RetroPie forum home
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Home
    • Docs
    • Register
    • Login
    Please do not post a support request without first reading and following the advice in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

    how do you get faster write speeds to SSD only getting 24mb/s

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Help and Support
    retropie 4.7nespi4
    34 Posts 4 Posters 5.6k Views
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • mituM
      mitu Global Moderator @comet424
      last edited by

      @comet424 said in how do you get faster write speeds to SSD only getting 24mb/s:

      so for doing the exfat how do i change that for the fstab? as it wouldnt mount or if it did it was media/usb0

      Did you try to use the fstab line that you previously posted ?

      /dev/sda1  /home/pi/RetroPie       exfat   nofail,user,uid=pi,gid=pi 0     2
      

      When you test using dd, make sure you're using an output file that's on the external disc:

      dd if=/dev/urandom of=/home/pi/RetroPie/test.file bs=1M count=1024
      
      C 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • C
        comet424 @mitu
        last edited by comet424

        @mitu

        for the fstab i tried "exfat" "exfat4" "extfat" "ext4"
        none of them mounted.. unless i change the fstab uuid
        and set the usbmount to Enabled in the menu
        then sometimes it mounted

        so the results for the tests are

        pi@retropie:~ $ sudo hdparm -Tt /dev/sda1
        
        /dev/sda1:
         Timing cached reads:   1588 MB in  2.00 seconds = 793.80 MB/sec
         Timing buffered disk reads: 882 MB in  3.00 seconds = 293.62 MB/sec
        pi@retropie:~ $ df -h -T
        Filesystem     Type      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
        /dev/root      ext4      117G  4.5G  108G   4% /
        devtmpfs       devtmpfs  1.8G     0  1.8G   0% /dev
        tmpfs          tmpfs     1.9G     0  1.9G   0% /dev/shm
        tmpfs          tmpfs     1.9G  9.5M  1.9G   1% /run
        tmpfs          tmpfs     5.0M  4.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
        tmpfs          tmpfs     1.9G     0  1.9G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
        /dev/mmcblk0p1 vfat      256M   49M  207M  20% /boot
        /dev/sda1      vfat      1.9T  4.2G  1.9T   1% /home/pi/RetroPie
        tmpfs          tmpfs     384M     0  384M   0% /run/user/1000
        pi@retropie:~ $ dd if=/dev/urandom of=/home/pi/RetroPie/test.file bs=1M count=1024
        1024+0 records in
        1024+0 records out
        1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB, 1.0 GiB) copied, 59.2516 s, 18.1 MB/s
        
        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • mituM
          mitu Global Moderator
          last edited by mitu

          @comet424 said in how do you get faster write speeds to SSD only getting 24mb/s:

          none of them mounted.. unless i change the fstab uuid

          My example was without the UUID, just using the partition inode directly. If you re-format the drive, it's label may change, so the UUID may not match.

          EDIT: add the entry to /etc/fstab, then try running

          mount -a -t exfat
          

          and if the drive is mounted (mount -t exfat).

          C 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • C
            comet424 @mitu
            last edited by comet424

            @mitu

            ok so not sure what to change in my fstab

            proc            /proc           proc    defaults          0       0
            PARTUUID=e22bcd10-01  /boot           vfat    defaults          0       2
            PARTUUID=e22bcd10-02  /               ext4    defaults,noatime  0       1
            # a swapfile is not a swap partition, no line here
            #   use  dphys-swapfile swap[on|off]  for that
            UUID=3FDD-79EC  /home/pi/RetroPie       vfat    nofail,user,uid=pi,gid=pi 0     2
            

            is my current Fat32 for the 2TB drive
            everytime i format it changes the UUID so then i re change it in the fstab

            and what i was meaning is /home/pi/RetroPie vfat
            i changed the vfat to "ext4" "exfat" "exfat4"
            when i had it formated as exFat or whatever the proper wording is for it

            to see if it would mount.. it would sometimes mount as /media/usb0

            so wehre in the fstab do i add /etc/fstab

            and i guess reformat the drive to exfat right?

            and i did try where vfat is when i had "ntfs" i tried changing it to "ntfs-3g" but that didnt help either as i read that in a different retropie article someone said worked but didnt work for me
            when i had it as ntfs

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • mituM
              mitu Global Moderator
              last edited by

              Sorry, but it's getting difficult to follow your replies without any phrasing or punctuation. Can you make an effort and organize your replies better ? I understand English may not be your native language, but try to make an effort and put some structure into it.

              • First, make sure you format your drive as exfat, use the mkfs.exfat command I've mentioned. Use cfdisk /dev/sda or fdisk -l /dev/sda to confirm the drive is properly formatted.

              • 2nd, modify /etc/fstab and replace the last line with the entry I mentioned a couple of replies ago:

              /dev/sda1  /home/pi/RetroPie       exfat   nofail,user,uid=pi,gid=pi	0	2
              
              • 3rd, try the mount commands from my previous reply to make sure that you've correctly modified /etc/fstab and mounting works. If none of the commands fail, then you can disable the usbmount service and reboot to see if the external disc is mounted correctly (to /home/pi/RetroPie).
              C 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • C
                comet424 @mitu
                last edited by comet424

                @mitu
                sorry try my best as i have dislexia and its sounds clear to me

                what i was say
                in fstab file
                vfat line i changed it to "ext4" "exfat" "exfat4" for Exfat
                non of these settings "mounted" the drive tp /home/pi/RetroPie
                only to /media/usb0 and you had to have the Auto USBmount service Enabled in the Menu.. Disabled wouldnt mount

                when it was ntfs i treid "ntfs" and "ntfs-3g"

                and i was sayin since its in Fat32 i guess i have to reformat it

                and i said i had to change the UUID in the Fstab every single time when i formated the drive

                pi@retropie:/etc $ sudo mkfs.exfat /dev/sda1
                mkexfatfs 1.3.0
                Creating... done.
                Flushing... done.
                File system created successfully.
                pi@retropie:/etc $ cfdisk /dev/sda
                cfdisk: cannot open /dev/sda: Permission denied
                pi@retropie:/etc $ cfdisk /dev/sda1
                cfdisk: cannot open /dev/sda1: Permission denied
                pi@retropie:/etc $ fdisk -l /dev/sda
                fdisk: cannot open /dev/sda: Permission denied
                pi@retropie:/etc $ ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/
                total 0
                lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Feb 28 16:34 8988cf8f-d459-476f-9a4a-16c56702dc40 -> ../../mmcblk0p2
                lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Feb 28 17:51 B862-4CA4 -> ../../sda1
                lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Feb 28 16:34 C367-3F28 -> ../../mmcblk0p1
                pi@retropie:/etc $ sudo nano fstab
                pi@retropie:/etc $
                pi@retropie:/etc $ fdisk -l /dev/sda1
                fdisk: cannot open /dev/sda1: Permission denied
                

                i rebooted and ran your 2 commands again

                     `"""'     The RetroPie Project, https://retropie.org.uk
                
                pi@retropie:~ $ ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid/
                total 0
                lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Feb 28 17:58 8988cf8f-d459-476f-9a4a-16c56702dc40 -> ../../mmcblk0p2
                lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Feb 28 17:58 B862-4CA4 -> ../../sda1
                lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 15 Feb 28 17:58 C367-3F28 -> ../../mmcblk0p1
                pi@retropie:~ $ df -h -T
                Filesystem     Type      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
                /dev/root      ext4      117G  4.5G  108G   4% /
                devtmpfs       devtmpfs  1.8G     0  1.8G   0% /dev
                tmpfs          tmpfs     1.9G     0  1.9G   0% /dev/shm
                tmpfs          tmpfs     1.9G  9.4M  1.9G   1% /run
                tmpfs          tmpfs     5.0M  4.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
                tmpfs          tmpfs     1.9G     0  1.9G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
                /dev/mmcblk0p1 vfat      256M   49M  207M  20% /boot
                tmpfs          tmpfs     384M     0  384M   0% /run/user/1000
                pi@retropie:~ $ cfdisk /dev/sda1
                cfdisk: cannot open /dev/sda1: Permission denied
                pi@retropie:~ $ fdisk -l /dev/sda
                fdisk: cannot open /dev/sda: Permission denied
                pi@retropie:~ $ fdisk -l /dev/sda1
                fdisk: cannot open /dev/sda1: Permission denied
                pi@retropie:~ $
                
                proc            /proc           proc    defaults          0       0
                PARTUUID=e22bcd10-01  /boot           vfat    defaults          0       2
                PARTUUID=e22bcd10-02  /               ext4    defaults,noatime  0       1
                # a swapfile is not a swap partition, no line here
                #   use  dphys-swapfile swap[on|off]  for that
                UUID=B862-4CA4  /home/pi/RetroPie       exfat   nofail,user,uid=pi,gid=pi 0     2
                
                pi@retropie:/etc $ mount -a -t exfat
                mount: only root can use "--all" option
                pi@retropie:/etc $ sudo mount -a -t exfat
                FUSE exfat 1.3.0
                WARN: volume was not unmounted cleanly.
                fuse: mountpoint is not empty
                fuse: if you are sure this is safe, use the 'nonempty' mount option
                pi@retropie:/etc $
                
                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • mituM
                  mitu Global Moderator
                  last edited by

                  The errors below

                  cfdisk: cannot open /dev/sda1: Permission denied
                  pi@retropie:~ $ fdisk -l /dev/sda
                  fdisk: cannot open /dev/sda: Permission denied
                  pi@retropie:~ $ fdisk -l /dev/sda1
                  fdisk: cannot open /dev/sda1: Permission denied

                  are because I forgot to prefix them with sudo (they need root access). Try

                  sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda
                  

                  and check if the /dev/sda1 partition is reported as NTFS/exFAT.

                  The same with the mount commands.

                  sudo mount -a -t exfat
                  FUSE exfat 1.3.0
                  WARN: volume was not unmounted cleanly.
                  fuse: mountpoint is not empty
                  fuse: if you are sure this is safe, use the 'nonempty' mount option

                  The first message is because the fuse variant is installed, though it shouldn't interfere. You can uninstall it first by running

                  sudo apt remove exfat-fuse
                  

                  and the mounting will use the native Linux exfat support. Re-try then to run

                  > sudo mount -a -t exfat -o nonempty
                  

                  and then check by running mount that /home/pi/RetroPie is mounted using exfat.

                  C 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • C
                    comet424 @mitu
                    last edited by

                    @mitu

                    pi@retropie:~ $ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda1
                    Disk /dev/sda1: 1.8 TiB, 2000397795328 bytes, 3907026944 sectors
                    Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
                    Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
                    I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
                    Disklabel type: dos
                    Disk identifier: 0x00000000
                    pi@retropie:~ $ sudo apt remove exfat-fuse
                    Reading package lists... Done
                    Building dependency tree
                    Reading state information... Done
                    The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
                      libmicrodns0 rpi-eeprom-images
                    Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
                    The following packages will be REMOVED:
                      exfat-fuse
                    0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
                    After this operation, 64.5 kB disk space will be freed.
                    Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y
                    (Reading database ... 130482 files and directories currently installed.)
                    Removing exfat-fuse (1.3.0-1) ...
                    Processing triggers for man-db (2.8.5-2) ...
                    pi@retropie:~ $ sudo mount -a -t exfat -o nonempty
                    pi@retropie:~ $ df -h -T
                    Filesystem     Type      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
                    /dev/root      ext4      117G  4.5G  108G   4% /
                    devtmpfs       devtmpfs  1.8G     0  1.8G   0% /dev
                    tmpfs          tmpfs     1.9G     0  1.9G   0% /dev/shm
                    tmpfs          tmpfs     1.9G   26M  1.9G   2% /run
                    tmpfs          tmpfs     5.0M  4.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
                    tmpfs          tmpfs     1.9G     0  1.9G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
                    /dev/mmcblk0p1 vfat      256M   49M  207M  20% /boot
                    tmpfs          tmpfs     384M     0  384M   0% /run/user/1000
                    /dev/sda1      exfat     1.9T  2.2M  1.9T   1% /home/pi/RetroPie
                    pi@retropie:~ $ sudo hdparm -Tt /dev/sda1
                    
                    /dev/sda1:
                     Timing cached reads:   1608 MB in  2.00 seconds = 804.45 MB/sec
                     Timing buffered disk reads: 866 MB in  3.00 seconds = 288.37 MB/sec
                    pi@retropie:~ $
                    
                    pi@retropie:~ $ dd if=/dev/urandom of=/home/pi/RetroPie/test.file bs=1M count=1024
                    1024+0 records in
                    1024+0 records out
                    1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB, 1.0 GiB) copied, 58.2039 s, 18.4 MB/s
                    pi@retropie:~ $
                    

                    copying over network from windows still get 2-10mb/s

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • mituM
                      mitu Global Moderator
                      last edited by

                      OK, so the disc is not formated as exfat and mounted via the native kernel support, without fuse. This should take out the extra CPU consumed by using fuse and ntfs.

                      If you're copying just a large file over the network, do you get the same - low - speed ? Is this over a wired or wireless conenction ?

                      I know the NesPi case - the older versions ? - had an issue with the SATA controller used in the case (see this topic), it might be worth checking if the case you're using falls has the SATA controller that is problematic.

                      Just

                      C 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • C
                        comet424 @mitu
                        last edited by comet424

                        @mitu
                        i thought the disk got formated as exfat

                        /dev/sda1      exfat     1.9T  2.2M  1.9T   1% /home/pi/RetroPie
                        

                        so what do you mean exactly by "OK, so the disc is not formated as exfat and mounted via the native kernel support, without fuse. This should take out the extra CPU consumed by using fuse and ntfs."

                        explain it for someone that doesnt know the fuse and the native kernel support or the extra cpu consummed etc

                        network is cabled 1gb connection..
                        its copying any file.. that i getting only 2-10mbs the dd command shows 18mb/s is that saying its only read writting? large or small just doesnt matter ):

                        im using the nespi 4 from my how to guide i made
                        https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/28848/guide-how-to-setup-nespi-4?_=1646095106362

                        so i dont know if it falls under that i thought i solved the slow problem speeds with my article about mounting the sata controller as i think i read that article and thats how i made my article from it

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • mituM
                          mitu Global Moderator
                          last edited by mitu

                          @comet424 said in how do you get faster write speeds to SSD only getting 24mb/s:

                          explain it for someone that doesnt know the fuse and the native kernel support or the extra cpu consummed etc

                          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS-3G#Performance

                          so i dont know if it falls under that i thought i solved the slow problem speeds with my article about mounting the sata controller as i think i read that article and thats how i made my article from it

                          Did you add the quirks configuration to /boot/cmdline.txt ? Can you try without it ?

                          C 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • C
                            comet424 @mitu
                            last edited by

                            @mitu
                            yes and no

                            i actually still running the same nintendo nesp case you see in the article i made.. all i did for myself was upgrade from 250gb to a 2tb and i use the 250gb in a new system for a friend.. and speeds were fine for it..

                            so i didnt need to change the cmdline as i made thes changes back in 2020 .. but ill try removing the part in the cmdline to see if it works for a 2tb i had to add it for the 250 and 500gb

                            C 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • C
                              comet424 @comet424
                              last edited by comet424

                               `*****@@**'  IP Address.........: 192.168.0.52
                                `*******'   Temperature........: CPU: 52°C/125°F GPU: 52°C/125°F
                                  `"""'     The RetroPie Project, https://retropie.org.uk
                              
                              pi@retropie:~ $ df -h -T
                              Filesystem     Type      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
                              /dev/root      ext4      117G  4.5G  108G   4% /
                              devtmpfs       devtmpfs  1.8G     0  1.8G   0% /dev
                              tmpfs          tmpfs     1.9G     0  1.9G   0% /dev/shm
                              tmpfs          tmpfs     1.9G  9.4M  1.9G   1% /run
                              tmpfs          tmpfs     5.0M  4.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
                              tmpfs          tmpfs     1.9G     0  1.9G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
                              /dev/mmcblk0p1 vfat      256M   49M  207M  20% /boot
                              /dev/sda1      exfat     1.9T   18G  1.9T   1% /home/pi/RetroPie
                              tmpfs          tmpfs     384M     0  384M   0% /run/user/1000
                              pi@retropie:~ $ sudo hdparm -Tt /dev/sda1
                              
                              /dev/sda1:
                              Timing cached reads:   1546 MB in  2.00 seconds = 772.88 MB/sec
                              Timing buffered disk reads: 1088 MB in  3.00 seconds = 362.55 MB/sec
                              pi@retropie:~ $ dd if=/dev/urandom of=/home/pi/RetroPie/test.file bs=1M count=1024
                              1024+0 records in
                              1024+0 records out
                              1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB, 1.0 GiB) copied, 58.393 s, 18.4 MB/s
                              pi@retropie:~ $
                              

                              so windows shows now anywhere from 2-50mbs its better that way but i dunno... is there a test file size that you copy from windows to find out the actually speed?

                              i gonna try to copy over some couple gig files

                              so copying just random files i get 3-5mbs
                              random files of 159gb i jsut sliding over is going to take 8hours

                              so removing the cmdline info i added didnt help ):

                              but its a limit with this usb hot swap and 2TB maybe its only good for 1TB and less?

                              i dont have a smaller SSD anymore to test it ):

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • C
                                comet424
                                last edited by comet424

                                so selecting 4 files all together 8 gb
                                it started at 90mbs then dropped down to 2mb then up and down but finished

                                thats with the removal of the extra for the the cmdline.txt

                                but the other file copying of smaller more files is at 2.38mb/s saying going to take 15 hours now to copy 156gb

                                i selected 73 files that equaled 159gb to test to copy.... it peaks at 90mbs/ averages like 60mb and says takes 35min to transfer 159gb not the 15 hours for the smaller files ...

                                should i re add the info to the cmdline.txt and see what happens ..

                                is it an issue then for small files? and if so anyway to improve speeds for small files

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • C
                                  comet424
                                  last edited by comet424

                                  had to re add

                                  usb-storage.quirks=152d:0562:u

                                  to the cmdline.txt when you did a reboot was ok.

                                  but when you turned it off.. and turned back on... the usb drive wouldnt not mount

                                  so i re added

                                  usb-storage.quirks=152d:0562:u

                                  then rebooted then the drive mounted..

                                  it can copy big files like 70 meg/s but small files etc slow and takes forever i dont get it.. but if i copy to my windows to unraid server is faster for small files is it possibly not fast cpu?

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • mituM
                                    mitu Global Moderator
                                    last edited by

                                    Multiple small files will always be slower to copy than larger files. The CPU should be plenty fast, but I/O (disc/network/internal PCI bus) is not the same as on PC, plus the quirks added which disable UAS in favor of the slower USB mas-storage driver have also an impact.

                                    C 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • C
                                      comet424 @mitu
                                      last edited by

                                      @mitu

                                      oh so the quirks whatever that is slows the usb port down? or the transfering...

                                      so i wonder if newer nespi4 have it fixed the usb mass storage

                                      does it impact using retropie then loading roms or what not.. or just mainly over network..

                                      and do you guys run the retropie OS on the SD card or do you run it on the SSD

                                      mituM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • mituM
                                        mitu Global Moderator @comet424
                                        last edited by

                                        @comet424 said in how do you get faster write speeds to SSD only getting 24mb/s:

                                        @mitu

                                        oh so the quirks whatever that is slows the usb port down? or the transfering...

                                        Yes, using UAS would allow for faster disc operations, this is noted in the troubleshooting topic on the RPI forums:

                                        UAS is an upgraded transport protocol compared to USB mass-storage - commands and data are separated into different queues and multiple outstanding commands can be in flight at the same time, as opposed to USB mass-storage's lock-step relationship between commands and data. This allows better saturation of the 4GBps USB3.0 transport as there can be a continuous stream of data to and from a device

                                        so i wonder if newer nespi4 have it fixed the usb mass storage

                                        I don't know and their web site doesn't have an easy to find changelog, but you can send them an email and ask about it.

                                        does it impact using retropie then loading roms or what not.. or just mainly over network..

                                        I don't think so, even with the USB storage quirks the disc should be faster than a regular SDcard.

                                        C 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • C
                                          comet424 @mitu
                                          last edited by

                                          @mitu

                                          oh ok.. learn something new everyday
                                          i guess once the roms are on the disk its fast enough

                                          and do you recommend putting retropie OS on the SSD to as well? as 1 i do not know how to do that.. havent googled.. as i know the sd cards only last so long

                                          or is it just ok to leave the os on the SD card?

                                          mituM 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • mituM
                                            mitu Global Moderator @comet424
                                            last edited by

                                            @comet424 You can use the SSD for OS also, but it will be formatted with a Linux filesystem and you'll not be able to read it from Windows/macOS. Using a sdcard for the OS/RetroPie is easier for upgrades, since you'll write the new OS release (when upgrade will require it a full re-image), but you'd still have the ROMs on your external SSD. Using the SSD with a Windows friendly filesystem will also make it easier to copy your games to/from it on another PC running Windows/macOS.

                                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                            • First post
                                              Last post

                                            Contributions to the project are always appreciated, so if you would like to support us with a donation you can do so here.

                                            Hosting provided by Mythic-Beasts. See the Hosting Information page for more information.