USB Stick has a slow transfer speed

[Fuzz Ball]

Ohai. I've got a Kingston Datatraveler 2.0 USB stick. On other PCs (Both windows 7 and XP), I was getting write speeds of up to 30MB/s, averaging around 22MB/s.

On my currently laptop, I'm only getting around 7MB/s for large files, with the peak at 11MB/s. Small files transfer at around 2MB/s which is unbearable... since on everything else it transfers at least at 10MB/s.

I have checked for driver updates (Windows says its fine), and I've also changed it to 'Optimised for speed', or whatever it is. I also uninstalled the drivers, and let the USB reinstall them just in case something went wrong the first time.

So, any tips on how to get transfer speeds on my USB up? Or is this a hardware issue with power distribution of USB ports/motherboard issues?

 

[Maguscreed]

Windows is not always the best source for driver updates.
Could we have more specific information about the make and model of the laptop for that purpose?

Also, does the laptop use different antivirus / firewall than the other computers in this equation?

 

[Ponmayilal]

Did you try it out on all the USB ports of your laptop? What about any other make pendrive? Do these too exhibit the same slow speeds?

And can you check out your Kingston on some other PC, NOW - you said you WERE getting good write speeds - and confirm you ARE getting good speeds on it?

 

[Fuzz Ball]

The model of the laptop is an MSI GX740-235US
I'm fairly confident that it's not an antivirus program issue, as both the other PCs I tested this USB had the same anti virus software as this laptop had (AVG 8). Now I use Avast, no difference in speed.

EVERY USB port on the laptop has the problem, including the USB/eSATA hybrid port.

I do have another 'pen drive' (USB Stick lol), but it in general has slow write/read speeds, as it maxes about 10MB/s write speed, regardless of the PC. I'll test the USB stick AGAIN on other PCs when I get it back. I do have another of the same model which belongs to my brother, so I'll test that one out on here too.

Drivers shouldn't technically be an issue, as with outdated drivers both the other test PCs/laptops used whatever drive came on the USB stick. Anyway, Kingston is making it extremely hard to find drivers for it, as they don't sell the USB anymore.

 

[Maguscreed]

People often make this mistake, just because something works on another pc you have, or even has worked (up until now) on the one you have doesn't eliminate it from scrutiny.

If you believe it's a driver issue, you can enable driver verifier and possibly generate some dump files we can check for specific errors.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/101379-driver-verifier-enable-disable.html

Read the entire post before starting in some instances it will make the machine unresponsive and you need to know what to do.

 

[Fuzz Ball]

I don't think its a driver issue... as other PCs with the same drivers worked. I'm wondering whether there's another setting in Windows 7 I don't know about to change the speed. Changing from 'quick removal' to 'performance' didn't seem to make any difference at all. The other thing I think it could be is hardware. I'm confident that they're high speed USB 2.0 ports, but the motherboard or something else might be interfering with something in the transferal stage.

 

[brianzion]

hi all

there is a good program called CrystalDiskMark that you can test read/write values etc
LINK :ar: CrystalDiskMark - Software - Crystal Dew World

DOWNLOAD :ar: http://release.crystaldew.info/CrystalDiskMarkSetupEn

Key Features
Measure sequential reads/writes speed
Measure random 512KB, 4KB, 4KB (Queue Depth=32) reads/writes speed
Select test data (Random, 0Fill, 1Fill)
Theme support
Multi-Language support
Important Notice
"MB/s" means 1,000,000byte/sec.

 

[brianzion]

its also worth seeing what the drive was formatted at in the allocation unit size i always use default. right click on the drive >> click format.

The allocation unit size should be chosen to best utilize the space on the disk for all files and should not be selected just on the size of the largest file you plan to store.Example: The allocation unit size of 64kB means that everytime you go to store data on the drive, a minimum of 64kB is allocated. If you only need 8kB, then you're allocating 56kB more than you need which results in waste and fragmentation. Select the allocation unit size based on the average size of the files you plan to store.

File Systems and thumb drives: Choosing between FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS to get a faster USB Flash Drive LINK :ar: http://www.irongeek.com/i.php?page=security/usb-flash-thumb-drive-ntfs-filesystem

also look in customize in properties and choose what files are best for optimization .

 

[brianzion]

check on the kingston web site here for there information on the drive you have link :ar: Kingston Technology Company - Flash Memory - DataTraveler Family - USB Flash Drives

Kingston Technology Company - Technology Tools - Ultimate Memory Guide

http://www.kingston.com/flash_memory_guide/

Hope the links help for info to flash drives

 

[Zepher]

Ohai. I've got a Kingston Datatraveler 2.0 USB stick. On other PCs (Both windows 7 and XP), I was getting write speeds of up to 30MB/s, averaging around 22MB/s.

On my currently laptop, I'm only getting around 7MB/s for large files, with the peak at 11MB/s. Small files transfer at around 2MB/s which is unbearable... since on everything else it transfers at least at 10MB/s.

I have checked for driver updates (Windows says its fine), and I've also changed it to 'Optimised for speed', or whatever it is. I also uninstalled the drivers, and let the USB reinstall them just in case something went wrong the first time.

So, any tips on how to get transfer speeds on my USB up? Or is this a hardware issue with power distribution of USB ports/motherboard issues?

The current line up of Kingston Flash drives have speeds from 5MB/s to 10MB/s Write times.
Only 3 are rated higher,
the 256GB unit at 12MB/s,
the 16-64GB High Speed at 20MB/s
and the 16-64GB USB 3.0 at 60MB/s

I personally would time a transfer on the PC's that were giving you 30MB/s writes to verify the speed since the speeds you list that you get with your laptop are what the Kingston you have is rated for.

 

[Ponmayilal]

...I personally would time a transfer on the PC's that were giving you 30MB/s writes to verify the speed since the speeds you list that you get with your laptop are what the Kingston you have is rated for.

+1 for your thoughts.

And again for any tests to be meaningful, he should write the same large file or a collection of small files on the X PC and on his laptop and verify the transfer speeds.