for it's day (May 2011, Read 89MB/s & Write 26MB/s) and cost me $60 and I've used it everyday since I purchased it as the backup media for critical financial data that are backed up twice a day, 7AM and 7PM.

Regardless of the "transfer rate" of the interface, it's only as fast as the memory and controller can deliver the valid data. So don't beat yourself up about having slow USB 3.0 flash drives, unless you know that you bought a fast one. Also, you can think of it this way... Let say you bought two video cards, one that is 2 years old and one that is new. Both are PCI-E 3.1 interface and both have 4 lanes of connectivity yet the new card is so much faster than the old card, the difference is the chip set. The PCI-E interface is the same and runs at the same speed however the produced data is slower.

I hope I explained it well enough. I'd recommend that you Google "usb 3.0 specifications" and "usb flash drive best of" to see what is out there.

Good Luck!

 

[spacecabbie]

I hope I explained it well enough. I'd recommend that you Google "usb 3.0 specifications" and "usb flash drive best of" to see what is out there.

Good Luck!

Thank you for your extensive answer i do understand that is why i have the Lexar jumpdrive p10 (it was original recommended here)
But for it to drop to 5Mb/sec just stunned me i was wondering if there was an issue under freenas thats why i posted it here.
But it is indeed a common stick So i guess its to be expected just still aghast for it to perform that dramatically. i had expected to at-least make 10 Mb/sec

Thanks again for confirming its not an issue.

 

[joeschmuck]

But for it to drop to 5Mb/sec just stunned me

Your testing shows 125502 kbytes/sec = 125MB/s so that is pretty fast. Not as fast as this specific drive is rated at but still not 5MB/s.

What are you using this drive for? Boot drive I assume but I shouldn't assume.

 

[spacecabbie]

Your testing shows 125502 kbytes/sec = 125MB/s so that is pretty fast. Not as fast as this specific drive is rated at but still not 5MB/s.

What are you using this drive for? Boot drive I assume but I shouldn't assume.

Its the second drive that is slower but yea i misread it sigh... Its indeed not as dramatic as i assumed 40 Mb/sec roughly (talk about assuming.....)

So its actually not doing to bad. then my issue is a different one ( want to make a mirror of both usb's)
But when i mirror them the performance goes to crap (install took 3h then i canceled it) but its not the usb drive speed then. In the end its just not a professional setup i guess. So i should get a identical lexar driver but then i might as wel go raid controller.

So any ways the issue has been resolved i have ordered a IBM ServeRaid M1015 for the main raid array to free up sata on the motherboard and will either get 2 sdd or Sata-dom's in the futhere for the time being just making a daily config backup.

I am a bit tired of messing about i am poor as fuck but this is just the best way to fix it 2 flash drives are the same price as the controller so if i hadn't be so stubborn i could have already installed it.

 

[joeschmuck]

Poor, Yes I know what poor is by my definition of poor, you're not there yet. But it does suck when you work hard for your money that you may not end up with much to have fun with. I bought myself some nice Craftsman tools while they were on sale this holiday season, I'd never be able to pay full price.

As for the RAID controller, you could have just purchased a small SATA card with two internal ports. Also, just run a single SSD as the boot drive, no need for a pair of SSDs. The reason two USB drives came about was due to USB drives wearing out quickly so BAM! we get a pair of boot USB drives. The solution at the time was to just use a single SSD and all was good. The USB wearing issue has since been resolved but the option to mirror the drives still exists. My advice is to keep your System Dataset on your pool (where it is by default) and then just use a single SSD. Keep a backup copy of your configuration file as well so you can quickly restore your system for the rare situation of your boot drive failing. The cost would have been minimal going this route.

 

[spacecabbie]

Poor, Yes I know what poor is by my definition of poor, you're not there yet. But it does suck when you work hard for your money that you may not end up with much to have fun with. I bought myself some nice Craftsman tools while they were on sale this holiday season, I'd never be able to pay full price.

I have been there though rather not go again. ;) So yea poor is a overstatement. But don't we now appreciate the small things ? I can be overjoyed with a new usb stick where i used to be a careless and disregarding of everything i had.

As for the RAID controller, you could have just purchased a small SATA card with two internal ports. Also, just run a single SSD as the boot drive, no need for a pair of SSDs. The reason two USB drives came about was due to USB drives wearing out quickly so BAM! we get a pair of boot USB drives. The solution at the time was to just use a single SSD and all was good. The USB wearing issue has since been resolved but the option to mirror the drives still exists. My advice is to keep your System Dataset on your pool (where it is by default) and then just use a single SSD. Keep a backup copy of your configuration file as well so you can quickly restore your system for the rare situation of your boot drive failing. The cost would have been minimal going this route.

Very true don't even need the ssd but its a hobby and i want to go as professional as i can for the fun of it. I run a plex server witch i used to run from a qnap system worked fine. mirror boot is overkill but its fun to mess around with. I am getting older like to keep up my knowledge up to date.

But the usb drive's now a day have no failures any more ? I had rarely seen one fail anyway but those i used for transferring small files.
Also why ? there are no moving parts it baffles me that they can fail at all, Memory very rarely does ?
Is this the same for ssd ? I presumed there pretty much solid.

I think my dream setup would be 2 ssd mirror and 2 sata-dom for boot. Complete overkill i realize but fun to setup.
I have a rsync replication to a free 1tb online cloud storage for the sole purpose that i can :)
Atm i have placed an old ssd i still had afther upgrading my main pc. i'll use that for now with the raid card. making snapshot of the ssd and replicating it in case of failure. Looking forward to it since i have never tried that before. the card i picked up for 35 on a local ebay like site in holland) So then maybe in a month or 2 the 2th ssd drive.

Slowly going from project to project.

 

[joeschmuck]

So all this talk about USB Flash drives got me to order three more flash drives, one to replace my Super-Talent Express RAM Cache 16GB (very fast in May 2011 when I purchased it) drive in which I use to backup all my important (financial and medical records) to, and two 32GB cheap USB Flash drives just for the heck of it. I've been backing up data twice a day to the Super-Talent drive basically since I purchased the drive. It contains almost 4GB of data. The read/write speeds are 87MB/s & 26MB/s respectively which was no slouch in 2011. The new fast drive is rated for 400MB/s read & 300MB/s write, but we will see what the testing reviles. I just hope the new drive lasts as long as my current one. There is nothing wrong with the old one, I just felt like upgrading it.

Very true don't even need the ssd but its a hobby and i want to go as professional as i can for the fun of it.

You could spend a lot of money making a professional system, using a true RAID for the boot drives vice the fake RAID FreeNAS uses, but that is another special controller. I've done this one time and while it does seem to work, it does add tot he power consumption and heat generation. It was overkill for my system needs.

I think my dream setup would be 2 ssd mirror and 2 sata-dom for boot.

How much storage do you need/want? I only ask because it is nice to dream. I'd love to have three 8TB SSDs in a 3-way mirror for storage and one SSD as the boot device. Pair this with a micro-ATX motherboard w/10Gb Ethernet ports, a good CPU (similar to my E3-1230 in performance), and with 64GB RAM, in a nice small custom case that I designed to ensure I get fantastic airflow while still being in a super small case. This would be a practically silent system. I have the money to buy this system but the only reason I do have the money is because I'm not crazy enough to spend that kind of money on a whim. I'd feel too guilty within minutes of placing the order for the parts. It's good to dream.

Well good luck on your adventures and I hope you get the parts you desire. If you build a fully SSD system, you must make a thread about it.

 

[spacecabbie]

So all this talk about USB Flash drives got me to order three more flash drives, one to replace my Super-Talent Express RAM Cache 16GB (very fast in May 2011 when I purchased it) drive in which I use to backup all my important (financial and medical records) to, and two 32GB cheap USB Flash drives just for the heck of it. I've been backing up data twice a day to the Super-Talent drive basically since I purchased the drive. It contains almost 4GB of data. The read/write speeds are 87MB/s & 26MB/s respectively which was no slouch in 2011. The new fast drive is rated for 400MB/s read & 300MB/s write, but we will see what the testing reviles. I just hope the new drive lasts as long as my current one. There is nothing wrong with the old one, I just felt like upgrading it.

Oh do let me know please i have 3 flash drives i like to compare. (pm will be fine or here)

You could spend a lot of money making a professional system, using a true RAID for the boot drives vice the fake RAID FreeNAS uses, but that is another special controller. I've done this one time and while it does seem to work, it does add tot he power consumption and heat generation. It was overkill for my system needs.

Oh agreed, Lets say professional for as cheap as possible would be more like it yes.

How much storage do you need/want? I only ask because it is nice to dream. I'd love to have three 8TB SSDs in a 3-way mirror for storage and one SSD as the boot device. Pair this with a micro-ATX motherboard w/10Gb Ethernet ports, a good CPU (similar to my E3-1230 in performance), and with 64GB RAM, in a nice small custom case that I designed to ensure I get fantastic airflow while still being in a super small case. This would be a practically silent system. I have the money to buy this system but the only reason I do have the money is because I'm not crazy enough to spend that kind of money on a whim. I'd feel too guilty within minutes of placing the order for the parts. It's good to dream.

Well good luck on your adventures and I hope you get the parts you desire. If you build a fully SSD system, you must make a thread about it.

Oh atm i have 8x3tb i would never be able to replace those for ssd. The ssd is for heavy hd operations unpacking, plex metadata and DB, Jails and vm's. If i had the money i would still not spend it but for the reason i would have nothing to do :) My core needs are storage (I collect moves/series) so the real investment i am savinup for atm is 6 or 8tb drives depending witch are in the price range when i have saved up. i need at-least 4 to replace my current drives to get same storage. I also need to replace the chassis before next summer it got a bit hot this summer.

The rest is just pure hobby. 2x sata-dom 2x ssd would be fun to make some sort of triple redundancy :) But then you could also go with huge ram and use that for direct access i have read somewhere its possible but crazy expensive i believe they run heavy accedes sql db's like that ?

It was fun to compare knowledge ty again. Ps. my question remains i have googled around but i cannot find a reliable failure % rate of flash drives / ssd are you aware of any ?

 

[joeschmuck]

Oh do let me know please i have 3 flash drives i like to compare. (pm will be fine or here)

I'll post here so others can see as well. To be fair, the fast flash drive is USB 3.1 and I only have a USB 3.0 port on my motherboard, however I doubt there will be a significant difference.

My core needs are storage (I collect moves/series) so the real investment i am savinup for atm is 6 or 8tb drives depending witch are in the price range when i have saved up. i need at-least 4 to replace my current drives to get same storage. I also need to replace the chassis before next summer it got a bit hot this summer.

My humble advice is to not rip and save every movie you have, just rip the ones you expect to watch a few more times. I see a lot of people spending an enourmious amount of money on these large server farms just to store video content to have on hand. Then when the drives start dying they are spending close to $1000 in replacement drive costs. This is not cost effective at all even though it is nice to have your videos immediately on hand. Myself, I have just over 100 movies (about 500GB), many of which are for the grandkids. A few are BluRay but most are DVD rips. My main reason for my FreeNAS is to hold backups of my computers and store a quick access of all photos. I backup the photos to DVD media about twice a year and also maintain a full backup on my second FreeNAS system. The last thing I use my FreeNAS for is to store and run VMs using ESXi. I have a few versions of Windoze and Ubuntu. Ubuntu runs 24/7. I have a lot of free space, out of 7 TiB I have 3.1 TiB remaining, in which 63% of that storage is computer backups. I could reduce that considerably but I really don't have to, I really doubt my storage needs will go up more than 1 TB before my hard drives need to be replaced again. When I do replace them, I will evaluate what my storage needs are and maybe I can reduce that capacity and if I'm really lucky, SSDs will be within my price range. I could live well on 5TB of storage. What will the price of a 6TB SSD be in 2022?

If you provide photos of your chassis then maybe I could offer some advice on how you could modify it to keep it cool. I'd need inside and outside photos. If you have sound conserns then we could address that as well. Of course if you just want to buy a nice cool case, buy what I have, it's a beast but it's very cool and ultra quiet if you install the right fans and wire them up properly. Yea, we are a bit off topic about USB Flash Drives but that happens.

 

[spacecabbie]

I'll post here so others can see as well. To be fair, the fast flash drive is USB 3.1 and I only have a USB 3.0 port on my motherboard, however I doubt there will be a significant difference.


My humble advice is to not rip and save every movie you have, just rip the ones you expect to watch a few more times. I see a lot of people spending an enormous amount of money on these large server farms just to store video content to have on hand. Then when the drives start dying they are spending close to $1000 in replacement drive costs. This is not cost effective at all even though it is nice to have your videos immediately on hand. Myself, I have just over 100 movies (about 500GB), many of which are for the grandkids. A few are BluRay but most are DVD rips. My main reason for my FreeNAS is to hold backups of my computers and store a quick access of all photos. I backup the photos to DVD media about twice a year and also maintain a full backup on my second FreeNAS system. The last thing I use my FreeNAS for is to store and run VMs using ESXi. I have a few versions of Windoze and Ubuntu. Ubuntu runs 24/7. I have a lot of free space, out of 7 TiB I have 3.1 TiB remaining, in which 63% of that storage is computer backups. I could reduce that considerably but I really don't have to, I really doubt my storage needs will go up more than 1 TB before my hard drives need to be replaced again. When I do replace them, I will evaluate what my storage needs are and maybe I can reduce that capacity and if I'm really lucky, SSDs will be within my price range. I could live well on 5TB of storage. What will the price of a 6TB SSD be in 2022?

If you provide photos of your chassis then maybe I could offer some advice on how you could modify it to keep it cool. I'd need inside and outside photos. If you have sound conserns then we could address that as well. Of course if you just want to buy a nice cool case, buy what I have, it's a beast but it's very cool and ultra quiet if you install the right fans and wire them up properly. Yea, we are a bit off topic about USB Flash Drives but that happens.

Yea i understand where you are comming from. would it supprise you i have already removed what i din't want to keep :) Oh wel untill i can't afford it anymore i'll keep it. the case is a tj 7 silverstone https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163067 it used to house my desktop pc with watercooling etc. its ook voor the job and i could adjust it true enough. It depends money wise when it comes summer. The coolermaster is nice aswell but call me autistic a server needs to be in a servercase.... ;)

Its now on the attic so sound is no more a issue.

I would like to get https://netwerkproducten.com/websho...r-voeding-extra-diep-650mm-max-p-4359939.html nice straight airflow and minimum gaps so i can dust protect it. And allot of fans. But with these things i ussualy let fate decide can i snatch one on 2th hand site and if not come summer i'll do a pantyhose around the whole case and add 4 fans in the bottem cheap and simple.
But i am certainly open for suggestions especial keeping it dust free that why i came up with the nylon pantyhose. I could also go with acoustic fabric those are the 2 tips i have seen. Main thing is the bottom part its empty and not used the front is covered with 2 4 bay drives with each 1 one fan. Since the main cooling is for the drive's i can't see how to improve it tbh.

 

[joeschmuck]

That is a large 4U case. Lots of fans should do a good job. The problem could be noise but if you have a place for it then I suspect it will not be an issue for you. Your current case looks like it will do fine as well. Summer will eventually come.

 

[joeschmuck]

Test Results:
Keep in mind that I only have a USB 3.0 connection which is also using a USB 3.0 Hub so things could be slower due to my setup, also I wouldn't say that my motherboard is state of the art, it's actually quite old but it was one of the first that offered build-in USB 3.0 suport. And these flash drives are USB 3.1 rated.
The ADATA UV128 16GB USB 3.1 Flash Drive tested at Sequential 37.23MB/s Read, 30.86MB/s Write, Random 34.54MB/s Read, 9.39MB/s Write. Not bad for a $7 flash drive and I do have worse drives on hand. I doubt a USB 3.1 connection would have made any difference here.

The Patriot Supersonic Rage 2 128GB USB 3.1 Flash Drive tested at Sequential 195.9MB/s, Write 78.6MB/s, Random 133.4MB/s Read, 49.7MB/s Write. This one is pretty fast. I'm curious what it will do if I directly connect it to the motherboard. I may pull the computer out tomorrow to dust it out, it's been quite a while since I've done that.

So I'm pleased with the results. It's not 400MB/s Read but it could be my system causing the slowness, although USB 3.0 standards state a theoretical maximum of 640MB/s. Hum, my laptop has a USB 3.0 port, I could give that a try.

 

[joeschmuck]

Test Results Update:
So I used my 2 year old laptop and what a difference!. The Rage 2 now has 321MB/s Reads and 276MB/s Writes. Even the cheap flash drives improved to 117MB/s Reads and 49MB/s Writes.

 

[spacecabbie]

Test Results Update:
So I used my 2 year old laptop and what a difference!. The Rage 2 now has 321MB/s Reads and 276MB/s Writes. Even the cheap flash drives improved to 117MB/s Reads and 49MB/s Writes.

Thats very interesting http://usbflashspeed.com/373857 i also have the patriot 2 rage.... I'll have to take another look under freenas.... I could have swore it was slower.... Ah wel at least i have a nice back stick now

 

[joeschmuck]

So I just finished cleaning my desktop PC and what a filthy mess.

So I tested my Rage 2 plugged directly into the motherboard and there was no change in the testing results. Just proves that over time the USB 3.0 interface has improved. I think I'll start to "look" into building a new system.