Problems with torrents and external USB hard drive

GrayFox · May 10, 2006

When I try to download files from a torrent to my external USB drive, the drive starts processing. When I pause the download, it continues to process for 5-10+ minutes. Now, I thought maybe it was because I have USB 1.1 in my computer, but when I download something from a site, it saves 50x faster and doesn't do this crap. I thought maybe it didnt want me to seed from that drive, but it continued even after I stopped the download (which meant it wasn't seeding). While the drive is processing, it freezes if I try to go view the files on the drive in explorer.
What the heck is going on here? Is this because I have USB 1.1? Or is it something else?

KoNaStAr · May 10, 2006

Torrents normally don't agree with portable storage of any kind just because of the way they download information...whereas a download from a site is a direct download via HTTP client and you're getting the file section-by-section from a server, with torrents it's an indirect connection, a network, if you will, between a multitude of users...you get the files piece by piece, and bit torrent recompiles them as the download goes along...it may be that it's USB 1.1 and it simply can't recompile and index the files quick enough, or it may just be that it's removeable storage, and the device is the object not handling the pressure here, not your USB. While I'm not quite sure if that's the exact reason, it's my guesstimation <_<

GrayFox · May 10, 2006

I really don't think it's a drive problem. It's not old and it doesn't really give me any other troubles. It's more likely the fact that I'm not on USB 2.0.
Anyone used an external drive plugged into USB 2.0 with torrents?

BTW, I made a gamefaqs tech support topic
http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/genmessag...&topic=28030456
They probably won't be much help though.... but I figured it can't hurt to try.

KoNaStAr · May 10, 2006

I've never, no, but I know that you simply can't do some things with removeable storage, like external HDs.

You CAN run an OS from one, but it's going to fuck up. Probably the same logic with torrents....but hey, whatever, ask the people at gayFAQs. see how far that gets you.. <_<

GrayFox · May 11, 2006

Just like I thought. No one has answered and the topic dropped off the first page. They almost never answer my topics there unless it's just some stupid little thing I'm not realizing. Something like this gets no responses.
Anyway, I found another reason that my external drive probably isn't the problem. I've seen some people recommend an external drive for torrent downloads. I just want to know what's really wrong here. There's plenty of space on that drive. It's weird.

Zayne.H · May 12, 2006

It just might be your USB 1.1, Or How your downloading it, Is it Directly form the torrent or is it from like a Http download?

GrayFox · May 14, 2006

Yeah, it's from the torrent.
And I have to correct myself... I downloaded a big file through http and it did the same thing. So yeah, I guess its cause I need USB 2.0
But it does this on torrents when I only download like 10 seconds... which doesn't make sense.