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I am using an old WD My Book (don't know which version, but it's most likely the one from the video How to open a WD my book case) with a WD 2 TB HDD. It is connected via mini USB b <=> USB A to my PC. Here's the result of a short smartctl test:

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Western Digital Green
Device Model:     WDC WD20EZRX-00DC0B0
Serial Number:    WD-WMC1T2926965
LU WWN Device Id: 5 0014ee 6add623cf
Firmware Version: 80.00A80
User Capacity:    2,000,398,934,016 bytes [2.00 TB]
Sector Sizes:     512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Device is:        In smartctl database 7.3/5319
ATA Version is:   ACS-2 (minor revision not indicated)
**SATA Version is:  SATA 3.0, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 3.0 Gb/s)**
Local Time is:    Fri Mar  8 16:11:21 2024 CET
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

Am I being held back by the mini USB type-B cable?

It's so old that I think it probably doesn't have a mini USB type-B <=> USB 3.0, right?

Is there a way to use this WD My Book and get 6 Gbit/s?

If not, what should I do to use this HDD to the fullest? It's currently serving media via Plex.

iozone results:

Children see throughput for  1 initial writers  =   59172.65 kB/sec
    Parent sees throughput for  1 initial writers   =   29136.78 kB/sec
    Min throughput per process          =   59172.65 kB/sec 
    Max throughput per process          =   59172.65 kB/sec
    Avg throughput per process          =   59172.65 kB/sec
    Min xfer                    = 1048576.00 kB

    Children see throughput for  1 rewriters    =   59750.37 kB/sec
    Parent sees throughput for  1 rewriters     =   30209.04 kB/sec
    Min throughput per process          =   59750.37 kB/sec 
    Max throughput per process          =   59750.37 kB/sec
    Avg throughput per process          =   59750.37 kB/sec
    Min xfer                    = 1048576.00 kB

    Children see throughput for 1 random readers    =  163371.80 kB/sec
    Parent sees throughput for 1 random readers     =   54834.50 kB/sec
    Min throughput per process          =  163371.80 kB/sec 
    Max throughput per process          =  163371.80 kB/sec
    Avg throughput per process          =  163371.80 kB/sec
    Min xfer                    = 1048576.00 kB
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  • 2
    There should be a label with product information on the device. Post that information
    – Ramhound
    Commented Mar 8 at 15:40
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    The drive has to have not only the capability of 6Gb/s transfers, but so does the controller/USB adapter embedded in the enclosure... Not to mention that USB 3.0 has a 5Gb/s theoretical limit... If the drive is in 3Gb/s mode, it is likely because the controller/USB adapter can only do 3Gb/s. The way to get the "fullest" use out of it would be to remove the drive from the enclosure and put it directly in the PC connected directly to a SATA interface that is capable of 6Gb/s.
    – acejavelin
    Commented Mar 8 at 15:40
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    Green series disks aren't particularly fast, and the internet is providing inconsistent info on whether its 5400RPM or 7200RPM, but i'd lean toward the former. Note that the disk only promises to be "sata 3" which is characterized as "6 GB/s" but there is no promise that it will actually work at that speed. This disk was released in 2012, so the my book enclosure or cable is likely USB2. does the enclosure and the cable have a blue USB port? installing the disk directly on SATA should in the PC case should help eliminate any concerns about USB version.
    – Frank Thomas
    Commented Mar 8 at 15:50
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    ok USB2 will only signal at 480 Mbit/s (approx 50MB/s) so even if its running full-throttle, you are only going to get a fraction of that in real-world use (generally 25-35MB/s). without changing that fact (by connecting differently, like SATA or replacing it with a USB3.x capable device), nothing else will have any impact.
    – Frank Thomas
    Commented Mar 8 at 17:08
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    Such a device is normally called a USB HDD, not a SATA HDD. It's the slowest link that determines overall performance.
    – Therac
    Commented Mar 9 at 22:19

3 Answers 3

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It will not affect performance either way. Even with a faster 7200RPM HDD, your actual write speeds will be capped around 120 MB/s. WD Black (faster models) are marketed with only Transfer Rate up to 150MB/s - they average around 80-100 MB/s.

Read/write speeds aren't one-to-one with SATA speeds, but only much faster SSDs in the 3-400+ MB/s range will start to pressure a 3GB/s SATA connection, and only in certain circumstances like huge file copies

Some more information and old (but still relevant) benchmark examples here

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    Actually the USb2.0 connection is the de facto limiting factor. Your answer assumes the best conditions in an internal SATA connection.
    – ChanganAuto
    Commented Mar 8 at 20:49
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    OP could shuck the drive and remount it in a USB3 exterrnal caddy to lift the USB bottleneck, but that costs money, and has some small risk.
    – Criggie
    Commented Mar 9 at 22:19
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    3 Gbyte per second or 3 Gbit per second? SATA 2 is 3 Gbit/s (300 Mbyte/s). It is better to spell it out to avoid the ambiguity.
    – Peter Mortensen
    Commented Mar 10 at 1:00
  • @ChanganAuto given this is a 2012-era "Green" HDD, the ~50MB/s max speed of USB 2.0 is unlikely to be much of a bottleneck.
    – Ian Kemp
    Commented Mar 10 at 13:42
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How can I use the full 6 Gbit/s mode on my SATA HDD?

You can't while the drive is in this enclosure, but it almost certainly doesn't matter.

There are no hard drives that can achieve even SATA 1 (~150MB/s) speeds consistently, so the fact that the enclosure limits its drive to "only" SATA 2 speeds of ~300MB/s is wholly irrelevant. The bigger limitation is that the USB interface of the enclosure is a far lower USB 2.0 or ~50MB/s - but even this is unlikely to be much of a bottleneck, given that your drive is a "Green" model which is slow even among hard drives. I'd bet that 100MB/s is the absolute maximum performance this drive would put out, and that is again not a sustained, but burst speed.

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To get the best speed possible, pull the drive from its case, and connect it directly to a SATA connector on your motherboard.

There are decent disassembly instructions on youtube for all manner of models of drive. Internally, they are generally regular 3.5" SATA drives with an additional small daughterboard holding a USB-SATA converter chip and power components.

Although be aware some very small number of drives (predominantly newer Seagate spinning disks) have this componentry directly on the drive's circuitboard so don't expose SATA directly.

Even this won't give the full speed of 6 Gbit/sec but it will be the fastest speed this drive can handle.

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