T7 Shield 4TB drives were FAST - Now Extremely SLOW

[cableguy1970]

I have (4) T7 Shield SSD Drives, 4TB size, and all four used to work flawlessly. Now attempting to save data to any of the drives they are going slower than dialup. Over 4 hours to save 4GB. I've used Samsung Magician to ensure all drives have the latest firmware (FXI72P2Q). It's odd that they all are performing exactly the same way. I've used two different Mac computers with the same results: 16" MBP M3 Max, 48 GB Memory and Sequoia 15.4 installed. 2nd Mac is a 16" MBP M2 Max, 96 GB Memory installed. I also have a Samsung T9 SSD, and it's just as slow. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[cableguy1970]

After what took forever - here is the benchmark of the T9...

[3Fees]

T7's are usb 3.2 10Gbs speed drives. There read/write speeds approx 1 GB/s. You have three usb 4 ports. I'd say it's apple computers not taking advantage of full usb 3.2 speeds. You should get a pluggable technology thunderbolt 4 / usb 4 hub and enjoy the faster speeds. This hub is rated for your laptop.

I have two pluggable technology usb 3 hubs and my backups run 400 MB/s all the time.

Step up here the air is nicer, lol.

Cheers
3Fees

[LongHiker]

@cableguy1970 What about cables? Did you use the cables that came with the drives originally, or another cable? 

Not all USB cables are built for high speed data. 

[cableguy1970]

@LongHiker I use the same cables that came with the drives originally. 

[coloradobittersweet]

I have pretty much exactly the same problem.  I bought 5 T7 Shield SSD drives back in 2023.  I copied tons of video onto the drives.  We don't get them out much, but now I am trying to place more data on them.  From two different computers, the performance is still 800/900 MB/s on the READ but the WRITE is now 2MB/s.  That is not a mistype, WRITE is really really slow at 2MB/s.  All of the drives and using the Samsung cables.  Using the same computers.  Granted, Microsoft has updated plenty of things since then.  Windows 11 machine is the main one.  I have updated the firmware on some, and that does not change the write performance.  The performance numbers are from Magician.  I had to take it down to 50MB and only 1 scan to get numbers since it was taking forever to run the performance numbers. The ports are USBC and USB 3.2 ports. 

Some of the drives are only 1/2 or 1/4 full, so it is NOT the amount of data on the drives.  Some are 95% full.  The performance on the Magician performance test is the same.  File system is exFAT on all of them.  Most all the files are big, being video files.

Something clearly is different now, but I am at a loss and not sure what.  After I put all the data on them, I did purchase AOMIE Backupper and use it. It is still installed on my main machine but not the laptop.

At this point the drives are basically read only.  I played with these back in 2023 and the performance was great for read and write, and I used Vegas Pro to render and create content directly to the T7 Shield to prove to myself the performance would be good enough on these drives.

I hope someone can help us......

Followup -- My dad 600+ miles away bought a T7 Shield a year or so ago because I told him they are awesome and fast.  I called him up and had him run the performance test on his drive...... 2MB/s .... something is seriously wrong here.  His drive is always plugged into his computer and used as a backup drive so he didn't notice the performance is terrible since it runs in the background.

[whofly]

I have a similar experience. The drive was previously used to transfer numerous large files, and did so quite quickly. I never paid much attention to how quick exactly, because it never seemed to be a problem.

After not writing to the drive for a year, I then got 2Mbps write speed. I reformatted the drive, updated the firmware, tried multiple USB cables and ports, across two different computers, both which were the same computers I used prior to the issues. 

After updating the firmware, I am now getting slightly improved write speeds, ~35Mbps, but Windows displays a sort of 'serrated', very inconsistent transfer rate. It's comforting to notice that I'm not alone, but this is very frustrating. All other diagnostics indicate no issues with the drive.

[ddaniel51]

Do your drives contain a Recycle Bin?  If so empty it.

[coloradobittersweet]

Hi Red Giant --- thanks for the idea, but unfortunately no changes for me.

I just connected 2 of my 4 drives.  One did have some files in Recycle Bin.  I emptied the Recycle Bin, ran the Benchmark and no change.  I even detached and reattached the drive and the same 2MB/s.

Both drives are still 2MB/s.  The second one I had not updated the firmware, so I updated it.  I don't know how long it took to update the firmware because after 16 minutes I needed to leave.  When I returned a few hours later the firmware was updated.  I  re-ran the Benchmark and it is still 2MB/s.  

The port they are connecting to is showing Interface USB 3.2, USB 3.2/ Slot Max: USB 3.2 / Drive Max: USB 3.2

I plan on contacting Samsung support sometime here, but I have not had time yet. I have multiple SandDisk 1TM Extreme Portable SSD and they do not show the performance issue with the same cables and port.

[Iuser2025]

Hello everyone!

This problem is about a year old, it is actively discussed on many forums, for example on reddit.

Quote from reddit:

I spent three days solving this problem. I have three Samsung T7 Shield SSDs. SSD1, which I use constantly, has no issues. SSD2 is a 4TB with the factory exFAT file system, and SSD3 is a 4TB with two ext4 partitions. Initially, the write speed on SSD2 dropped sharply, and then on SSD3 after two months. I use both SSD2 and SSD3 for backups every 2-3 months.

To fix the very low write speed on SSD:

1) Connect and mount the SSD through a high-performance USB-C port.

2) Write any 500MB file to the disk; at 2MB/s, this will take about five minutes.

3)Leave the SSD untouched for several hours. 

However, if you disconnect the SSD drive, and then connect it after a day or a week, to restore the speed you need again to keep it turned on for several hours.

I really hope that Samsung support service will pay attention to the problem and fix this error.