Disk Overloaded 100%

I just bought an external hard drive for my laptop, and have connected it up and everything. Naturally I started about 8 different things downloading, but in the bottom of my utorrent screen it says "Disk overloaded 100%" and I can't get anything faster than about 10kb/s download. Any ideas as to how to rectify this problem?

Thanks a lot.

Disk overloaded means you're trying to transfer faster than the bus allows.

Is the drive USB or Firewire? Is it running USB 2.0 and Firewire 800?

It's USB, I'm not sure how I find out if it's 2.0?

If it transfers in megabytes per second when you copy to it using explorer, with NO other activity. Also under the Device Manager it should popup the type of connection under Host Controller or somesuch nomenclature.

It took me a few minutes to copy over one 350MB video file, so I guess it's not 2.0? Anything I can do to help speed file transfer between the two?

Since it's new, chances are it's USB 2.0, the USB ports on your laptop may be old though, how old is the laptop? My old pos laptop had 1.1 ports, or maybe 1.0, I dunno, I just remember it wasn't 2.0

My laptop is pretty old, it's an IBM Thinkpad T23. It always pops up with the message "this device will run faster with USB 2.0" or whatever.

Yeah, just like my now busted laptop with cracks throughout the screen and a couple keys missing, your not using a 2.0 port, that limits your speed greatly. I made this chart under the assumption the speeds listed for Wikipedia were binary, and that you can transfer at max rate.

USB 1.0 Low-Speed 192 KiBps|350 MiB file in ~31 minutes

USB 1.0 Full-Speed 1.5 MiBps|350 MiB file in ~3 minutes 53 seconds

USB 2.0 Hi-Speed 60 MiBps|350 MiB file in ~6 seconds

In short... I don't know, maybe someone can recommend something, I'm gonna look into something that may work if it exists, be back if it does.

Edit: Do you have a PCMCIA slot for cards like these? If nothing else you can add USB 2.0 support with the appropriate type.

As a side note, Sabrent doesn't make the best products, seems to vary by price...

I think I have 2 slots for those such cards, but one is filled with my wireless card. Would a card like this upgrade my laptop to 2.0?

I assume you can't just plug in a USB 2.0 hub and have your laptop run at 2.0 speeds as a result?

Thanks a lot for your help by the way, I really appreciate it.

I still think you should wait for a no money down solution, but uh... first, is it a type II wireless card? Look at this picture, the top one is type III and the bottom one, which isn't as thick is type II. As long as you have the right card type your assumption is correct, a 2.0 hub wouldn't give you 2.0 capabilities. A PCMCIA card, also known as an expansion card, should provide 2.0 capabilities. You also need to make sure the antenna on the wireless doesn't get in the way if it protrudes. Also, you should be SURE what you have otherwise you'll waste money. My dad bought a PCMCIA card when it turns out it didn't fit, and now seeing the ExpressCard on Wikipedia I know why.

In short, maybe someone can offer another solution, I thought maybe the cache could be tweaked some how but I don't know how, maybe you can look through the forums and find something. If I couldn't find a way I'd buy a card once I have the cash.

Yeah my wireless card is the thinner one of the two. There is no antenna on it so it should be able to slot in below the USB adapter card...

I think this is probably my best solution now?

Aside from buying a new computer yea :/ USB is nice in that it's ubiquitous right now but has scaled up quite fast in terms of speed. I remember I think windows95 had support, but nothing out there came with it. So since it's from before 2002 more than likely you're on a 1.1 controller. Truthfully I have no alternate choices for you. And GTHK knows more about this than I do

Here's something you can try in uT, though I'm thinking it will lag your computer since it's a tad older. The default cache for uT is 32 MiB, which will eventually fill up 1) because of the download speed you've got and 2) because you're trying to save to the external directly. I'm loathe to even suggest the usual alternative, of downloading to the INTERNAL drive, and moving to completed when done on the EXTERNAL drive. Though I guess you could try it with http://distribution.openoffice.org/p2p/ as a test since it's only 80 MiB and that means even still it will take less time to transfer should you experience the same trouble other people do when uT moves data internally.

So the alternative is to expand the disk cache under Ctrl-P -> Advanced -> Disk Cache to something larger but I wouldn't recommend > 25% of your probably 256 MiB total RAM on the laptop.

Cheers to making all that is old new again through re-use

I thought you might answer on the cache thing :/

I'd go with jewelisheaven and try tweaking the cache, if it doesn't work, or if you're lazy and don't mind blowing some dough, you have 3 alternatives.

1. Buy a new laptop

2. Use a PCMCIA card like the one in the picture to get 2.0 support (costs money but should get the job done while increasing transfer speeds, depending on the device attached).

3. Transfer the data to the drive when it's finished downloading.

4?. Create an isolated µT install with the alpha and tinker with the options on it. The question mark is there because, as implied by my other posts, while I'm familiar with this USB issue, I don't know how to tweak the cache properly, seeing as how I have never had to.

Let us know how whatever you try goes... I'll test out µT on my laptop for the hell of it, or at least I'll try to. First I need to find the HDD tray so I can put the drive back in, re-install windows, then rig my monitor, and maybe my keyboard to it. No promises on finding the tray though, my dad wanted to borrow the drive and seeing as how the laptop was busted I just tossed it somewhere .

And be sure to use openoffice for testing, the most popular builds always max my line out.

Indeed. I mention the openoffice especially in cases like this because it's not that large, and even if certain bottlenecks occur they won't last TOO long due to the filesize we're talking about. I recently resolved some issues with an even smaller filesize (86 MiB) but it's not a good candidate because there's not alot of bandwidth pumping it out. It's a pseudo-niche file with ~ 20 seeds at any one time, and I'm usually the major uploader

I suggested the cache thing, because if it's a write throughput problem, a larger cache (and larger RAM usage) may help offset the slower speeds. DOH! I didn't even ask about current settings of the disk cache. Remember GTHK even on 1.7 you have the optino to reduce HDD stress by disabling those "write finished pieces immediately" and "write out untouched blocks every 2 minutes". OF NOTE: in 1.8 there's an addition for disbaling windows cache, which isn't really the problem in this case, but is what's goig on when as people are downloading they're seeing uT RAM usage incrementally rise and then "fall" when downloaded data is dumped to disk. Also during this time their download / upload throughput is in the tubes.

In short, my laptop refused to respond to both built in and external keyboards, so i couldn't even get into the BIOS to try and boot from an external drive since the tray is still missing, it may have had to do with... never mind :/.

Regardless, jewelisheaven, the two options you mentioned were the ones I was thinking might work, but I figured I should let someone better versed in cache options make a suggestion .

If it were me I'd backup my appdata, muck around with everything cache related that sounded good, and if it didn't work, well, I would WANT the expansion card, but at the time my laptop worked I didn't have any cash to spare :/.

Hi Guys,

Ive never been here before, But I was reading around in here and came across this. I actually registed specifically to answer this question.

Hopefully you havent changed your computer too much yet or bought into expensive stuff you dont need, just to fix this.

Whats happened is you've messed with your default bittorrent settings a little too much. Its easy to do. Ive been using bittorrent for 6 or 7 years now and have found that, except for port forwarding and a few minor settings, most of the default settings are the best settings to use.

I once had this same problem and was perplexed at what I could have possibly done to slow my DL's down from my normal Hundreds of KBps to near nothing. I didnt connect it to the "Disk Overloaded 100%" at first, but after fixing it and then messing it up again, over a couple of different times, the two connected.

So....., go to (top of Bittorrent) Options/Preferences/Advanced/Disk Cache and uncheck the box "Overide automatic cache size and specify the size manually:" and the Apply/OK.

As soon as you do this you'll notice the "Disk Overloaded 100%" goes away and your DL speed increases dramatically.

As I said before, using bittorrent for so long Ive found that many of the default settings are the optimal ones, but if you must tinker, like myself, best to do it one setting at a time and one day at a time, by then you'll notice if the setting change you made helped or hendered your DL's.

Hope this helped.

Pokernod-

P.S. And I realize Bittorrent may be different from uTorrent, but you'll just have to look around for this setting, since Ive made this same mistake many times before I figured it out, Im sure this is the problem and can be fixed by letting the program "auto set" the cache. (I dont know, maybe I was setting my cache too low, but I was setting it to 4X what it was advertising that the setting was [500MB to 2048MB], I just know this fixed it)

again I hope this helps, if not Im sorry. GL.

Kind of an old thread, not as old as others I've seen revived though.

Anyway, computers don't always have a one size fits all solution, and in µT the override is disabled by default. If you have a fast external HDD but your USB 1.0-1.1 controller is the bottleneck, the best solution is to replace the controller with something faster if you can't work around it.

Yea, sorry about the revival, but now that Ive looked around Ive noticed this particular answer hasnt been posted anywhere. And I'll admit, Ive never used uT before (since BT has always worked cherry for me) so it could be something else, but for BT (which is also cache overide disabled by default), this is most certainly correct (if youve messed with the adv. settings). I just went and tested it on my own client. Though there may be, and probably is, more than one way to get the "Disk Overloaded 100%" deal-e-o at the bottom of the screen. I just hope to help atleast a few people with this answer. Myself, Ive all but stopped messing with the tweaks, gets a little too frustrating watching your DLs come in so slow. Im very used to getting a full movie in less than an hour so I just let it be. I can barely go to movie gallery and back in that time, LOL.

Hello all. I've had a serious "disk overloaded 100%" problem as well, but only when I'm transferring via LAN between 2 pc's. I've tried everything I could think of the same things mentioned here. Everyone keeps talking about USB's but the problem is disk cache. An older USB 1.1 will only slow but will not cause this problem.

Here is my solution and this is with uTorrent 1.7.7 I'm using and seems to have completely solved this issue. I went from trying 500kbps waiting for a crash to now over 4mbps without a sweat. Instructions are very simple and I hope this helps you.. go into preferences and then down to disk cache.. uncheck every box there.

Since doing this I don't get "disk overloaded" at all but allowing the transfer to be "unlimited" I have had it crash a few times but I also had other apps going and doing stuff which likely lead to this. I suggest setting max download rate to 3mbps or so and after unchecking all boxes on disk cache options and should work great. Also avoid working on the same pc that is downloading. Good luck

That's what's known as a work around, and is perfectly acceptable if it works for you. It may not work for others however since it is a hardware specific issue, not everything is just the cache settings. By unchecking all the cache options you have slowed the rate of transfer enough for your drive to handle, though changes to cache settings should not be done all at once. It's best to test one setting change at a time so you can look for the desired changes in your particular setup, and it's best to be aware of the effects of each setting change.

Changes to the cache were suggested by jewelisheaven and may provide a successful workaround for those having problems, if working around is unsuccessful though and you have an external HDD that's bottlenecked at the controller your best bet is buying a new controller. This will benefit other USB devices as well.

Again, the success or failure of workarounds depends on individual hardware and software situations.

GTHK..that is what is known as works. Usually I would say like the other guy said, and that is best to keep settings at default because usually they are already best set where they are, but uTorrent is not setup properly by default for many things but does give the option to adjust everything you need. In this case the cache settings (boxes checked) are not good settings and do more harm than good. Although I agree different pc's are going to function and react differently, I'd still say the best settings are to uncheck all of those boxes.

I'd like to add also that you don't need a torrent client to decide how things are cache'd or not. It's purpose is to only read torrent data and connect to path. I would recommend not telling people to go out and start buying hardware like you said above. For starters.. 9 out of 10 problems are software/settings related and NOT hardware. AND one should ALWAYS look for the software conflict/problem before ever going out and buying new hardware UNLESS it's an obvious hardware problem such as drives not working or something you know is physical.

One last note: btw utorrent has bugs and is not a very stable application in the 1st place. Honestly I think the newer versions are on the top of the list of unstable programs and you are better off using the older 1.6 version that has less bugs. You can call turning off it's cache settings a work around all you'd like, but beyond the one tiny purpose this program has.. it has no business telling my pc how to work in any way shape or form, and somehow you act like you're advice is not a work around. More like the slowest process to getting nowhere with new usb's that wasn't the prob in the 1st place.

Everyone has an opinion. You have obviously not tried 1.8 which remedies the standing bugs in the 1.7 line meanwhile incorporating new features making the client "better".

Similarly to an opinion, everyone has their own way of doing things. UN-checking Disk Cache settings provides more volatility in the event say.. your perfectly uptimed machine from losing data when the power goes out. On properly working hardware the performance hit is minor when cache is in use. I'm glad we agree most of those who have trouble generally suffer from Incompatible Software c/o FAQ. However there are times when hardware is the culprit.

uTorrent works beautifully on its own, and the developers take an active role in identifying and ALERTING people when software is installed which may conflict with proper operation of the client. They even added a popup in 1.8 for that purpose when a problem DLL is detected.

Since doing this I don't get "disk overloaded" at all but allowing the transfer to be "unlimited" I have had it crash a few times but I also had other apps going and doing stuff which likely lead to this.

The fact your computer crashes when using bittorrent at all means something is broken. It could be 3rd party software as mentioned above, networking drivers, networking hardware, or RAM. In your situation given it's on a LAN you have much easier time troubleshooting / reproducing the problem so I'd FIX it instead of working around it by limiting to 3 MiBps. Also that you have to say "don't use the computer while running bittorrent"... means you are just living with a broken setup. I regularly and routinely transfer up to 9.8MiBps on my 100BaseT LAN between no less than 4 computers. None of which have a crashing problem with uT. So please, keep your opinions relevant.

Disk overloaded means you're trying to transfer faster than the bus allows.

That's what's known as a work around, and is perfectly acceptable if it works for you.

USB 1.0: Released in January 1996.

Specified data rates of 1.5 Mbit/s (Low-Speed) and 12 Mbit/s (Full-Speed). Did not anticipate or pass-through monitors. Few such devices actually made it to market.

It IS a workaround if it's for a hardware problem, USB 1.0-1.1 controllers are incapable of transferring data at a high enough rate when a person is downloading fast enough, the transfer rate of USB is 12 Mbps and that is well under what you can get on a LAN or high speed Internet access. The manual clearly states that most of the sub-options on the cache minimize disk access, and this in turn reduces the data transfered so that it fits within the limitations of certain legacy hardware.

Thanks for the help all, but I bought a 2.0 bus card and it works fine now

Glad to hear it worked out for you .