Slow Sync with FFS (Version 11.14)

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Posts: 2
Joined: 12 Oct 2021

Jen

Hi everybody,

I am using FFS to sync an external USB stick (200GB of mixed data, about 140.000 files, encrypted + unlocked for the prossedure) to a folder on an external USB HDD.
So far, the syncs have been effortless and very fast on an old Thinkpad T410 (Windows7).

Now, I would like to do the same on a newer Thinkpdad T470s with Windows 10. However, with the T470s, the same sync prossedure always slows down extremely after about 80.000 files (always at a different position, changing files involved). The USB stick starts flickering and progress is as good as none. It is also impossible to abort the sync-process on FFS. If I let it run, it takes up to 12 minutes to finish.

I still have the old W7-system. There, everything is smooth as always. The sync keeps running through in about 3 minutes without ever stopping or slowing down.

The FFS version on both Laptops is the same (11.14). Same settings: Mirror, comparison via date & datavolume, manual start with deliberately chosing the drives/folders, surplus files going to the system´s trashbin, no additional specials, no batch or such like).

I tried to think of possible reasons...It should not be the stick or the HDD, both remain the same in the two scenarios. It should not be the settings in FFS or the version: It is the same. I also tried various USB docks on the hardware. Same result.

Would very much appreciate your help. :)

Many thanks, Jen
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Posts: 2248
Joined: 22 Aug 2012

Plerry

It is hard to assess the impact of Win10 vs. Win7
But, at least make sure you have the latest drivers installed on your new, Win10 system.
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Posts: 3551
Joined: 11 Jun 2019

xCSxXenon

Antivirus setups?
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Posts: 3551
Joined: 11 Jun 2019

xCSxXenon

Also, check Task Manager when it slows do, maybe you can see if a certain resource is being saturated.
Posts: 936
Joined: 8 May 2006

therube

Are both your stick & the external HDD connected via USB?
You might try different USB ports.
Seems you (might) have 3xUSB3.0 & 1xUSB3.1.

If you have a different system (Win10 or otherwise), you could test on there & see what kind of results you get.
Posts: 1
Joined: 15 Oct 2021

DarkBahamut

I came here looking for a thread like this after updating to FFS 11.14. Someting about it really is very very slow.

I copy files using FFS from a Windows 10 machine to an external disk connected to a machine running Debian 11 using SFTP. The performance speaks for itself. Copying a large file (20 GB):

FFS 11.13 = ~107 MB/s
FFS 11.14 = 18.4 MB/s

I can recreate this performance profile 100% of the time. Swapping backwards and forwards between the two versions gets the above noted performance every single time. Something in FFS 11.14 makes it 7 times slower.

It appears to be CPU usage issue. FFS is using approximately twice as much CPU, pegging a single core to 100% load while also producing the slow speed, so real usage is ~15 times higher.
Posts: 2
Joined: 9 Apr 2021

shawngrizzly

@DarkBahamut
I am also having this issue. I have a transfer running right now that says 45,000+ days to complete. It is about 150GB worth of files which would normally take around 40 minutes. Since I updated to the newest release it's running very slow.
Posts: 2
Joined: 12 Oct 2021

Jen

@ everybody,

thank you very much for your valuable feedback and excuse the delay.

Right now I do not yet have an update. The PC involved is in repair-mode with the seller due to hardware problems (not related to the issue from above).

As an alternative for data backup/synchro a friend advised me to look into Dr. Rathlevs tool. It also has a workaround for the synchro of USB-Sticks that are encrypted (problems with synchro of encrypted drives is why I use simple FFS in the first place).

As soon as I have my hardware restored, I will make a new attempt to solve the synchro problem with your options.