External SSD questions

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Snakse

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#296084 19-May-2022 20:24

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to approach the boss to replace our stack of issued external HDDs with some nice SSDs (Samsung T5 maybe?)

The files we transfer to and from the HDD are up to about 10GB but are comprised of tens of thousands of smaller files, something I know SSDs chew through.

I've never actually used an external USB SSD so I was hoping someone could answer some dumb questions I have that I think he'll also ask me:

- Neither of the two laptops that the files will move to and from have internal SSDs. Will there still be a significant boost in transfer speed - in either direction?

- Pretty sure the laptops are at least USB 3.0, is that the ultimate factor in speed in this case?

- Is another idea (and potentially $$ saving) to replace the laptops' HDD with SSD's (NVMe I assume)? Generating the files themselves before they are copied onto the HDD is a another huge time sink.

Thanks for your help in advance, and any other thoughts you may have on the situation are welcomed. Chur

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gzt

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#2916068 19-May-2022 20:35

Check the laptops for an external eSATA or eSataP port. You might be lucky.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESATAp

MadEngineer

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#2916069 19-May-2022 20:41

Wait, you have laptops with spinning drives? Don’t waste money on upgrading them - buy new laptops.

You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.

richms

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#2916163 19-May-2022 20:57

A laptop with spinning rust will be a huge productivity killer and the data is at much greater risk of damage if the computer falls or is bumped too hard etc. If you are still running hardware that old the bottleneck will not be the external drives. At only 10GB of stuff thats something you would probably be fine with just a quality USB flash drive for rather than an expensive SSD that is made for large file workloads.

Richard rich.ms

Gordy7

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#2916170 19-May-2022 21:22

I recall.... M.2 SSD Windows drive through USB3 to T7 SSD has shown transfer rates anywhere between 200MB/s to 1600MB/s.

I was quite surprized at the top end speed reported by Windows.

Gordy

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Inphinity

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#2916178 19-May-2022 22:04

Snakse:

- Neither of the two laptops that the files will move to and from have internal SSDs. Will there still be a significant boost in transfer speed - in either direction?

Do.. do you work in a museum? :O I would absolutely be replacing those laptops with something from this century, before worrying about the external storage, personally.

Snakse

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2916180 19-May-2022 22:12

Thanks everyone. I could be wrong about the laptop still having a spinning disk, I’ll check the specs properly tomorrow.

^To the above poster…even worse…I work for the Government 😢

gzt

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#2916190 19-May-2022 23:01

The next question is going to be about disk to disk copy what the? Maybe you're waiting for the Microsoft Azure site build in NZ ; )

K8Toledo

640 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2916240 20-May-2022 02:48

MadEngineer: Wait, you have laptops with spinning drives? Don’t waste money on upgrading them - buy new laptops.

Why spend $1000 - $2000 on a new laptop when same/similar performance can be achieved with an HDD - SSD upgrade for ~$450?

(with the exception of lease machines ofc... ). :)

HDD are the historical bottleneck of any system - the one link in the Fetch/Decode/Execute/Store chain transferring data with moving parts (platter).

MadEngineer

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#2917424 22-May-2022 22:26

K8Toledo:

MadEngineer: Wait, you have laptops with spinning drives? Don’t waste money on upgrading them - buy new laptops.

Why spend $1000 - $2000 on a new laptop when same/similar performance can be achieved with an HDD - SSD upgrade for ~$450?

(with the exception of lease machines ofc... ). :)

HDD are the historical bottleneck of any system - the one link in the Fetch/Decode/Execute/Store chain transferring data with moving parts (platter).

I thought it was obvious. You'd be throwing money at a machine you'll have to replace shortly anyway. Depending on the age of course but there won't be many spinning drive laptops around that are worth throwing money at. Next you'll be replacing the battery only to find support versions of Windows no longer run on it.

You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.

richms

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#2917429 22-May-2022 23:00

Anything that has had the corner cut that hard on the storage is either so old that it will be slow, or it was so badly specced out that it will be slow.

I have seen huge speed increases on even old antique core 2 duo era things by putting a slow sata ssd into them, but they were still really slow with that. Just changed from 5 mins to do something to 1 min to do it, which happens almost instantly on my new under-specced i5 machine.

Need to know the specs to know if its worth it, but IME anything laptop that has spinning rust, its not.

Richard rich.ms

Gordy7

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#2917431 22-May-2022 23:17

@snakse How long does it take to transfer 10GB from HDD to USB HDD?

Gordy

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roobarb

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#2917454 23-May-2022 07:18

richms:

Anything that has had the corner cut that hard on the storage is either so old that it will be slow, or it was so badly specced out that it will be slow.

In that vein, are the machines able to be upgraded to Windows 11?

Windows 11 has effectively set a new baseline.

gzt

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#2917461 23-May-2022 08:12

Windows 10 without SSD is not pleasant. I've heard Windows 11 continues that trend.

Snakse

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2917463 23-May-2022 08:19

Hey again everyone, looks like I may have dogged the boys a little early lol - the laptops are definitely SSD equipped. I’ve submitted my reasoning for purchasing some external SSDs, hopefully we get a few on board. Cheers