How can I transfer files over network close to my 100Mbps network speed?

Question

Hi, I am trying to transfer a lot of files from a Win XP PC to a Win 7 PC. Both PCs have at least 100Mbps network card and I am using a 100Mbps network switch but my transfer rate hovers between 3-4Mbps. Only these two PCs are connection to the switch and there is no internet connection. I understand 100Mbps is theoretical but surely I could expect at least 70-80Mbps transfer rate. I have set both NICs as 100Mbps Full Duplex (was auto negotiate but this still didn't make a difference.

If anyone can help explain what I am doing wrong I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks

Answer 1

In your case the big factor limiting speed transfer is the hard drives in both machines and their read/write performance. Although modern SATA 3 hard drives have a theoretical 6Gbps limit, this speed will never be achieved in real world scenario. Even SATA 2 [3Gbps] cannot be achieved either.



The speed of file transfers is also different if the file sizes are large or small. You can transfer 2 gigs of data across two networked machines a lot lot faster if it is made up of 2 x 1GB files than if the data is made up of hundreds of small files of only a few MB's each.



You don't say anything about the type of hard drives you are using but average SATA 2 perfomance would mean you could expect real world transfer speeds of between 70-100Mbps for large files but maybe as low as 10Mbps for smaller files. [SATA 3 up to 180Mbps or higher]

If you are using SATA 1 or an older IDE hard drive [ATA 100/133] in just one of the machines then this could slow the transfer speed down [for very small files] to the speeds of 3-4Mbps you are experiencing. If the files are mostly office type documents of a 100-200KB's then the transfer will be very slow.

Even if your new Windows 7 machine has SATA 2 o3 3 drives fitted then it can still only receive [write] the files at maximum speed the hard disk in the older XP machine can read and send them

Answer 2

I'm willing to bet your going to want a Windows expert to answer this, but my bet is that the OSes are slowing the connections down. Your assumptions/theory about the throughput is correct, the network is capable of probably doing file transfers at 70-80 (or higher) Mbps. However, can the OS process the data that quickly? What are the bus speeds inside each system? What's the read/write speeds on the disks? All these things factor in. Really, I think that Microsoft's SMB protocol is slow as hell.



If you got the money, I'd invest in an external hard drive enclosure/dock. Takes SMB out of the picture and your data move becomes a copy/paste across the file system. Make sure your device is the latest USB version your newer computer supports, or uses ESATA if possible.

Answer 3

Does the switch provide port stats? If you have errors on a port that would slow you down. You can replace the Ethernet cable or try a different port. Also you could take the switch out of the picture with a cross-over Ethernet cable.



Any chance that the destination PC is running out of HD space or needs to be defragged? That will make a transfer take longer.



Finally, did you try a different transfer method like FTP?

Answer 4

try http://itrnsfr.com



It offers free 2 GB file transfer without registration!

Answer 5

hi the only transport medium which could deal with that sort of data bandwidth is fibre.