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Transfer of Images from CF/CFast to NAS painfully slow

VocoderVocoder Registered Users Posts: 7 Beginner grinner
edited July 16, 2016 in Digital Darkroom
Howdy,

I've got a Synology 1812+ NAS, with 6 disks, connected to a switch and finally to a Thunderbolt to ethernet adapter on a Macbook Pro. The gear is no slouch, all cables are CAT7 and all connections are gigabit.

That said, will only move about 1GB per minute from a USB3 card reader attached to a USB3 port on the Mac.

I've done everything I can think of to ensure settings between the Mac and the NAS are the same (no jumbo frames, auto-detect speed etc.) and still, it takes at least a half an hour for 27.4GB of raw files, or 1086 images, to copy from the card to the NAS. This is about 24 minutes longer than the online network speed calculators say it should take. Not to mention, the downtime in the post process workflow that a long delay like this induces.

I'm wondering if anyone here has been in the same position - and if there is anything I can try to get the speeds up?

Thank you in advance!


www.mikekruegerphotography.com

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    RichardRichard Administrators, Vanilla Admin Posts: 19,913 moderator
    edited July 1, 2016
    What is the speed rating of the cards you are using? The card is often the slowest component.
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    VocoderVocoder Registered Users Posts: 7 Beginner grinner
    edited July 1, 2016
    One is a CFast 2.0 card rated read speed at 515MB/Sec and the others are CF cards at a rated read speed of 160MB/Sec.
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    RichardRichard Administrators, Vanilla Admin Posts: 19,913 moderator
    edited July 1, 2016
    headscratch.gif. Not sure what the problem could be, then. I'd test the speed between the card and the Mac by writing to local storage. That could rule out problems with the card reader. Then check the transfer speed between local storage and the NAS. Are you using the Finder to move files or an application program? Lightroom used to have some problems with NAS, IIRC, but I don't know whether these have been fixed.
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    pathfinderpathfinder Super Moderators Posts: 14,696 moderator
    edited July 10, 2016
    I just started using the Sandisk 128 Gb CFast 2.0 card that came with my 1DX MK II - I can download about 64 Gb through a USB 3.0 CFast card reader to a Sandisk USB 3.0 external SSD in just a couple minutes - I was amazed just how fast it flew through - Now, that is not importing via Lightroom etcetera, just a direct drop and drag with finder on my 2016 13 in MacAir.

    I have been on trips where 10 or 20 Gb of image files would take half an hour or more through USB 2.0, so this is a nice breath of fresh air.

    Do you think the Thunderbolt to ethernet adapter has any effect on downloading speed? USB 3.0 does not seem limiting in my limited experience with CFast cards.

    My first thought would be to try to download from your CFast card to a single high speed external SSD and see how long that takes. If it is very fast, then that would make me think the Thunderbolt to ethernet connection might be playing a role.

    I am using a pair of Sandisk 500 USB 3.0 SSDs ( 480 Gb ) for my storage in the field. I just don't wait for the CFast card to download now, it is lickety split. SO I don't think the CFast card or the card reader is at fault - what brand of card reader are you using?
    Pathfinder - www.pathfinder.smugmug.com

    Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
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    cmasoncmason Registered Users Posts: 2,506 Major grins
    edited July 13, 2016
    it might have an impact. The Macbook Pros have two Thunderbolt ports, because they support PCIe 2.0 x4 buses, which means they have 4 'channels' of PCIe, somewhat analogous to PCI slots back in the build-your-pc days. However the Macbook Air has only on PCIe 2.0 x2 bus, so it is limited to 2 'channels".

    Where it gets unclear is how Apple has the internals connected: the Display and SSD are connected to a PCIe bus, and perhaps one USB port as well, so it is likely that the other lane may be used for the Thunderbolt port and USB ports. So, that may mean your ethernet and USB have to share the same channel. Therefore it is likely that ethernet could impact the speed. Given that thunderbolt supports 20GB symmetrical, one would think there is plenty of bandwidth, but since it bonds multiple links, with some overhead, there likely are collisions etc.

    Anyway, you probably would get the fastest theoretical downloads by having just the USB card reader attached. If your CFast reader supports thunderbolt, I would use that instead, as its 4x faster than USB 3.0.
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    ziggy53ziggy53 Super Moderators Posts: 23,799 moderator
    edited July 13, 2016
    If it's a current MBP don't they have a "native" Gigabit Ethernet port? If so, what happens connecting your NAS directly without the Thunderbolt-to-Ethernet converter?

    If it is a machine without a Gigabit port, make sure you have "Thunderbolt Software Update 1.2.1" installed on OS X Lion 10.7.4 (or above).

    Also, disconnect everything else from the network switch (mentioned in the opening post) to make absolutely sure you are transferring at Gigabit speeds from the computer to the NAS.

    All of the above are just things to try (thinking out loud), in addition to what was mentioned by others.
    ziggy53
    Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
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    cmasoncmason Registered Users Posts: 2,506 Major grins
    edited July 14, 2016
    ziggy, all the Macbooks, Pro, Air etc have dropped ethernet ports. They only sport thunderbolt, usb and in the case of the Macbook, USB-C. Some Macbook Pros also have HDMI.
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    ziggy53ziggy53 Super Moderators Posts: 23,799 moderator
    edited July 14, 2016
    cmason wrote: »
    ziggy, all the Macbooks, Pro, Air etc have dropped ethernet ports. They only sport thunderbolt, usb and in the case of the Macbook, USB-C. Some Macbook Pros also have HDMI.

    Sorry, I searched for "MacBook Pro ports" and found this page:

    http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs/

    Is that not current?
    ziggy53
    Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
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    cmasoncmason Registered Users Posts: 2,506 Major grins
    edited July 14, 2016
    ziggy53 wrote: »
    Sorry, I searched for "MacBook Pro ports" and found this page:

    http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs/

    Is that not current?

    Yep, that one does indeed still have an ethernet port. But, while that model is still for sale, it is the old model...notice that it is also the only model with a spinning HD as well. I bet you had to dig to find it!

    If you go to the apple page for Macbook Pro, they dont even feature the model any longer:
    http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/
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    ziggy53ziggy53 Super Moderators Posts: 23,799 moderator
    edited July 14, 2016
    cmason wrote: »
    ... I bet you had to dig to find it!

    If you go to the apple page for Macbook Pro, they dont even feature the model any longer:
    http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/

    Odd. Using the search string I mentioned above (without the quotes), Google returned that page I linked as the second result on the first page of results:
    ziggy53
    Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
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    RichardRichard Administrators, Vanilla Admin Posts: 19,913 moderator
    edited July 15, 2016
    IIRC, Apple decided to eliminate Ethernet ports from all of its laptops in part because the RJ-45 connector is too tall for their slim designs.
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    ziggy53ziggy53 Super Moderators Posts: 23,799 moderator
    edited July 16, 2016
    Per a discussion at: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4646872

    Check the Thunderbolt/Ethernet connection, Advanced.. > Hardware.
    Change Thunderbolt/Ethernet Configuration to "Manually".
    If set at Duplex, "full-duplex, energy-efficient-ethernet", change it to "full-duplex".

    Test transfer speed.
    ziggy53
    Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
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