Macbook Pro (Sequoia 15.3.1) Slow with Extrernal SSDs

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Mommacat said:
Hmm ... yes, the sharing of data sounds very nice. Thank you, @Hooligans Imagery!

I've looked at this further. My G-DRIVE PRO (primary) is Journaled, the G-DRIVE (my backup) is APFS, and my WD is exFAT. I have a mix going on. No wonder this relatively new Mac user is confused. ;). Sadly, all of these external drives have tanked after a couple of Sequoia updates ago. Something is odd.
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Convert them all to APFS. By the way CCC - Carbon Copy Cloner is a great program for Mac users. Very professionally done.
 
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A little more than a year ago I switched from PC to MAC.

Not being familiar with MAC I consulted with a MAC expert on the transition process. He advised me to reformat all external drives used on the MAC to APFS. He also advised me on a proper backup system.

I followed his advice and since then have been able to add multiple external drives. In each case I reformatted to APFS. I have used this approach on four different MAC computers including two different new MacBook Pro's, one reconditioned MacBook Pro M1 and a Mac Studio.

Through this process I had multiple updates. I have not had any slowdown in external drive perfrmance with any of these computers. and drives.

My advice, for the drives you are using copy everything on the drive to a temporary drive then reformat the drive to APFS then restore everything back to the drive. Your problem will go away.

MAC is significantly different from PC and there are adjustment pains. This one can be easily fixed.

You are stepping into a new world. Like me you probably don't know this new world so pay a little to a consultant to get advice. I paid a few hundred dollars to the consultant in the beginning but now I can do it all on my own.
 
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He also advised to use a combination of Carbon Copy Cloner and Time Machine for backups. For remote storage Backblaze. It all works really well.

As understand it Time Machine which is built in to the MAC os can handle backup of internal drives. Carbon Copy Cloner is used to back up external drives to another local drive. Backblaze is used to back up internal and external drives to cloud storage they provide.
 
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John Navitsky said:
for those suggesting to reformat, remember that means it won’t work on a non apple system. maybe that’s not a problem, but it would be good to point that out
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That is correct. You can't expect a drive to work flawlessly if it is not formatted in a way not designed for that system. Trying to use a drive in both systems is not a good idea. You might be able to make it work some of the time but you are inviting trouble.
 
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John Navitsky said:
for those suggesting to reformat, remember that means it won’t work on a non apple system. maybe that’s not a problem, but it would be good to point that out
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John , I think Mommacat is aware of that . That’s why it’s formatted as exFAT. Mommacat wanted to use it on both systems. But if the priority is to keep as exFAT , it will not run efficiently.
 
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Mommacat said:
Hmm ... yes, the sharing of data sounds very nice. Thank you, @Hooligans Imagery!

I've looked at this further. My G-DRIVE PRO (primary) is Journaled, the G-DRIVE (my backup) is APFS, and my WD is exFAT. I have a mix going on. No wonder this relatively new Mac user is confused. ;). Sadly, all of these external drives have tanked after a couple of Sequoia updates ago. Something is odd.
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Have you run disk utility to check for errors and repair. That’s an option. Also, are the drives connected to a hub?
 
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wotan1 said:
He also advised to use a combination of Carbon Copy Cloner and Time Machine for backups. For remote storage Backblaze. It all works really well.

As understand it Time Machine which is built in to the MAC os can handle backup of internal drives. Carbon Copy Cloner is used to back up external drives to another local drive. Backblaze is used to back up internal and external drives to cloud storage they provide.
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Time Machine can back up external drives as well as internal drives. That is how I use it.
 
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Anthony said:
Time Machine can back up external drives as well as internal drives. That is how I use it.
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This is news to me. Like I said earlier I am new to Mac.

Have you tried Carbon Copy Cloner and if so which is better and why?

All I know is my consultant set it up so I only use Time Machine to back up internal drives. Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) does everything else for local drives.

I should mention I am pretty paranoid about good backups. Currently I have two local independent local drive backups plus every primary drive is backed up to the cloud using Backblaze.

I have two high speed external drives for processing and images.
 
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wotan1 said:
This is news to me. Like I said earlier I am new to Mac.

Have you tried Carbon Copy Cloner and if so which is better and why?

All I know is my consultant set it up so I only use Time Machine to back up internal drives. Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) does everything else for local drives.

I should mention I am pretty paranoid about good backups. Currently I have two local independent local drive backups plus every primary drive is backed up to the cloud using Backblaze.

I have two high speed external drives for processing and images.
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Thanks, I also have a backup to an external drive. I use SuperDuper for this, have done so for many years. https://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

When I started using it, CCC and SuperDuper were (and still are) both recommended. My choice between the two was rather random. Perhaps I just liked the name.

Time Machine automatically backs up my internal SSD and my main external 8TB hard drive. It does an hourly backup and at the end of the day it consolidates that day's backups. Roughly every week I do a manual backup to another 8TB hd using SuperDuper. When not actually backing up I disconnect this hd to try to keep it as clear as possible from any power failures or computer crashes. I don't know if this is necessary, but I feel more secure this way.

I can't comment on incremental backups other than with Time Machine. As TM is integral to the Mac, it makes sense to me to use it for internal and external drives so as to maximise compatibility.

Over the years I have occasionally made use of one or other of my backups without difficulty. TM is particularly useful when tracking down a previous version of a document, from the same day or even from some time ago.

Disclaimer - I am not an expert and only report what works for me.
 
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wotan1 said:
This is news to me. Like I said earlier I am new to Mac.

Have you tried Carbon Copy Cloner and if so which is better and why?

All I know is my consultant set it up so I only use Time Machine to back up internal drives. Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) does everything else for local drives.

I should mention I am pretty paranoid about good backups. Currently I have two local independent local drive backups plus every primary drive is backed up to the cloud using Backblaze.

I have two high speed external drives for processing and images.
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Time machines advantage is that you can go back in time to any backup you want . I use to use time machine all the time but yiu have to dedicate a specific drive to it and sometimes it would stop backing up. Then you would have to go through the initialization process al over again. That’s when i switched to CCC. I find it much more convenient for my purposes. And yes, you can backup any drive with time machine, not just the internal one.
 
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wotan1 said:
This is news to me. Like I said earlier I am new to Mac.

Have you tried Carbon Copy Cloner and if so which is better and why?

All I know is my consultant set it up so I only use Time Machine to back up internal drives. Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) does everything else for local drives.

I should mention I am pretty paranoid about good backups. Currently I have two local independent local drive backups plus every primary drive is backed up to the cloud using Backblaze.

I have two high speed external drives for processing and images.
Click to expand...
I use both CCC and Time Machine. For me, they serve different purposes. Both can run scheduled events (backups). I use Time Machine that way and have it set to back up one time a day. I once had it set to back up every hour but that was excessive and, honestly, I don't save or edit that many files in a day. I use CCC for "on demand" backups. I run a clone of my external photo and video libraries usually after importing or editing a lot of photos or videos. My wife and I go out "shooting" 3-4 times a week *less this blasted cold and snow covered winter... arrrrgh* and after I import my keepers and do some editing, I will clone my external drive where the libraries are stored. For files on my internal drive, those just go to Time Machine. I also use iCloud to store my active "Photos" library.

Hope this helps,
Jeff
[edited to correct autocorrect mishap. should have read "winter" not "winger" as originally posted...
 
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Thanks everyone for the information about backups. the sharing of information on this forum is very valuable.

I am currently running my catalogs and processing through an external 8TB high speed solid state drive. I also am using a 6 TB RAID array for additional storage.

I have a few external slower spinning disk drives I use for local backups.

I work well with Carbon Copy Cloner which backs up the external drives daily, two local backups for each primary drive. I use Time Machine only for the internal drive, Backblaze makes continuous backups to the cloud.

I like Carbon Copy Cloner it does a good job with identifying the backups and reporting progress as well as as warning if there is a problem. Same with Backblaze.

What I am finding is that after a major OS upgrade, the backup programs stop working because permission to access the drives was not restored in the update. I get warnings and I have to go into settings to grant drive access permissions. That solves the problem and the backups get quickly back to work.

I make a point of NOT reformatting my CF Express B cards after importing images until I know all the backups have run successfully.

I have not had a problem with this system. I also have not had a drive failure so I have not had to restore anything.
 
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Thank you @jeffnles1 and all! The G-DRIVE PRO and WD Passport should perform better, I would think.

From internal HD

1740071606728.png



From WD Passport formatted exFAT

1740071507115.png



From G-DRIVE (this is a standard 24TB HD so not a speed demon)

1740072093762.png



From G-DRIVE PRO formatted Journaled

1740071407932.png
 
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Hi again @Ralph! I have plenty of space on all of the drives including the internal HD. Also, the only drive running through a hub is the WD Passport so I know I take a hit there but it was acceptable up until a month ago.

I use FileSync for back ups. It worked great on Windows so I just continued to use it on the Mac. Hopefully that's not another boo boo. Still learning the Mac world.

Working on back ups and will contemplate when to reformat all external drives as APFS. Need to get this done before the season ramps up.

Thank you all!
 
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Mommacat said:
Hi again @Ralph! I have plenty of space on all of the drives including the internal HD. Also, the only drive running through a hub is the WD Passport so I know I take a hit there but it was acceptable up until a month ago.

I use FileSync for back ups. It worked great on Windows so I just continued to use it on the Mac. Hopefully that's not another boo boo. Still learning the Mac world.

Working on back ups and will contemplate when to reformat all external drives as APFS. Need to get this done before the season ramps up.

Thank you all!
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Good luck. There are so many variables that it’s tough to say exactly what’s going on. But whether or not the lack of APSF is slowing things down, I highly recommend that when you get chance, reformat to APSF . It’s a much more efficient format. I never used FileSync but I will tell you that CarbonCopayCloner is one of the best, if not the best backup program for the Mac. And their support is excellent.
 
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Ralph said:
Good luck. There are so many variables that it’s tough to say exactly what’s going on. But whether or not the lack of APSF is slowing things down, I highly recommend that when you get chance, reformat to APSF . It’s a much more efficient format. I never used FileSync but I will tell you that CarbonCopayCloner is one of the best, if not the best backup program for the Mac. And their support is excellent.
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Thank you @Ralph! I greatly appreciate your help and sharing your expertise! Take care! :)
 
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Mommacat said:
Thank you @jeffnles1 and all! The G-DRIVE PRO and WD Passport should perform better, I would think.

From internal HD

View attachment 107626


From WD Passport formatted exFAT

View attachment 107625


From G-DRIVE (this is a standard 24TB HD so not a speed demon)

View attachment 107627


From G-DRIVE PRO formatted Journaled

View attachment 107624
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Those are all about what I would expect. My internal SSD gets about the same (right around 6500). The hard drive (not SSD) I use for backups that run overnight is about 200 +/-. Yours seems to be in line with what it is supposed to be doing.

Jeff
 
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