Ubuntu – Slow write speeds to ntfs

12.04ntfspartitioning

When writing to my ntfs partition I am getting very low speeds( When reading however I'm getting my maximum speeds):

589824   3%   60.20kB/s    0:04:06

This example is using 

rsync --progress [File] [Destination]

Where I am making a copy of the file in the same directory.

I am mounting my ntfs partition using fstab:

/dev/sda6 /mnt/data ntfs-3guid=1000,gid=11000,umask=0022,sync,auto,nosuid,rw,nouser 0 0

I am not sure if this is relevant but I was recently looking at the Power Tweaking tips provided on the Ubuntu wiki and I believe that these situations may correlate.

Grub Conf:

GRUB_BACKGROUND=/boot/grub/gbackground.jpg
GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT=true
GRUB_DEFAULT=0

The power tweak that I believe is causing the problem is the ALPM.

Note: My write speeds to my ntfs patition were absolutely fine until about yesterday when I started fiddling with the power tweak(s)

I am using one drive with multiple partitions, so it cannot be a hardware error, this is also because My dual boot in windows can access the drive at normal speeds.

Best Answer

It's the sync option that you show in your fstab line that's doing it. This is a common problem when using an external USB drive that uses usbmount. From /etc/usbmount/usbmount.conf:

#############################################################################
# WARNING!                                                                  #
#                                                                           #
# The "sync" option may not be a good choice to use with flash drives, as   #
# it forces a greater amount of writing operating on the drive. This makes  #
# the writing speed considerably lower and also leads to a faster wear out  #
# of the disk.                                                              #
#                                                                           #
# If you omit it, don't forget to use the command "sync" to synchronize the #
# data on your disk before removing the drive or you may experience data    #
# loss.                                                                     #
#                                                                           #
# It is highly recommended that you use the pumount command (as a regular   #
# user) before unplugging the device. It makes calling the "sync" command   #
# and mounting with the sync option unnecessary---this is similar to other  #
# operating system's "safely disconnect the device" option.                 #
#############################################################################

So just remove the sync option from fstab or change it to async. If you are hotplugging change the following line in that /etc/usbmount/usbmount.conf from:

MOUNTOPTIONS="sync,noexec,nodev,noatime,nodiratime"

to

MOUNTOPTIONS="noexec,nodev,noatime,nodiratime"

And don't forget to safely unmount your drive before unplugging.

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