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It could be your network card. Unless it is a high end server card the CPU has to do all the processing. The transfer could be killing your system and bus resources. I had the same problem on my network untill I installed a nice server card in my server.
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Thanks guys for your input. I think we're of the same opinion, I was hoping there might be an easy way to work out what channels/interrupts were being used by which SATA ports, but I think this is simply a hardware limitation of PC based MBs. Also I think the O/S disk scheduling algorithm is a lacking as when there is a big transfer file say 1GB, the other drives pretty much wait for it to finish, where as the read/write on the 2nd HDD could have been interleaved to improve responsiveness.<br />
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Yes I used the /IGP option also and found it helped a little with general responsiveness.<br />
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Thanks again.
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Hi Experts,<br />
<br />
I have a windows XP machine with 4GB RAM, and 4 SATA HDDs installed. I'm shunting some large files (some 1 &gt;&nbsp;GB) and in total ~700GB across a LAN (Restoring a server)<br />
<br />
This is ok so far, I'm using robocopy and it seems ok, although the machine slows down quite a bit.<br />
<br />
Problem. On other HDD's I get almost no response. It's as though the disk controller is flooded and won't process writes on the other HDDs in the machine which aren't involved in the big transfer.<br />
<br />
I want to keep working on my PC but it's almost hung. I've tried installing a PCI sata/ide card and hooking my big transfer drive to this card- thinking that an extra channel might solve the problem but it didn't.<br />
<br />
My motherboard is a Gigabyte P965.<br />
<br />
I have heard that disk channels are a major factor which differentiates servers from PC's pretending to be servers :)<br />
<br />
Thoughts?
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Hi Experts,

I have a windows XP machine with 4GB RAM, and 4 SATA HDDs installed. I'm shunting some large files (some 1 > GB) and in total ~700GB across a LAN (Restoring a server)

This is ok so far, I'm using robocopy and it seems ok, although the machine slows down quite a bit.

Problem. On other HDD's I get almost no response. It's as though the disk controller is flooded and won't process writes on the other HDDs in the machine which aren't involved in the big transfer.

I want to keep working on my PC but it's almost hung. I've tried installing a PCI sata/ide card and hooking my big transfer drive to this card- thinking that an extra channel might solve the problem but it didn't.

My motherboard is a Gigabyte P965.

I have heard that disk channels are a major factor which differentiates servers from PC's pretending to be servers :)

Thoughts?

Disk concurrency - poor IO in system with multiple HDDs

Computer data storage, often called storage or memory, is a technology consisting of computer components and recording media used to retain digital data. In addition to local storage devices like CD and DVD readers, hard drives and flash drives, solid state drives can hold enormous amounts of data in a very small device. Cloud services and other new forms of remote storage also add to the capacity of devices and their ability to access more data without building additional data storage into a device.

Storage

Servers are computing devices that are similar to desktop computers in that they have the same basic components, but are significantly different in size, configuration and purpose. Servers are usually accessed over a network, and many run unattended, without a computer monitor, input device, audio hardware or USB interfaces. Many servers do not have a graphical user interface (GUI), and are configured and managed remotely. Servers typically include hardware redundancy such as dual power supplies, RAID disk systems, and ECC memory, along with extensive pre-boot memory testing and verification. Critical components might be hot swappable, and to guard against overheating, servers might have more powerful fans or use water cooling.

Server Hardware

The Microsoft Legacy Operating System topic includes legacy versions of Microsoft operating systems prior to Windows 2000: All versions of MS-DOS and other versions developed for specific manufacturers and Windows 3/3.1, Windows 95 and Windows 98, plus any other Windows-related versions, and Windows Mobile.