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Topic starter
When I started using SoftRaid (v 5.5) I got pretty decent speeds on my raid 1 configuration but today I tested the speeds again and they have somehow dropped. Especially the write speeds are terrible.
My raid 1 setup is a 2 drive thunderbolt bay with 2x 750GB WD Black disks. This thunderbolt bay is connected straight to an 2011 iMac.
When I installed the drive I was getting speeds of:
Write: 150MB/s
Read: 120MB/s
Currently I'm getting these speeds:
Write: 60MB/s
Read: 100MB/s
I've also got a Lacie drive which is setup in raid 0 daisy chained via thunderbolt. This drive is getting speeds of 140 / 155MB/s. I'm not comparing raid 0 to raid 1 here but just eliminating the possibility that the thunderbolt cable or port might be bad. But this is clearly not the case here.
I've also tested it on a 2012 Macbook Air. This resulted in the same (slow) speeds.
I'm running the latest SoftRaid lite v. 5.5.5.
Ant clue what could be causing this speed drop and this could be fixed? Thanks!
Posted : 09/09/2016 9:29 am
A full volume?
File fragmentation?
Those are the two most likely candidates.
Posted : 09/09/2016 11:14 am
Topic starter
Currently the volume is about 20% full but that varies a lot as it's used for digital video editing (this is also how softraid is configured for this drive).
How could I check file fragmentation? I can reformat the drive completely to see if that helps.
Posted : 10/09/2016 1:32 pm
A backup - erase - restore would clean up the volume, yes.
You can also do a verify disk on all the disks, make sure the completion times are similar on each one. Let it run for 2-3 hours. the remaining hours should be similar if all disks are OK.
Posted : 10/09/2016 1:49 pm
Topic starter
Erasing the disk fixed the speed issue. The impact is quite dramatic actually.
Before erase:
Write: 66MB/s
Read: 80Mb/s
After erase:
Write: 118MB/s
Read: 158MB/s
Is there a way to keep the volume in better shape? Or is reformatting it regularly the only (best) way to keep the speeds high?
Thanks for the help!
Posted : 12/09/2016 7:49 am
If you are using the volume a lot (adding/deleting files frequently), then that is the best way to keep the volume optimal.
Some people prefer using defragmentation software, but that adds something else that could go wrong.
Posted : 12/09/2016 10:38 am
