Storage Solutions Corsair GT 16GB speeds

[Naga]

Got my Corsair GT 16GB a few days back and writes were 14/15MBps (teracopy). After a format, it dropped down to 10. Nothing I would do gave me the old speeds !

After searching everywhere but the obvious place, I found the answer at the 1st place I should have searched. Download SD Formatter V2 and use it to format the drive. I'm getting speeds upto 18MBps writes now :hap2:

Btw, the answer was there on the Corsair support forums

Downer is I haven't found the best way to format it in NTFS without losing the speeds. Anybody?

 

[BIKeINSTEIN]

Is this indeed much faster than the regular 16GB Flash Voyager? :ashamed:

Some say the 16GB GT is not worth the extra moolah over the regular 16GB. :S
But the 8GB GT is way better than the regular 8GB Flash Voyager- so said some.

 

[sickizblank]

But the 8GB GT is way better than the regular 8GB Flash Voyager- so said some.

It's just the left over stock which sells now for 8GB GT.

Corsair officially has stopped the production of 8GB GT's. (Check website for further information)

Also there are many more USB drive's which are cheaper and give better speeds. For instance take Patriot Xporter XT 8GB. Gives .5x better speed than the normal flash voyager and costs less. Haven't tried it though.

As for the GT's , they aren't worth the bucks , we must learn to wait rather. Speeds aren't justified for the 2x price!

 

[techie_007]

1. Its NOT a flash drive speed issue Naga, its a filesystem issue.

2. You will ALWAYS get faster speeds with FAT32 on a USB drive than on NTFS. The utility u mentioned did the format as FAT, while when you formatted, you probably did it to NTFS

3. Also, NEVER use a flash drive in NTFS. Always use FAT32.

Why?

Because NTFS is what they call a journaling filesystem (Journaling file system - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) while FAT is NOT.

Disadvantages for a journaling FS on Flashs is that

a. It takes more space

b. The journaling process makes the drive slower while transferring data

c. The Flash WILL wear out more quickly since for a given amount of data, more blocks will be written (since the FS keeps a record of operations separately.)

BOTTOMLINE: Keep it as FAT32. DO NOT use NTFS. Gets you better speeds and longer life If you have a large file, use winrar store mode to split into 2

Whew! that was a long one

 

[Naga]

^^lol, u'd think I'd know the diff between FAT & NTFS. Of course there's a speed drop EVEN if I format in FAT normally. I don't know how exactly that app formats (no explanation on why it's recommended over on the Corsair support forums), but it's definitely faster.

Btw, I want NTFS and speed at the same time cos I haven't bought a 16GB drive to transfer documents or small files. With the 4GB limitation of FAT, how do u think I'm supposed to transfer those ISOs and HD files ? Winrar or any file splitter will take longer to process. If time is not on my priority list, why'd I get a GT :S ?

For the speed bumps and the benefits of NTFS, I'm willing to sacrifice a little of it's life. That's a trade off most of us make even while occing our rigs.

Since a normal format in windows gives the same speed drops on both FAT & NTFS, I'm willing to bet that maybe I have to find a better way to format my drive in NTFS.

Btw,@techie_007, though it sounds otherwise, no offense taken:hap2: .

 

[6pack]

for very large files (> 4gb) use cluster size of 32 or 64kb instead of 4kb. this will waste a bit of space but will increase performance. i read this somewhere. dont remember the site though.

 

[techie_007]

^^lol, u'd think I'd know the diff between FAT & NTFS. Of course there's a speed drop EVEN if I format in FAT normally. I don't know how exactly that app formats (no explanation on why it's recommended over on the Corsair support forums), but it's definitely faster.

Btw, I want NTFS and speed at the same time cos I haven't bought a 16GB drive to transfer documents or small files. With the 4GB limitation of FAT, how do u think I'm supposed to transfer those ISOs and HD files ? Winrar or any file splitter will take longer to process. If time is not on my priority list, why'd I get a GT :S ?

For the speed bumps and the benefits of NTFS, I'm willing to sacrifice a little of it's life. That's a trade off most of us make even while occing our rigs.

Since a normal format in windows gives the same speed drops on both FAT & NTFS, I'm willing to bet that maybe I have to find a better way to format my drive in NTFS.

Btw,@techie_007, though it sounds otherwise, no offense taken:hap2: .

1. Once you format using the utility, check again. Maybe it formats as FAT 16 or something? Just a guess from my side just check properties or try using some program to see what kind of filesystem your drive ends up with after the format.

2. NTFS will NOT give you the same speed ever due to the journaling limitation. Why your FAT is also slower is another thing.

3. As for large files, winrar has an option for 0 compression (store option). Just choose that and the file split size and give your flash drive as the target dir. It will just copy over the data in rar container and split appropriately. Performance hit should be non-existant. Check.

 

[Naga]

1. ^^FAT32. Just checked.

2. Can't make sense of it too.

3. If I could find out exactly wtf is happening, I'd get rid of the need for that, right? Cos I get the exact same speeds in both FAT32 & NTFS once it's been formatted. Talking about real transfer speeds with a 700MB file using teracopy, not benchmarks.

So, to sum it up, this drive does not give the same speeds after it's been formatted even once, be that be FAT or NTFS (documented at the Corsair forums, though not across the board).

i. Now, why does it happen? No idea.

ii. Does the SD Formatter give better speeds? Yes.

iii. Am I looking for a way to format in NTFS without getting such a hit in speeds? Yes.

iv. Will NTFS give a performance hit from 14/15 MBps (pre format) to 10MBps over FAT? No.

 

[Eazy]

@Naga

OH DARN !!! I got the Corsair 16gb GT yesterday and was going to format the pen drive as NTFS when I saw this thread. The speeds I get now are so good that I am hesitant to go the NTFS way and slow it down .... and my reason for buying this pen drive is for transferring large files around 8gb+ each

If you find a way to use this pen drive with NTFS without a hit in transfer speeds please post the solution here.

I get a straight line of 30.9 MB/s read speed with HDTach 3.0.4.0

 

[sydras]

1. Once you format using the utility, check again. Maybe it formats as FAT 16 or something? Just a guess from my side

Actually, FAT16 can support a maximum partition size of 2GB. So AFAIK, you would need create 4 partitions to use the GT with FAT16 .

Surprising to see that the GT takes such a performance hit with NTFS.

I kinda agree with Naga...I mean, one of the key uses of an 8GB drive could be to transfer large movie files and hence, NTFS makes more sense in this case.

 

[techie_007]

Actually, FAT16 can support a maximum partition size of 2GB. So AFAIK, you would need create 4 partitions to use the GT with FAT16 .

Surprising to see that the GT takes such a performance hit with NTFS.

I kinda agree with Naga...I mean, one of the key uses of an 8GB drive could be to transfer large movie files and hence, NTFS makes more sense in this case.

But its more of a NTFS FS issue than a flash drive issue. The overhead of the journaling filesystem just eats up the rest of ur bandwidth

 

[sydras]

But its more of a NTFS FS issue than a flash drive issue. The overhead of the journaling filesystem just eats up the rest of ur bandwidth

Ya, that's true. No getting around the fact that NTFS will increase drive wear vs FAT32. I wonder if anyone has 1.8" USB HDDs on this forum. Last I remember, SONY was selling these microvault drives. Wonder how they rate in terms of performance.

 

[Naga]

But its more of a NTFS FS issue than a flash drive issue. The overhead of the journaling filesystem just eats up the rest of ur bandwidth

Overhead on a single file? Benchmark and see the actual speed bumps u'll hit with a single file transfer on both file systems. Fat 32 has the advantage only in multiple file transfers. Transfer of a single large HD or avi file will have no advantage on any of the two file formats.

Edit: Tried the SD util on my 8Gb Mini and their was no differences in the speed (write/ FAT32 only). Confused more than ever. Anybody else with a GT willing to test this?

 

[Eazy]

I took the plunge and formatted my 16gb GT to NTFS - I felt it made no sense having this pen drive with the FAT32 file system.

the left one is FAT32 and the one on the right is NTFS .... NTFS has nearly halved the write speed !!! HD Tack shows the same read speed of 30.9 MB/s for both file formats.

 

[Aces170]

Eazy whats the diff in actual file transfer speeds ? Use teracopy or just measure the time and check.

It certainly makes no sense on using a FAT32 filesystem ona 16gb drive as it beats the whole purpose of a high capacity drive. Also why do you guys worry about drive tear that drive has a warranty for 10 yrs for gods sake... dont tell me you gonna use the drive even after 2 years...

 

[Eazy]

Eazy whats the diff in actual file transfer speeds ? Use teracopy or just measure the time and check.

It certainly makes no sense on using a FAT32 filesystem ona 16gb drive as it beats the whole purpose of a high capacity drive. Also why do you guys worry about drive tear that drive has a warranty for 10 yrs for gods sake... dont tell me you gonna use the drive even after 2 years...

Here a screenie of NTFS file copying, I forgot to take a screenie when it was as FAT32, but it copied the same single 700mb file at around 18MB/s I have set the pendrive as "Optimize for Performance" and have disabled the indexing service.

And like you say I have no problems with this pen drive going bad as I doubt I would be even using this drive after about 3 years, by that time we will probably have 100gb pen drives hyeah:

 

[Naga]

I'm betting formatting the drive in FAT32 from Windows is going to give u the same transfer speeds as NTFS. This really sux. If u can replicate the same speed issues as mine and the SD formatter does give better speeds in FAT32 than a Windows FAT32 format, there's still hope. We'll just have to start tweaking the format parameters and learn by trial and error.

 

[Eazy]

I'm betting formatting the drive in FAT32 from Windows is going to give u the same transfer speeds as NTFS. This really sux. If u can replicate the same speed issues as mine and the SD formatter does give better speeds in FAT32 than a Windows FAT32 format, there's still hope. We'll just have to start tweaking the format parameters and learn by trial and error.

HERE..... pen drive reformatted ....both are FAT32 ..... left is with HP's format utility and right is SD Formatter.....

and a screenie of the file copy speed after SD Formatting the pen drive as FAT32....

NOW GOING BACK TO NTFS AND 11MB/s

EDIT: FYI ..... Went back to NTFS - formatted the pen drive with XP's format and felt it was a bit too slow - so reformatted again as NTFS with HP's format utilty and it was a wee bit faster.

 

[Naga]

Okay, for others using FAT32, the SD Formatter gives better speeds on the normal Voyagers also. Tested on a 4GB voyager. Increments of 2~3 MBPs on both read/ write.

Just select "format size adjustment" to "on" in the option setting. It changes the cluster size optimally according to the drive size.

 

[Eazy]

SD Formatter

Check the 3rd post in this thread by CurlySue ....

The write speed is seems to be slow. Please advice. - The Corsair Support Forums

... and some good info on the 16gb GT pen drive in this thread from the RAM GUY .....

Questions about speed of the 16GB Voyager GT - The Corsair Support Forums
After copying a few files back and forth to the 16gb GT I felt that I would rather have the higher speed of FAT32, and have now reformatted the drive with SD Formatter, and I now once again get 20MB/s write speeds with ATTO !! :clap:

real life file copy speed is now .....