Slow transfer speeds to USB 2.0 flash drive

Anonymous
2010-07-11T02:29:36+00:00

Hi all,

I know that this topic has appeared once or twice in these forums but there haven't been any resolutions and they've been quiet lately so I started a new one. 

Recently, I migrated from Windows XP to 7 and found this problem. When I try to copy a file (a 1.2GB video) to a usb flash drive that I know is usb 2.0 hi-speed (copying files to it in xp were really fast) it takes over 2 minutes. 7 reports that it is copying at 3-4 MB/sec. When I copy from the flash drive to my computer it copies at about 9-10MB/sec. I've also tried plugging it into the rear ports but that doesn't change the transfer speed at all. I know it isn't something related to the flash stick itself because transferring files to it in xp were a lot faster.

Some random information: Transferring files from one hard drive to another averages at about 60MB/sec (both of the hard drives are SATA II drives). I'm not sure what speed it should be but it doesn't feel drastically slower than on my xp machine. Windows 7 and my device drivers are all up-to-date.

System specs:

Dell optiplex GX620

Pentium 4 3.2GHz

2GB Ram

Windows 7 Professional 32-bit

AVG 9 free edition anti-virus

My setup is almost identical to how it was on my windows xp machine except I have less programs installed so there isn't something new that could have caused problems.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Files, folders, and storage

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-05-04T05:32:16+00:00

    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 "

    Cody C is a fuckin idiot who only knows how to read from a cookbook given to him by Bill Gates' minions. They have typical responses for unknown problems which obviously is Microsoft Windows issue. Better pick up garbage rather than pretending to be a support guy Cody C. Go back to the mountains and live with Tarzan.

    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.

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-04-24T17:28:13+00:00

    This is an issue with copying small files on to a flash drive.  It has been there for years (and releases) Try copying 100 files that are 1 byte each.  Big files work just fine

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-12-18T21:51:28+00:00

    Applied Hotfix but I don't notice any difference...

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