Pauses when transferring files between drives

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EviLClouD

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#306667 11-Aug-2023 15:18

Hi all,

I'm moving some backed up files from an nvme ssd to a sata hdd (seagate 2TB) but it randomly pauses (been like this for 5 mins) during transfer with 0 activity across the 2 drives.

Does anyone know why this happens and how to stop it from happening?

Last time i moved files it paused multiple times throughout the transfer.

Thanks in advance

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#3114696 11-Aug-2023 15:28

What's using the CPU? 35% is quite a bit of CPU to be used in a modern computer. What does the details tab say?

wellygary

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#3114697 11-Aug-2023 15:29

Does it happen when you are going the other way from the HDD to the SSD??

You are moving a fair few 1000 files, so I'm wondering if the HDD can't write the Allocation table fast enough, so the process is stalling until it catches up...???

EviLClouD

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#3114701 11-Aug-2023 15:39

I cancelled the large transfer and broke it down to a smaller transfer. No pauses but the speed jumps from 220MB/s to 0MB/s throughout the duration.

I see the destination D drive (Sata HDD) is basically on 100% while the original location E drive (nvme ssd) fluctuates up to 30-40%

Do these sound normal?

I will try transferring the other way.

I had some background processes running which is why the cpu usage was a little high.

jamesrt

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#3114704 11-Aug-2023 15:42

Anti-virus scanning could account for both CPU usage AND disk IO pausing.

freitasm

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#3114705 11-Aug-2023 15:43

Is this a laptop or a desktop with a connected UPS?

If yes, then you could enable.

Right-click a drive, click Properties. Click the Hardware tab and double-click the drive, then the button [Change settings] and select the Policies tab.

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surfisup1000

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#3114706 11-Aug-2023 15:44

Sometimes a fault on the destination drive can cause these types of pauses.

Open the event viewer and check the system log . That might show what is happening.

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timmmay

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#3114707 11-Aug-2023 15:49

EviLClouD:
Do these sound normal?

Everything sounds normal except the really long pauses. If it's a USB disk even long pauses could be normal. Some good suggestions above.

EviLClouD

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#3114710 11-Aug-2023 15:54

freitasm:

Is this a laptop or a desktop with a connected UPS?

If yes, then you could enable.

Right-click a drive, click Properties. Click the Hardware tab and double-click the drive, then the button [Change settings] and select the Policies tab.

I don't have a UPS unfortunately so that may not be helpful for me?

Also just checked and no antivirus scanning - the last scan was 10am this morning.

And no warnings or errors that i can see in Event Viewer...

freitasm

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#3114711 11-Aug-2023 15:59

If it's a laptop with a battery, it should be fine. I wouldn't set that on a desktop without a UPS.

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EviLClouD

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#3114716 11-Aug-2023 16:06

freitasm:

If it's a laptop with a battery, it should be fine. I wouldn't set that on a desktop without a UPS.

Oops sorry i meant it's a desktop without a UPS

richms

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#3114721 11-Aug-2023 16:29

Can you open another explorer process and navigate the drive while it is paused? When I have had dead drives its basically done nothing till it sorted itself out.

I would also install HDD sentinal or something and check for excessive bad sectors for reallocation and other things in the red on it before wasting time putting files on it if its on deaths door.

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cddt

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#3114722 11-Aug-2023 16:30

Can you try copying via the command line, rather than through the GUI?

I've found that with a large number of files the GUI can get itself tangled up at times. Running via CLI avoids this overhead.

Detruire

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#3114789 11-Aug-2023 18:13

I have experienced similar behaviour with SMR drives - presumably when the cache and/or buffer (non-shingled) zone has filled up; dying drives; and USB-attached drives.

The drive shown in the first screenshot (ST2000DM008) is a SMR drive according to this drive manual, so the pauses may simply be inherent to the drive.

rm *

fe31nz

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#3114864 11-Aug-2023 23:11

Another thing that causes pauses like this is when the drive has a lot of files in the Recycle Bin. They do not show up when looking at the drive unless you open its Recycle Bin folder, but the files are still there taking up lots of space. But all that space is reported as free space when you look at that number. When you copy new files onto the drive, the copy will run at full speed until all the actually free space is used up, then it will sit there for a long time while it deletes files from the Recycle Bin to make more free space. Depending on the software used, it may or may not pop up a window to show the progress of the Recycle Bin deletes.

cddt

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#3115432 14-Aug-2023 06:30

Detruire:

I have experienced similar behaviour with SMR drives - presumably when the cache and/or buffer (non-shingled) zone has filled up; dying drives; and USB-attached drives.

The drive shown in the first screenshot (ST2000DM008) is a SMR drive according to this drive manual, so the pauses may simply be inherent to the drive.

Good catch, I'll bet this is the answer.

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