SOLVED--SpaceFM copying slow

jdmeaux1952 · posted: 2013-11-17 13:56

I am trying to copy files from my HD to a USB flash drive with SpaceFM. It is copying the files, but SLOWLY. It is showing me a transfer rate at 890k/s. I know this old P III at 996Mhz is slow, but GEEZE, that's slow. Any ideas as to WHY and how to correct this? __{{emoticon}}__

My cpu monitor is only showing 45% so I knwo its not the cpu being rammed full. I'm just puzzled why is is taking so much time to copy a file. Burning them to a cd takes less time, but I don't want to keep making cd's all the time. __{{emoticon}}__

rust collector · posted: 2013-11-17 14:03

Well, is it any faster if you use something other than spacefm?
I have a couple of usb sticks that are really slow... it is just the way they are, I guess.

Some others are...normal??

jdmeaux1952 · posted: 2013-11-17 14:17

I used this same stick to copy/archive files with antiX 13.1 and it was running fast. Now I upgraded to antiX 13.2, SpaceFM seems to have S L O W E D D O W N to a"crawl".

WhenI upgraded to antiX 13.2, I used an iso copy to load it. I had tried to do a manual ugrade first, but I screwed that up (I think I missed a step). I had made sure that the songs I had downloaded in 13.1 was copied to my stick so I could put them in 13.2, but I goofed and MOVED them into 13.2clearing the flash stick. Now I was copying them back to the stick, and ran across this problem.

And yes, I make sure I do apt-get update everytime I get on antix.

rust collector · posted: 2013-11-17 14:32

Hmm, I dunno then...
A bit off topic: why do you apt-get update every time? as far as I know, it just makes the system ready to install updated packages, IF you tell it to?
Not that it is a bad thing...

BitJam · posted: 2013-11-17 19:28

jdmeaux1952 wrote:I used this same stick to copy/archive files with antiX 13.1 and it was running fast. Now I upgraded to antiX 13.2, SpaceFM seems to have S L O W E D D O W N to a"crawl".

WhenI upgraded to antiX 13.2, I used an iso copy to load it. I had tried to do a manual ugrade first, but I screwed that up (I think I missed a step). I had made sure that the songs I had downloaded in 13.1 was copied to my stick so I could put them in 13.2, but I goofed and MOVED them into 13.2clearing the flash stick. Now I was copying them back to the stick, and ran across this problem.

The wear on flash memory happens when you erase, which has to be done to a large"erase block" before you can do a write. A move off of a stick like you did could be extremely hard on the flash memory because it interleaves lots of reads and writes. Many erase blocks on the flash stick would have needed to be erased and re-written many times. This could have worn out the flash memory. drastically decreasing its performance.

You can test this hypothesis by copying via the command line and see if that drastically improves performance. If not, then the problem is likely due to the stick wearing out and not a regression or bug in SpaceFM.

anticapitalista · posted: 2013-11-17 19:57

Also try copyting using rox and see if it is also slow.

rokytnji · posted: 2013-11-17 20:05

On my Usb 1.1 IBM A22m Lappy Top. I use a combo 4 port pcmcia cardbus with 2 usb 2.0 ports which is way faster
copying than usb1.1. Even when I use a usb to sd pendrive adapter for sd flash card copying on that lappy top.

I use Sandisk Cruzer and Kingston Data Travelers for these operations. The SD cards are Kingston also.

jdmeaux1952 · posted: 2013-11-18 12:07

I may have found my problem. I used an OLD windows program to check the memory blocks on the usb. (Hey, I still use Win95 on one machine for stuff like this.) I had 2 memory blocks that crapped on me. Once I killed them, speed picked up using the usb in Windows and antiX. Problem solved.

rust collector · posted: 2013-11-18 19:14

Ok, I have to ask, how do you kill the bad blocks?

dolphin_oracle · posted: 2013-11-18 19:26

a file utility can mark the blocks as bad and they won't be used in the future.

BitJam · posted: 2013-11-18 19:58

rust collector wrote:Ok, I have to ask, how do you kill the bad blocks?

Code: Select all

man badblocks
...
DESCRIPTION
       badblocks is used to search for bad blocks on a device (usually a  disk
       partition).   device  is     the  special file corresponding to the device
       (e.g /dev/hdc1).     last-block is the last block to be checked; if it  is
       not  specified,    the  last  block  on  the device is used as a default.
       first-block is an optional parameter specifying the starting block num-
       ber  for     the  test, which allows the testing to start in the middle of
       the disk.  If it is not specified the first block on the disk  is  used
       as a default.

You can also use the e2fsck"-c" option twice. This will automatically run badblocks and then mark the blocks as bad. Or you can save the output of"badblocks" in a file and use the '-l" or"-L" e2fsk options to read in that file and mark those blocks as bad.

rust collector · posted: 2013-11-18 20:38

Thanks! I learnt something today too.

jdmeaux1952 · posted: 2013-11-20 23:07

Cool! BitJam just taught me something new. I had an OLD Win95 program that was used for those HUGE 2 Gb hard drives we used to use to check for bad sectors and could block them. I found out it can be used on usb flash drives.