Solved Toshiba Portable SSD Data Transfer Issue on HP Desktop

Rock_doctor · Jul 3, 2024

I have a Toshiba T7 2TB portable SSD connected through the USB 3.1 Gen 2, USB C port on my HP ProDesk 400 G6 Desktop Mini PC. Data transfer speeds are no where near the claimed 1050 MB/s.

In addition when I shut down my PC the SSD remains on and heats up over time.

Thanks

antspants · Jul 3, 2024

Hi welcome to the ElevenForums

They never are.
You happen to be the second person today that is concerned about the data transfer speeds of an external drive.

It may be useful to you to take a look and the responses in the following thread. The answers will be the same, most likely. It might pay you to run through these suggestions.

Need help with new external USB SSD

Hello guys, I have bought a new 8TB Samsung external SSD (T5 EVO USB 3.2). The device is USB 3.2 Gen 1 and not as fast as most recent SSD but has a speed of "Up to 460MB/s" advertised. The problem is that when I connect it to my laptop the transfer speed is very slow (a stable 100mb/s) which is...

www.elevenforum.com

That’s not to say you don’t deserve your own thread, but it may be a good starting point.

P.S. Thanks for filling out your details properly, it helps. I believe you deserve some credit for that. Have given appropriately.

antspants · Jul 3, 2024

I believe when they benchmark these drives, they do so using systems built for nothing but benchmarking. Bare bones tweaked systems. It’s kind of unfair the results they claim to have. Not that some people don’t achieve results close to the benchmarks, but I believe the people who do, also have barebones systems.
Just my opinion.

andrew129260 · Jul 3, 2024

Rock_doctor said:
I have a Toshiba T7 2TB portable SSD connected through the USB 3.1 Gen 2, USB C port on my HP ProDesk 400 G6 Desktop Mini PC. Data transfer speeds are no where near the claimed 1050 MB/s.

View attachment 100550

View attachment 100549

In addition when I shut down my PC the SSD remains on and heats up over time.

Thanks

Are you using the front usb ports? Try using the back ones and see what happens.

Rock_doctor · Jul 3, 2024

andrew129260 said:
Are you using the front usb ports? Try using the back ones and see what happens.

Yes I am using the front USB port - the only one that is specified as a USB 3.1 Gen 2, USB C port as required by Toshiba.

Any suggestions why the SSD stays on and heats up when I shut down?

andrew129260 · Jul 3, 2024

gotcha. And honestly I am not sure unfortunately. The other thread referenced does have some good ideas.

If your computer is off the drive shouldn't continue to be powered up, some computers have a feature where a usb port turns into a charging port when the computer is off. That is typically found in the bios that can be toggled on or off. But it should detect its a storage drive and not do that.

Bree · Jul 3, 2024

Rock_doctor said:
Any suggestions why the SSD stays on and heats up when I shut down?

Some usb ports are capable of remaining powered up while the PC is turned off, this is to enable charging devices like phones etc.
If so, there is usually an option in the BIOS to enable or disable this. For your HP ProDesk 400 G6 Desktop Mini PC there are two 'Sleep and Charge' usb ports, numbers '1' and '3' in the picture of the front panel here:

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c06713275

FreeBooter · Jul 3, 2024

You can disable ERP Ready from BIOS that should stop USB power consumption.

bobkn · Jul 3, 2024

A sequential read rate of 911MB/s is "no where near the claimed 1050 MB/s"?

I might be satisfied with that.

But I tend to regard the performance of external USB devices with Windows as mysterious, to put it politely.

Anibor_11 · Jul 3, 2024

bobkn said:
A sequential read rate of 911MB/s is "no where near the claimed 1050 MB/s"?

I might be satisfied with that.

But I tend to regard the performance of external USB devices with Windows as mysterious, to put it politely.

I agree. 911 MB/s is totally normal, no problem to worry about.

And it´s a Samsung external SSD, not a Toshiba.

Rock_doctor · Jul 3, 2024

bobkn said:
A sequential read rate of 911MB/s is "no where near the claimed 1050 MB/s"?

I might be satisfied with that.

But I tend to regard the performance of external USB devices with Windows as mysterious, to put it politely.

Thanks. As a newbie to this forum why is the write speed so slow? Apologies - it is a Samsung SSD!

antspants · Jul 3, 2024

Rock_doctor said:
Thanks. As a newbie to this forum why is the write speed so slow? Apologies - it is a Samsung SSD!

That’s a complicated question, maybe it’s your mini pc? Could be the files you’re transferring, could be antivirus software, could be a lot of things

What happens if you turn on write cacheing, or is it on already?

Connect your T7 to the computer
Right-click My Computer or This PC, and then click Manage. (Or search Device Manager in your taskbar search)
Select Device Manager.
Expand Disk Drives.
Right-click the drive on which you want to turn disk write caching on or off, and then click Properties.
Click the Policies tab.
Click to select Better performance
Click to select Enable write caching on the device
Click OK.

Or if it’s already on, try it with it off.

bobkn · Jul 3, 2024

Rock_doctor said:
Thanks. As a newbie to this forum why is the write speed so slow? Apologies - it is a Samsung SSD!

My apologies. The write speed didn't register.

Looking at some reviews online, 114MB/s is much slower than you should be getting. Sequential writes on an SSD may be slower than read, but not by that much.

Have you run "trim" on the drive? (Right click on the drive, select "properties" then the Tools tab, then the optimize button. You can manually "retrim" the drive.) I'm not optimistic that it'll bring the benchmarks back in line, but it's a desirable maintenance step.

abactuon · Jul 3, 2024

SSD manufacturers always specify maximum read/write speeds in their specifications, which are rare peaks achieved under ideal data processing conditions and only in certain operations, usually in synthetic tests. In real computer usage conditions, it is difficult to overclock the drive to the maximum speed due to non-ideal information processing conditions.

bobkn · Jul 3, 2024

abactuon said:
SSD manufacturers always specify maximum read/write speeds in their specifications, which are rare peaks achieved under ideal data processing conditions and only in certain operations, usually in synthetic tests. In real computer usage conditions, it is difficult to overclock the drive to the maximum speed due to non-ideal information processing conditions.

Yes, but I hope that the reviewers weren't doing dubious things in their tests. 114MB/s sequential writes seems slow for that drive.

MisterEd · Jul 3, 2024

I can't even find a Toshiba T7 2TB external SSD referenced anywhere. Are you sure you are not talking about a Samsung T7 2TB external SSD?

The specs for the drive only says "Read/Write speeds of up to 1,050/1,000 MB/s". Up to is only a maximum theoretical speed not a guaranteed one.

Here is a review of the Samsung T7 2TB external SSD:
Quick Review: Samsung Portable SSD T7 2TB (MU-PC2T0H/WW)

The review talks about thermal throttling which reduced its write speed. Maybe you should monitor the temperature to make sure your drive isn't overheating.

Have you tested the drive with CrystalDiskMark?

Note USB 3.1 Gen2 is 10Gbps or 1250MBps. That is the theoretical maximum. Real world maximum speeds are probably 800-900 MBps.

I have an Intel 660P M.2 NVME SSD. Its rated read/write speeds are 1800 MBps. Four years ago I tested it in an external enclosure. I connected it to my old laptop with a USB 3.1 USB-C (10Gbps) port. Here are the results of that test:

Rock_doctor · Jul 4, 2024

bobkn said:
My apologies. The write speed didn't register.

Looking at some reviews online, 114MB/s is much slower than you should be getting. Sequential writes on an SSD may be slower than read, but not by that much.

Have you run "trim" on the drive? (Right click on the drive, select "properties" then the Tools tab, then the optimize button. You can manually "retrim" the drive.) I'm not optimistic that it'll bring the benchmarks back in line, but it's a desirable maintenance step.

Thanks - Yes I have run TRIM on the drive

Winuser · Jul 4, 2024

I was going to recommend trying another port but I see you only have the one USB 3 Gen 2 port. Going to my plan B, go into the BIOS as suggested and see if you can turn off the port from always having power. You shouldn't have to but I don't see any other reason for the drive getting hot when the computer is off. Then check the drives write speed. If it's still slow try replacing the USB cable.

antspants · Jul 4, 2024

Winuser said:
I was going to recommend trying another port but I see you only have the one USB 3 Gen 2 port. Going to my plan B, go into the BIOS as suggested and see if you can turn off the port from always having power. You shouldn't have to but I don't see any other reason for the drive getting hot when the computer is off. Then check the drives write speed. If it's still slow try replacing the USB cable.

Well hopefully they have done that already as it was suggested in posts 6,7 & 8

Winuser · Jul 4, 2024

antspants said:
Well hopefully they have done that already as it was suggested in posts 6,7 & 8

like I said, as suggested. As for the write speed of the drive it is possible that the USB cable could be the cause of the problem. Hopefully it's not the drive or USB C port.