Why creating backup on 1TB WD Black is slower than 4TB WD Green?

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smalltech

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I am using Acronis software to make a full backup of my PC and storing the backups made into a WD Black 1TB hard disk and it takes about 9 hours to complete making the full backup. (I tried 2 different WD Black 1TB and both took about 9 hours)

I then tried using Acronis software to make a full backup of my PC and storing the backups made into a WD Green 4TB hard disk and it takes about 4 hours to complete making the full backup.

Nothing else is changed. Except the hard disk. Both are connected to the same internal hard disk slot.

Does more empty space make backups process faster?

Why is making backup and storing into WD Green 4TB almost 2 times faster than WD Black 1TB?

Thanks

ADD INFO: The only difference is the 1TB WD Black is MBR , the 4TB WD Green is GPT

Short version: I put in 1TB WD black into internal hard disk slot A. I then make a full backup of my whole PC and save the backup to that 1TB WD black disk, it takes 9 hours to complete. I then remove the 1TB WD black from the internal hard disk slot A. I then insert 4TB WD green into the same internal hard disk slot A. I then make a full backup of my whole PC and save the backup to that 4TB WD green disk, it takes 4 hours to complete.
 
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smalltech

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All are SATA III. 4TB WD Green is bought last week. One 1TB WD Black is bought in less than 12 months ago. One 1TB WD Black is bought about 1 year ago. 800GB
 
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areal density number of platters. the 1 tb drive, and I could be wrong, has 2 read/write heads and 1 spinning platter. each side giving @500GB. the 4 tb has more read write heads and more platters, and probably increased areal density >500gb per platter side. but lets assume for the sake of argument that the 4tb has 4 platters and 8 read write heads. the 4 tb is like having 4 x 1 tb in a raid array just all on one drive. ( way oversimplified but you get the point )
the 1 tb is like 1 librarian filing really fast
the 4 is like 4 librarians filing at a slower pace each but there is 4 of them, the 4 way will win.
 
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smalltech

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That is what I am curious too. The main question of my thread. Only thing I can think of is maybe bigger size disk have bigger empty space, and the backup software maybe need bigger empty space to work with when creating backup.
 
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I looked at the spec sheets and that is what you would expect, the only real differences are the green has variable spindle speeds, areal density, and number of platters. So logically one of those has to be the culprit, I doubt a slower spindle speed would be responsible, but having more platters and the ability to write to more than one platter at a time would seem to be the only answer to the time issues.
 
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areal density means the maximum data you can cram per square inch. If the 4 tb has 2 platters, that is twice the data density per inch vs the black. meaning second per second the 4 can save slightly more data than the 1 tb per platter per revolution.
 
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ronintexas

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When you do your backup - are you deleting the contents of the drive prior to performing the operation? 800GB (approximately 80% of the drive being full), even when you overwrite the files, Acronis could be doing something out of concern for the drive filling up.

 
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a 4tb black will beat a 4 tb green as they will have similar platter and head counts as well as identical areal density. The size difference is what comes into play here.
 
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How many platter does 4TB WD Green have?
How many platter does 1TB WD Black have?

 
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smalltech

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All the disk are empty (I have formatted the disk before I start backup process) when I make the backup.
 
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smalltech

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WD Diagnostic is OK, all pass. I have also tried 2 WD Black to ensure that they are OK.
 
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This seems like out of the troubleshooting range. I mean if the all hard disk are using the same sata cable, they should behave the same way, if it is a sata cable problem and it performs slower, all 3 disk should be slower together.
The two Black I have tested took the same time to complete so I guess the Sata cable is working fine.
Only thing is WD Green completed faster by 2 times than WD Black, which does not makes sense to the technical specs, since WD Black should be the faster one according to specs.

 
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