File copying slows desktop to crawl on Neon

[K-Project]

Hi guys. Hoping you can help as I'm struggling with this. Been using Neon for some time now and love it.

I have two external HDD's formatted NTFS that I use for all my backups. I don't need to fuss too much - I simply drag and drop files from my desktop to both drives (they both have the same data - one is a backup of the backup, if you know what I mean). However I am noticing that with Neon my desktop slows to a complete crawl when I'm doing this. This doesn't seem to happen if I use Mint, but it's not my main OS...

I'm using the User Edition on 64 bit, the CPU is a Phenom 3.0Ghz, with 4Gb RAM. My desktop hard drive is a SATA 1Tb. Both external drives are also standard HDD's at 2Tb apiece.

I read a tutorial which said to switch to a different I/O scheduler, but switching to CFQ didn't seem to help as the file copies didn't even complete. They just seemed to hang altogether. I believe I am currently using the Deadline setting.

Is there a solution? I'll be quite happy just to queue up file transfers but it didn't work for me. Thanks guys.

EDIT: Oh it looks like I'm wrong. It's already set to CFQ. But I've just attempted to change it to Deadline and it's not working. Despite a reboot it's set to CFQ still.

Now I'm very confused!

[oshunluvr]

Likely the bottlenecks are the interface (USB I assume), the enclosure, and/or NTFS. I doubt changing the scheduler will do much because the speed loss is elsewhere. Look out how the devices are mounting and the mount options in use. For example. async will be faster than sync. Do some research on which are best for your usage. You might look at the mount options using Mint vs. Neon to see if a difference lies there.

iotop can be useful to observe input/output speeds. I think you'll have to install it because it's not included by default. My best guess is the issue will be USB and enclosure is the greatest bottleneck and you won't be able to do much to overcome that.

Your post begs the question: Why are you using NTFS? I assume it's because you also are using these devices with Windows. NTFS is not a very robust filesystem and not recommended unless you require Windows compatibility.

[K-Project]

Thanks for replying. Sorry to take so long responding.

Yes I need some Windows compatibility.

I think the main crux of it for me is that the copying itself is fine. That side performs fast and well. It's the side effect of the desktop slowing down that is the real issue for me. But I'll look into your suggestions .

Thanks again.