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Thread ID: 44229 2004-04-12 06:38:00 Time to save Excel file on Network Ron_A (1369) Press F1
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228824 2004-04-12 06:38:00 Hi
I have a number of important files at work - about 1.6 MB in size
Takes about 4 secs to save at home, 10 secs on my work HDD BUT as much as 28 secs if I save to a network drive at work!
In each case I am using Excel 2002 in an XP OS

Is there anything I can do to avoid workarounds such as saving to HDD and then transferring to network at end of day?

Help please
Ron
Ron_A (1369)
228825 2004-04-12 06:56:00 Ron_A

I am assuming the delay is your copying files to a floppy and then copying them from the floppy to a networked computer. Saving to a floppy and transferring between a floppy and a hard drive always takes longer. Could you not suggest networking your work computer to the other networked computers at work? If you work on the files at home it might be faster to email the files to your networked computer at work.

Oxie (Lyn)
Oxie (1318)
228826 2004-04-12 07:10:00 Hi
Thanks But the problem is the time it takes to save the SAME file on the office network.
The HDD save is fine - or at least reasonable but it takes an AGE for the Exact same file to save on the network

Any thoughts?

Ron
Ron_A (1369)
228827 2004-04-12 07:45:00 So what you are saying, when you create a file and save it on the networked computer it takes a long time to save. Previously I assumed you were copying the files over.

Have you considered saving on the computer's hard drive, and then at the end of the day copying the files over to the networked drive?

Oxie (Lyn)
Oxie (1318)
228828 2004-04-12 07:51:00 Yes but that's a hassle - hence my question
ie Does Excel save DIFFERENTLY on a network?
Ron_A (1369)
228829 2004-04-12 07:59:00 It doesn't matter what application you are using it will always be faster to save on the computer's hard drive. For example, if I save to my husbands computer's harddrive from my own computer (they are networked) it will definitely be slower than saving directly to my computer's hard drive. Hence it is quicker to create the files locally and copy them over at a later stage (assuming you have quite a few files).

Oxie (Lyn)
Oxie (1318)
228830 2004-04-12 08:13:00 > Hence it is quicker to create the files locally and copy them
> over at a later stage (assuming you have quite a few
> files).

Uh, not really. The time it takes to save them across the network is caused by network speed. Therefore saving across the network will take less time that saving to your HDD and then copying across the network. If you were only copying across the network then it possibly could be faster to copy than to save across the network, but the extra time saving to your HDD first probably would negate any time saved in copying. The network speed affects both the saving and the copying across the network - both use the same network protocol, and so travel in the same way. Excel doesn't know that one location is local and the other is on a network, it saves them both the same way.

So basically saving directly over the network to where you want them will be quicker (especially if you factor in the having to actually go and copy the files later) than saving to HDD and copying later.

Mike.
Mike (15)
228831 2004-04-12 09:10:00 Hi

Thanks for your reply

However what I cannot understand is why it actually takes 3 times as long to save the SAME file to the same network drive as it does to save to the HDD.

The saving to HDD is very fast compared to saving to the network - not the other way around.

I just cannot understand this - I would have thought the network speed would have been the same - after all I have been working to the file domiciled on the same Network drive

Thoughts?
Ron
Ron_A (1369)
228832 2004-04-12 10:00:00 > Thanks for your reply

You're welcome. Thank you.

> However what I cannot understand is why it actually
> takes 3 times as long to save the SAME file to the
> same network drive as it does to save to the HDD.
>
> The saving to HDD is very fast compared to saving to
> the network - not the other way around.
>
> I just cannot understand this - I would have thought
> the network speed would have been the same - after
> all I have been working to the file domiciled on the
> same Network drive
>
> Thoughts?

When your computer writes to the hard drive it writes very quickly. Sending data through a network travels much slower. Theoretically a standard IDE HDD these days transfers data externally (eg from one local drive to another) at a maximum of 100MB/s (megabytes er second). A standard network transfers data at 100Mb/s megabits per second), which works out to be around 12.5MB/s (megabytes per second), or about an 8th of the speed.

You would also have to factor in any other possible network traffic that might slow your data down (if someone else is writing a large file at the same time across the same network, it will affect your transfer speed).

Networks run much slower than your computer (and much slower than your hard drive). It also doesn't supply a steady stream of data - data can come in bursts (and can also have many pauses).

I hope this explains it a little clearer to you.

Mike.
Mike (15)
228833 2004-04-12 10:02:00 > much slower. Theoretically a standard IDE HDD
> these days transfers data externally (eg from one
> local drive to another) at a maximum of 100MB/s
> (megabytes er second). A standard network
> transfers data at 100Mb/s megabits per
> second), which works out to be around 12.5MB/s
> (megabytes per second), or about an 8th of the
> speed.

I forgot to add that the average data transfer speed for a standard HDD these days is around 58MB/s, which is still around 4-5 times faster than a standard 100Mb network maximum transfer speed, which would be where you're getting your difference of about 3 times.

Mike.
Mike (15)
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