I recently purchased a Synology DS923+ to replace my aging and near capacity Netgear ReadyNAS RN516. The ReadyNAS is setup as RAID1 while the Synology DS923+ is set up as RAID10. When I copy (not move) a 39 GB folder on the ReadyNAS to another folder on the ReadyNAS, it takes only seconds and I really don’t have time to read the transfer rate. When I do the same thing on the Synology, it takes about 2-1/2 minute at a transfer rate of about 260 MB/s. I don’t know why it takes so much longer on the Synology. Could it be because of the different in RAID types or is there some setting that I have on the Synology that is causing this difference? Any thoughts on what might be causing this difference?
Are you doing this via File Station? If not how?
Are you sure the move isn’t passing through your PC?
No, I am not using File Station. I am using File Explorer (Windows 11). It isn’t a move, but a copy. And no, I’m not sure it isn’t passing through my PC. I’m not sure how to find out. The computer, the router, and both of the NAS are connected through an unmanaged switch. What I find strange is that the Netgear RN516 NAS copies the 38GB folder in seconds while the Synology DS923+ takes 2-1/2 minutes. I would have thought that they would both have similar performance, and if they didn’t, I would have thought the Synology DS923+ would be a little quicker than the Netgear RN516. I’m not sure I believe File Explorer when it shows that the folder has been copied in seconds on the RN516 because I don’t think the hard drive can transfer (write) data that fast (20GB/s). However, the files show up in File Explorer as having been copied. By the way, I tried the same thing running File Explorer on my old Windows 7 computer and took longer to copy on the RN516 than it did on the DS923+. I’m just trying to understand why it appears to copy so fast on the RN516 using my Windows 11 computer. I’m wondering what exactly is occurring.
If you open Task Manager on W11, you can see the ethernet/wifi bandwidth. If this jumps up during transfer, the move is passing through your PC. If so, how are you connecting?
Otherwise, be sure that fast clone is enabled. Open Control Panel; Under File Services > SMB/AFP/NFS, use these settings:
Max SMB – SMB3
Min SMB – SMB2
Encryption – Auto
Enable opportunistic locking
Then, under File Services > Advanced, enable file fast clone. Also, enable Windows network discovery to allow file access via SMB.
All of the devices on my network are connected through an unmanaged switch (router, three computers, two NAS, two printers, and two VOIP phones). On my Windows 11 machine, there is no significant jump in throughput when I copy the folder (it’s only a few Kbps), regardless of whether its on my RN516 or DS923+, so I assume the copy operation is not passing through my Win11 computer. What I find strange is that when I do the same thing on my Windows 7 computer, the throughput in Task Manager jumps up to about 50 MB/s so I guess it may be passing through my Win7 computer in that instance. I suppose that the RN516 may be cloning the file when I use the Win11 computer, but I don’t know why it wouldn’t when I use my Win7 computer. I couldn’t find any documentation of file cloning for the RN516. It sure looks like something related to Windows 11 is creating this phenomenon but I don’t know why it would occur only on the RN516.
Here is a little additional info when copying the same folder to a different location on the same NAS (the Win7 machine is older and slower than the Win11 machine).
OS : NAS : File Explorer Transfer Rate : Task Manager Ethernet Throughput
Win11 : RN516 : ~20 GB/s : ~3 Mbps
Win11 : DS923+ : ~260 MB/s : <100 Kbps
Win7 : RN516 : 36-48 MB/s : 800-950 Mpbs, occasionally <500 Mbps
Win7 : DS923+ : ~56 MB/s : 900-990 Mbps
Can you answer a file clone question for me? If you enable fast clone on the Synology, copy a file to a new location, and then subsequently delete that original file, does the service immediately copy the entire file to the new location before deleting the original file? Does this file cloning only occur with larger files or are all copied files cloned regardless of size?