MBL Duo, Macbookpro wired connection super slow

[Fxguy-]

I have a MBL Duo connected to an Airport Extreme and on to my Macbook Pro (mid2010)

I also have a 4 year old NetGear Ready NAS on the same router.

I am getting very slow speeds on the MBL:

write: .9 MB/s

read: 2.6 MB/s

On the ReadyNAS I get:

write: 7.2 MB/s

read: 2.8 MB/s

On a local USB drive I get:

write: 26.9 MB/s

read: 27.0 MB/s

This is all gigabit so these times seem incredibally slow, especily since the ReadyNAS is very old.

Can someone let me know if they have any ideas of what might be going on? Both are set to DHCP.

I got these numbers using the AJA System Test free app.

Thanks.

[TonyPh12345]

I'd probably be looking for bad cables.

[Fxguy-]

It's not cables.

I even tried using the ReadyNAS cable on the MBL duo and get the same results.

Could the device be defective?

[Laura_F]

You may have an issue we'll be releasing a firmware update for shortly. If so, you'll want to contact a Level 2 tech and let them know; they'll be able to help get it resolved for you. To help them determine if it is the issue, create a Support Ticket from the My Book Live Duo's dashboard (under Support) and mention in the ticket that your device is very slow. Quoting the speeds mentioned above will help give them an idea of its speed.

[philharve]

Hi Fxguy

With a CAT6 cabled link to my router I am getting figures not that dissimilar from your USB-connected drive. I am seeing 23 - 24MBps.

My wireless figures are close to yours with my Airport Extreme in a MacBook Pro but when I substituted an external Alfa 2000mW wireless adapter for my AE the performance figures increased 4-fold, typically 8 - 10MBps.

I have several USB HDDs I can connect to my MBP but the fastest, ironically made by WD, will backup at 3GBpm (equiv. 50MBps.

Are you using Time Manager?

[Fxguy-]

Still getting the same read/write times and have gone back and forth with tech support multiple times. None of them talked to me about a potential issue a level 2 tech could help with a possible firmware update.

All media sharing is off.

the green light has been blinking since purchase.

If I run a diagnostic, short or long it stops at 90% and never completes.

I had time machine working for a week or so, only by dong a backup on another drive then copying it over and re-pointing it, but eventually got the error it was corrupt and had to be re-done.

I am doing a full factory restore once I finish copying off 1.5tb of data which took a week to copy in the first place.

If this doesn't do anything I assume the next step is to try and return the drive and buy something else.

[WDTony]

I don't know if this is still applicable, but I remember there being some configuration changes you can do on the Mac to improve performance. See the blog entry (pretty old -so I don't know if they have resolved this in newer OSX versions).

http://blog.julipedia.org/2006/02/samba-performance-under-mac-os-x.html

[fxguy]

Update:

I did a factory restore and got read and write times I expected.

I then did the firmware update and the times got even better.

I then went to convert to the mirrored configuration and it failed during the conversion and said to contact customer service.

Blue light is now on all the time and nothing can see the drive.

I put in an RMA for advanced repacement and am hoping the new one will be more functional.

This was whole ordeal has been a lot of effort for what is supposed to be a plug and play consumer product.

After 2 weeks of just copying data onto it before I realized there was a speed problem I am very unhappy.

Tech support has really not been helpfull with the best response being restore your drive to factory settings.

I would think my system has been defective from the day I got it a little over a month ago, but with the problems I was having the second response from tech should have been to send it back and get a new one.

I will let you know how the new one acts.

(for some reason I now have two forum accounts here with the same user name?)

[nickvilardi]

i am having similary issues - I have an Intel iMac running OS X 10.7.4, and have the MBL duo connected directly to my computer.  I initially used it only for time machine and had no issues.  I later tried to transfer my itunes and iphoto libraries to it, and the speeds went way down.  I had the same experience with running the tests as well - they would get to 90% and quit (I let one run for a couple days).  Here's the difference - I have gotten replacement drives.  I got a second hard drive - and had similar issues (including potential loss of the majority of my iTunes library!).  I contacted tech support and they have sent me a third hard drive, which is right now backing up on time machine.  I started Time Machine last night, after setting up RAID, and it said it would be about 17 hours to transfer 175 GB.  It's now about 13 hours later, and 52 GB has been transferred, and the time remaining is "About a day."  I don't have a way to tell the exact speed, but it is definitely slowing over time.  It is apparent there is some sort of compatibility/connectivity issue with the macs that gets worse the more data you put on the drive.  I also have never heard of Level 2 tech or firmware updates, but apparently that doesn't work.  Anyone else have any more suggestions? 

[nickvilardi]

UPDATE:  I stopped my Time Machine backup and loaded the firmware update - then time machine worked like a champ and backed up what was previously supposed to take "about a day" in a couple hours.  I thought maybe my luck was changing, so I tried to transfer my iPhoto library too...the time estimate is about 5 days for 36 GB!  HELP PLEASE!