Computer Specs:
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Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
ASUS P6T Motherboard
Intel Core i7 940 2.93Ghz
Q-FX1700 512MB Quadro
12GB Ram (2 x Corsair TR3X6G 1333C9 GB RAM)

External Hard Drive:
LaCie Big Disk Extreme+ 1TB
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Problem:

I'm not sure if it's windows 7's fault, or my external hard drives fault.

But I've installed windows 7 for 2 weeks now, and everything has been running great,
I haven't touched my external hard drive since I upgraded windows (i think...) so i'm
not sure what the problem is. But for the last 3 days I've been trying to backup my
work onto my external HD.. and the transfer rate is EXTREMELY slow.. the little status
pop up with the loading bar.. says that the transfer rate is 695KB/Second.. which is
painfully slow for a FireWire 400 anyone have any idea what wrong?

The HD is at 88.3% capacity, its taking about 2 hours to copy 3.91GB.. and its still only about
40% done. During this transferring period, the HD keeps making a wrrrring noise..
(wrrrrrr...wrrrrr... wrrrr... which i assume is the fan inside the HD starting up and slowing down)

P.S.
The HD is full of movies/tv shows, and when I watch videos or movies off of it, it works perfectly
normal. Also when I copy things off of the HD it's just as slow...

sorry about the long post...

I don't know the answer, but I'm beginning to think it is Win7's problem?

I have a similar system,

Windows 7 Home Prem. 64 bit
Dell Proprietary Motherboard
Intel Core i7 920 2.67Ghz
ATI 4870 1GB Video
8GB Ram (4 x Dell 1033 Simms)

External Hard Drive:
WD 1TB USB 2.0

Just the other day I went to move Vista Norton Ghost backups from an Internal drive (over 300GB's) to the external drive. Plugged it in and used Explorer to move the files... initial time estimate, 4 HOURS!!! It took slightly longer.

I know this isn't comparing apples to apples, but I felt it was very slow. I have a GB network hard wired connection and I routinely transfer from another computer that is Wireless N with varying connect speeds, and it seem faster than the external drive?

I've not made any true measurements, but it is just my feeling.

I know this probably doesn't help you...

Irv S.

wow it finally finished copying that 3 gb's over.. still have no idea what the problem is...

I'm now going to cut and paste 4.78gb's into the HD, this time I'll time it to get an accurate reading...
Another thing i just noticed is that for the first 3-4 seconds (20-25% of the 4.78gb) it copies perfectly,
clocks in around 80-114mb/s then once it hits that 4th second..it slows down to 635kb/s... if the file is small
and fits in that 4 sec time frame.. then it gets transferred through with no problems..

i.e. i copied a 1mb word document into the HD in less then 4 secs.. and there were no problems...

I know for a fact that even USB is faster then this... I just moved 4.78GB to my 2nd external TB HD... that uses USB(should be using my esata port..but thats another problem on another thread... ) and it completed the task in approx 10-15 mins... the FireWire HD is still only 50% done...and its been an 81 mins...

When this task finishes i'm going to switch the cables between the two HD.. and see if its my FireWire port/Computer thats messed up or my HD... I do suspect that it is my HD that's the problem though... as I mentioned above.. the wrrr wrrr wrrr noise from the fan... sounds like the HD starts.. stops.. starts.. stops.. which is confusing because if the HD is at fault... then why am I able to watch videos that are saved on the HD... this is very confusing...

Both my external HD are by LaCie, 1 was bought 1/2 a year before the other(FireWire plugged, w/ current problem)... so the newer one is a newer model (USB plugged..w/ eSATA problems)... Both HD were working perfectly fine up until Windows 7 was installed... i just discovered HD 1(current problem) problem 3 days ago, so either something happened to my HD during this 2 week span of using Windows 7, or Windows 7 caused the problem. HD 2 has been working fine since I updated windows, HD 2 is my main backup HD which I use on a weekly basis... HD1 contains all my movies and tv shows..

I think I would be more devastated if I lost HD 1 lol... 4 years of downloaded movies and tv shows...lol
anyways update on the 4.78gb transfer.. just finished took 2h:49m:14s... 2h:34m longer then the USB...

1st thing would be to try a new cable.

sorry - i didnt look through the other posts.
simple so give it a quick shot - check the status of driver and update if possible.