Slow transfer speeds to USB 2.0 flash drive

Cody C, you obviosly don't pay attention to much then, almost every problem i see posted, you have a cookie-cutter response of:

Since I don't have any other reports of that issue, it's most likely due to the drivers.

When in fact, if you just did a simple google search of 75 - 90% of these issues, you'll see SEVERAL examples..

If you don't know what the issue is, simply say " my guess would be XXXX " or " i have no personal experience with XXX " or " I simply don't know "

As for the 5 - 6mb/s transfer rate being " normal " it's not, that's slow for USB 2.0 or better. the actual cause of the problem is vinsta and win 7's approach to making USB devices safer to remove (in case of error during transfer i'm sure)

here's the way to get around that HUGE bottle-neck:

  In Device Manager, right-click the USB drive in Disk drives folder, then select Properties, switch to Policies tab, and choose Optimize for performance. Click OK to keep it.

NOTE: If you use this method, make SURE you use the sub removal tool that pops up in your system tray when you first plugged in the device (system tray is the little area near your clock on the task bar)

After performing this fix for myself, my transfer rate on a cheapo cruizer micro went from 4.5 - 5mb/s to 20 - 30mb/s on small files, and average of 10 - 15mb/s on huge file transfers

This is because this method utelizes windows write-behind system of file management.

I have a similar problem. Occurs when I try to move files from USB to hard drive (300 MB). Takes about 2 hours (11.5kb transfer).

Have just updated to Windows 7 from XP.

Asus M4A78LT-M LE mother board

Phenom II X6 2.8Gz processor

4 GB Ram

Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

Norton Anti virus

I do not have the same problem with the USB drive in laptop running VIsta (transfer rate of ~ 50MBps)

I experienced the same problems as discussed above viz. extremely slower pace of file transfer to USB flash/pen drives in hp ProBook laptop running Windows 7 which often caused the system to hang due to which either the process had to be ended from the Windows task manager or the USB drive had to be plugged out forcibly as "Safely Remove Hardware" would not work. Even using the task manager to stop the "hanged" process of file transfer to/from USB pen drive would cause the Windows Explorer to crash/stop working. HOWEVER WHENEVER I CONNECTED EXTERNAL MOBILE HARD DISK DRIVES OR OTHER USB DEVICES SUCH AS NIKON COOLPIX CAMERA OR IPHONE TO THE SAME USB PORT, THEY WOULD JUST WORK FINE. In other words the problem was with USB flash/pen drives only which but worked just fine in other machines running Windows XP or other OS.

THE ABOVE MENTIONED SOLUTION OF "Optimizing for performance" through Device Manager which in case of Windows 7 is to select "Better performance" instead of "Quick removal" SEEMED TO HAVE WORKED INITIALLY IN MY CASE BUT THE SAME PROBLEM RETURNED WHEN I PLUGGED IN THE USB DRIVE A FEW DAYS LATER.

Would like to add two important things- (1) The option for "optimizing" the USB flash drives appears in the Disk Drives folder of Device Manager only if the drive is plugged in. (2) Every new USB flash/pen drive needs to be individually "optimized" using the same procedure as explained by ArcAiN6.

MICROSOFT MUST ADDRESS THIS ISSUE IMMEDIATELY.

-SGQ-1B/US/GTK/190612. Edited on 22-June-12

I get the same problem too and its the update drivers response all the time but how come windows xp transfers faster and it doesnt update drivers as much as windows 7 does.  Win XP usb rates were worlds better then Vista/7 ever is and I dont know why Microsoft just doesnt go back to that code or offer it to those that want the faster rates we used to get back then.

 

I transfered an 500meg avi file from my microsd card to my pc harddisk and it took about 45 secs (what windows said with a 10mb/sec rate)  and same file to my usb drive started off ok with a 3mb rate then half way through it died to a measly 300kb/sec and now says a 20min wait.   Thats not counting the speed slows down even more at times.

i have the same problem...my flashdrives copied and saved at blazing speeds with xp compared to windows 7 which is slower then snail mail.......and when you format a flashdisk it takes10 times longer which sucks.......microsoft needs to fix this problem with windows 7 ....which in all other areas i like much better then xp.....its just the snail mail motion of flashdisk speed on 7 which blows...or maybe they just want us to buy a computer with usb 20.0 huh instead of 2.0

Hi BK201,

I've actually tested copying a 1.2 GB file to a flash drive on both an XP machine and a Windows 7 machine and I'm getting almost the exact same speeds (between 3 and 5 MB/s). These speeds are very normal for USB 2.0 flash drives. The vast majority of flash drives read (copy to the computer) faster than they write (copy to the flash drive). That's why you're seeing the difference in speed when copying to the computer.

If you still feel that the USB speeds are slower and you still have the issue in safe mode, the only thing I can recommend is to get the latest Windows 7 chipset driver. Considering Dell doesn't offerWindows 7 (or Vista) drivers for the GX620, your drivers are likely not up-to-date. The best I can do is recommend contacting Dell for any Windows 7 drivers they might have.

Thanks for using Microsoft Answers!

Cody C

Microsoft Answers Support Engineer

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