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
    2014-08-26T17:51:54+00:00

    "Microsoft, please admit it...!!!!!!!!" if they admit it they may have to fix it, MS doesn't like to fix, they like to put out a new versions.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-08-26T17:36:38+00:00

    In my situation I updated, downdated, leftdated and rightdated, ;) I even tried a couple of beta drivers.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-08-26T13:25:33+00:00

    Sounds like USB driver issue to me.  Have you tried updating yours with the latest?

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-08-26T12:30:32+00:00

    This also worked for me on a new Toshiba Qosmio X75 with a 64GB USB stick in a USB3 port on Windows 8.1.     Good work figuring this out. It was not obvious this setting existed.

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  5. Anonymous
    2014-06-28T01:58:16+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 "

    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.

    This reply is a little late, but if it helps others here it is,

    This solution also fixed Win8 USB transfer rates of 1-1.5 mb/sec back up to 25-30 mb/sec. (sometimes 45-50 mb/sec)

    What a simple but impressive change. I can now go back to using sticks instead of burning files to RW disks (faster than 1mb/sec) to transfer files.

    Amazing that a windows user can answer this question but an M.S Support Engineer has no idea.

    Hats off to you ArcAiN6, maybe you should be a Support Engineer.

    Thanks ArcAiN6.

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