HDD to HDD transfers seem too slow

Folks:

Been surfing the threads about HDD to HDD throughput issues. I would like to toss mine in the mix and see what inputs I can gather (or links to other threads).

I have a relatively new build running W7 Ultimate (x64) on a i7 990 using an eVGA X58 SLi3 mobo, 16 GB RAM, with a SATA 2 SSD for the main boot. All my HDDs are SATA (NTFS) and the two drives in question are not dynamic .... yet. The mobo is set to IDE compatibility ..... for now. When booting, BIOs reports the HDDs are running in Ultra-DMA 5 and SMART is enabled. Here's the problem:

1. My Western Digital 1 TB NAS gave up the ghost and the NAS circuit board failed (it had a fair run). I connected that HDD directly to an open SATA port and W7 saw the partitions on it. I used a Ubuntu boot CD to mount the volumes and managed to recover all the data off of the recovered 1 TB HDD to a 2TB HDD (both of these drives are SATA). The total transfer was ~567 GB and took ~4 hours to complete.
2. I blew away the 1TB partitions under W7, re-allocated the disk completely and did a quick format.
3. Now trying to get all the recovered data put back onto the recovered and freshly formatted 1 TB BUT seeing transfer ates that are well below even ATA133 standards. The transfers start out strong (~13 MB/s) but quickly dwindle, after an hour, to and hold at ~1.03 MB/s ......   . I am guessing, at this rate, that if I allow the transfer to complete, about 4-5 days will have passed ......   . There is ONE zip file at ~165 GB, a couple of DVD ISOs, and the remainders are around 15-20 MB each (digital photography). Much of the slow transfers are occurring when handling my 10-25 MB files.

Ssssooooo, here are the questions:

1. Is converting the HDDs to AHCI and dynamic going to buy me anything in terms of improved performance? I am planning on doing such a conversion but may not if it will not gain me much.
2. What am I missing that will give me the transfer rates I should be expecting?
3. What else can be suggested here?

Thanks!