How-To Geek

I have a Seagate Momentus 7200.4 SATA HDD inserted inside a USB 2.0 external enclosure. I want to copy some of the data on it to a USB 3.0 external HDD. As the drive won't mount in Windows, I'm having to use a Ubuntu 12.10 LiveDVD to do this.

According to the data sheet for the Momentus 7200.4, its speed is 3 Gb/s. However, I know it's going to be much lower than this when used with USB 2.0 instead of SATA. I realize it will be even lower when copying to another USB drive, and possibly lower once more as a result of the PC having to "consult" with the DVD.

When trying to copy data from the SATA HDD in the USB 2.0 docking station to the USB 3.0 external HDD inside Ubuntu using the LiveDVD's "Try Ubuntu" feature, the data rate starts out at around 600 kbps (IIRC) but quickly begins slowing down and converges to around either 90 kbps or 120 kbps (I've gotten both of these rates on different attempts that all ended up being interrupted).

Is this horrendous speed normal? If not, what kind of speed should I be experiencing?

How much faster could I expect the transfer rate to be if I used a USB 3.0 docking station or external enclosure instead of the USB 2.0 docking station that I have (it would then be copying from one USB 3.0 device to another USB 3.0 device)?

I realize it would be faster if I had the SATA drive inserted internally, but that's not an option for me.

Thanks!

Yes, I have USB 3.0 ports.

@gedstar: I thought you were saying in your first post that I would see an increase in speed if I upgraded from my USB 2.0 docking station to a USB 3.0 docking station / external enclosure? Also, what exactly are you saying you have the same of in your second post? I have a SATA HDD inside a USB 2.0 docking station, and I'm copying from that to a USB 3.0 external HDD within the Ubuntu LiveDVD's "Try Ubuntu" feature. Are you copying to or from the USB 3.0 external HDD, and where are you copying from/to?

I figured that running Ubuntu off of the LiveDVD would slow down my transfer, but I wouldn't expect it to do so that substantially.

As for your question, I haven't tried that yet. The computer I'm using is brand new, and all my data (from my old, all-but-dead laptop) is on the drive that's inside the enclosure. There's hardly anything on my internal drive other than what came on it.

Make a double transfer. First from USB2 to the internal HDD and then from the internal HDD to USB3. That will probably be faster. The way you did it created a lot of contention on the USB ports.

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