Files are slowly transferred to the flash drive. How to speed up the process of copying data to a flash drive
How to solve the problem with slow data copying to a flash drive?
Let's look at the common causes of this problem and talk about ways to solve it.
1. Flash drive performance
If everything is in order with the computer, the culprit of the slow process of transferring files to the flash drive is, accordingly, the latter. Budget flash drives, as a rule, cannot boast of impressive data writing speed. And a speed of 5-7 Mb/s with a USB 2.0 connection interface can be common for them. You can test the data writing speed of a flash drive using Windows speed testing programs hard drives, in particular, through the popular CrystalDiskMark utility. You should not expect more speed from the flash drive tests than it will show in reality.
2. Computer USB ports
Purchased for faster data recording USB flash drive 3.0 will work exactly the same as a USB 2.0 flash drive, if only this interface is supported by the computer, and USB 3.0 is not. The flash drive will limit the speed of the port. To get the performance of a USB 3.0 interface when copying data, your computer's USB ports must be equipped with it. The same applies to the situation when USB drive 3.0 or 2.0 connects to USB port 1.0. Windows, as a rule, immediately reports that the flash drive is connected to a low-speed USB 1.0 port system notification: They say this device can work faster if it is connected to a USB 2.0 port.
If data is slowly copied to a flash drive that is connected to the USB port on the front panel of the PC case, you can test its speed when connected to the USB ports of the motherboard at the back of the case. It may be that the front panel of the case has USB ports 2.0 or 1.0, while the motherboard ports provide USB 3.0 or 2.0 interfaces.
Just like USB ports, which limit the speed of data writing, USB extenders can limit the speed of copying files. If a USB extender provides a USB 2.0 interface, it will throughput will limit the speed of the USB 3.0 flash drive interface and the computer’s USB port.
3. Weak computer hardware
On old or budget models computers, slow data writing to a flash drive may be due to weak hardware, in particular, small volume random access memory or slow hard drive. In this case, only upgrading your computer will help.
4. Drivers
Slow copying of data to a flash drive may be a result of incorrect installed drivers USB. In this case, you can either update the motherboard drivers or reinstall the USB controller drivers. You can update motherboard drivers manually by downloading the necessary installers from the official website of the board or laptop, or you can entrust this task to special programs - driver installation managers. Among them: DriverMax, Auslogics Driver Updater, SlimDrivers, Advanced Driver Updater and so on.
To reinstall USB controller drivers, open the manager Windows devices, expand the “USB Controllers” branch and use the “Delete” option in context menu For each device in the list, remove its driver.
USB controller drivers will be installed automatically.
5. BIOS settings
In some cases slow speed writing data to a flash drive may be a consequence of limiting the speed of USB ports in the BIOS settings. Such a limitation should be looked for, as a rule, in the advanced section BIOS settings"Advanced". If the “USB 2.0 Controller Mode” parameter is set to “Low-speed”, it needs to be changed to “Hi-speed”.
6. How to speed up writing data to a flash drive using software
If the cause of the problem lies in the low data writing speed of the flash drive itself, unfortunately, it will not be possible to significantly speed up the process of copying files to it. Even if we have a powerful computer. By software The file writing speed can be increased only slightly.
If you need to copy several small files to a flash drive, it is better to combine them into one archive file. And place this archive file on the flash drive. One hefty file will be copied faster than a lot of small ones. By the way, when copying small files, even high-performance USB drives can “sag.”
You can slightly speed up the transfer of files to a flash drive using special programs, winning against regular funds Windows copy some share of performance due to its own data copying algorithms. One of these is WinMend File Copy, it can be downloaded for free from the creators’ website www.winmend.com/file-copy.
WinMend File Copy has a Russian-language interface, supports batch copying of files, setting up a buffer, as well as resuming data transfer from the point where it was broken.
Most people begin to realize that something is wrong with Windows when they try to copy or move files and see a small green window showing the progress of the process. It would be nice to have this window on the screen for a minute or two while you copy a large amount of data, but does it really take three minutes to move one small file, or all eight minutes to delete another file? A tiny “green ribbon of death” may be a harbinger of an Explorer window crashing
This is one of two "green ribbons of death" in Windows 7, the other being a progress bar that appears at the top of the Explorer window in the address/path field. So what's going on, you ask? It turns out that Explorer takes so long to copy, move, or delete files for several reasons, some of which are actually justified. (This problem was much worse in Vista, but remained in Windows 7.)
First, File Explorer takes time to pre-scan the files and folders you're going to copy, move, etc., and check for possible conflicts, duplicate files, or security issues that require user intervention. That's why you see this nifty confirmation window for 34 conflicts only once, and not 34 separate confirmations that you had to receive in XP or more earlier versions Windows.
If you copy media files (such as photos, videos, PDF documents), you will see thumbnails preview that can help. You can even click right click mouse directly on the sketch in the window if you want to work with files without pausing the operation. Moreover, you can choose to copy or move the file without replacing the original, but with renaming the file.
The disadvantage is that when preparing the confirmation window, Explorer must delay the operation with the file. Depending on what he finds, this could take forever. One of the main reasons for the delay is by-effect from the operation of the user account management system, that very “security function”.
which turns the screen into a black square, asking your permission to make a change. Naturally, File Explorer must check each file you copy to make sure you have permission to copy it, and then check the destination to make sure you have permission to put the file there. Some ways to remove these restrictions are described in the "Managing UAC" section.
In the same way, if you copy a file over a network, Windows is required to do some reconnaissance to ensure security, and depending on the speed network connection, this may take quite a long time.
But it's not just the security check that's to blame for this feature's poor performance; There is also the problem of sketches. As described in the "Green Ribbon of Death" section, there are several things that can cause Explorer to freeze or even crash, and if one of them affects the copy of Explorer you're using, the selection window could just hang on the screen for ages . Once you fix the problems, copy, move, or delete operations will be much faster.
Flash drives – fast devices, when compared with optical discs or even floppy disks. In theory, flash memory is even faster than magnetic memory used in hard drives(that's why in Lately SSD drives are gaining popularity). However, due to differences in interfaces, flash drives in practice work much slower than hard drives. And sometimes this speed drops even more during operation.
Reasons slow copying There are several files on a flash drive or from a flash drive:
Format mismatch
Older computers used the USB 1.0 port standard if you are trying to connect a flash drive with USB interface 2.0, then slow operation of the flash drive is guaranteed!
The same thing will happen if you connect a USB 3.0 flash drive to a USB 2.0 port, the work will be performed at USB 2.0 speed. So, before blaming the flash drive for its slow operation, you should check that the formats on the flash drive and the computer or device to which you are trying to connect the USB flash drive match.
Checking USB ports
If the flash drive is noticed to have slow data transfer, try connecting it to a different USB port. Perhaps the reason lies in a malfunction of the port.
A more complete picture of the status of USB ports and hubs can be obtained in the “Device Manager”
“Start” button -> “Control Panel” -> “System” -> “Device Manager”
A yellow icon will appear next to the device that is not working. Exclamation point. Perhaps the whole problem lies in a failed driver.
Another reason for the slow operation of a flash drive can be the use of a USB extension cable. Firstly, it may be made of low-quality materials and thereby slow down data transfer. Secondly, the length of the extension cord should not be too long.
Wear and tear of flash drive memory chips
The first and most likely is banal wear and tear of the flash drive’s memory chips. It occurs if the flash drive is regularly used for several years (for cheap media, the time count goes to months). To avoid this, it is better not to use flash drives for work files that have to be rewritten every day - for example, for documents and projects.
Flash drive infection by viruses
The second option is viruses. Moreover, both viruses located on it and viruses on the computer itself can slow down the operation of a flash drive. If it's those malware that are on the drive, it is best to format it immediately (don’t forget to save necessary files to a safe place). If the problem is a virus infection of the computer, then further actions varied and long-lasting: here and antivirus scan, and contacting specialists, and formatting hard drives if the situation is already irreparable.
Inappropriate file system
Also, the operation of a flash drive may slow down after formatting if it was formatted in an “inappropriate” file system. A file system is a “markup” according to which fragments of files are written to a flash drive (read more about file systems). The exact recipe, which one file system To speed up the work, you should choose, no.
Question from a user
Hello.
Please tell me why the USB port on my PC is so slow. The fact is that I downloaded several files onto a flash drive on another PC, and having connected it to my computer, I’ve been waiting for an hour while they are copied from this flash drive to the hard drive.
I experimentally determined that the problem is in the USB port (since on other devices the file is copied from the same flash drive many times faster). What can be done?
Michael. Yaroslavl.
Hello.
This problem occurs, and most often with flash drives and external hard drives(where the exchange speed between the USB port and the drive is very important).
In this article I will answer why the USB port may have low speed and how to fix this problem. I think that most users will be able to figure it out on their own...
What to look for when your USB port is slow
1) Understanding USB ports
On modern computers There are several types of USB ports on laptops:
- USB 3.0 (USB 3.1)- provides transfer speeds up to 5 Gbit/s. The most popular today;
- USB 2.0- exchange speed up to 480 Mbit/s. I note that USB 2.0 has three port speeds (switch to BIOS): Low-speed (up to 1500 Kbps) - needed for keyboards, joysticks, etc.; Full-speed - up to 12 Mbit/s; Hi-speed - up to 480 Mbit/s;
- USB Type-C- the most modern option. Transfer speed up to 10 Gbit/s. However, I note that this port is not yet popular, flash drives and external hard There are very few disks with this interface!
I will add that on very old computers (laptops) you can find USB 1.1 ports. These ports work very slowly, and even now they are becoming less and less common, so I don’t see the point in considering them in this article...
Please note that USB 3.0 now by many manufacturers marked in blue(they mark both the ports themselves and, for example, flash drives).
Important!
USB 1.1, USB 2.0, USB 3.0 are backward compatible, i.e., for example, to a USB 3.0 port you can connect older devices designed for USB 2.0 (and vice versa). The exception may be only a very few devices that will not be able to work due to the lower data transfer speed.
A simple example.
If you connect a USB 3.0-enabled flash drive to a USB 2.0 port, your flash drive will operate at a lower speed than it could.
If you don't know what USB ports you have
The easiest way to find out is to run the AIDA 64 utility (look for this utility and its analogues), then open the section "USB devices/devices" .
Next, you will not only be able to find out what ports you have, but also see which port your flash drive or disk is connected to. And if it turns out that your USB 3.0 flash drive is connected to a low-speed port, then simply switch it to another (if, of course, it is available).
For those who don't have high-speed USB ports
If you have a laptop- it’s unlikely that anything can be advised. Although, lately you can order a lot of all sorts of gadgets for laptops on Aliexpress, for example, there are various adapters with USB 3.0 for the ExpressCard34 slot (and there are also ones for the CD/DVD drive slot various options). True, you can’t install this in every laptop, and it’s not so easy - but it’s an option...
2 Port USB 3.0 Express Card 34mm (NEC UPD720202 Hidden Adapter)
If you have a PC, then you can buy a special hub (controller) connected to PCI slot. Such hubs cost pennies, connection is not complicated (it’s the same as installing a cartridge in a set-top box...).
PCI controller. 4xUSB Ports
2) Lack of drivers
A very common cause of problems with USB ports are drivers. If they are not installed (for example, they were not updated after Windows installations) - then USB may either not work at all or work at a lower speed. First of all, pay attention to the drivers for: Chipset, USB 3.0 Host Controller, USB 3.0 Root Hub.
Important!
Often the problem lies in the fact that Windows installs “its own universal” drivers during installation, which do not work properly.
By the way, to see for which devices there are no drivers, go to device Manager (can be opened through the panel Windows management, using the search in top menu) . In the manager, pay attention to the devices next to which the yellow exclamation mark is lit.
By the way, you can try to find the driver using Windows: to do this, right-click on the device and select “Update driver” from the menu. Next, the Hardware Installation Wizard should start - just follow its instructions step by step.
To help!
3) The BIOS speeds are too low
Through the BIOS you can not only reduce the speed of USB ports, but also disable them altogether! However, I note that this applies more to older PCs (in new ones there are no options to reduce the operating speed).
In the BIOS, as a rule, the setting USB controller is in the section Advanced. In the settings you can select the operating mode (speed) and whether the controller will be turned on in general.
Pay attention to the "Controller Mode" line: in it you can specify Full Speed (or Hi Speed) for maximum speed USB operation.
To help!
4) The device is connected to a low-speed port
When connecting flash drives, external drives and other drives, pay attention to Windows messages. So, for example, when USB connection 3.0 external HDD to the USB 2.0 port, the system itself sends a warning (notification) that "The device may work faster when connected to USB 3.0"(see example below in the screenshot).
Those. in this case, if you do not respond to the notification, you will not work at the maximum possible speed that the drive supports.
5) Copying many small files
Probably, many have noticed one feature: many small files take much longer to copy than one large one. This is due to the fact that for each file it is necessary to find free blocks on the disk, update the disk table, etc.
Therefore, before copying many small files, place them in an archive: ZIP, RAR, 7Z, etc. Moreover, this applies not only when copying data to flash drives and disks, but also when transferring files over the network.
To help!
How to zip and unzip a folder, file (we compress files to save space). Mini-instructions -
6) Antiviruses (viruses) interfere with normal exchange
The fact is that sometimes when checking them and total distrust external drives, they block their work and interfere with the normal exchange rate.
Shutdown Avast antivirus for 1 hour || As an example
All the best!
Modern USB flash drives are among the most popular external media data. The speed of writing and reading data also plays an important role in this. However, capacious but slow-running flash drives are not very convenient, so today we will tell you by what methods you can increase the speed of a flash drive.
The first thing to note is the reasons why the speed of a flash drive may decrease. These include:
- NAND wear;
- mismatch of USB input and output connector standards;
- file system problems;
- incorrectly configured BIOS;
- viral infection.
Unfortunately, it is impossible to correct the situation with worn-out chips - the best way is to copy the data from such a flash drive, purchase a new one and transfer the information to it. It is also worth considering the origin of such a drive - flash drives from little-known manufacturers from China may turn out to be of low quality with very short term services. You can try to eliminate the remaining reasons described on your own.
Method 1: Checking for viral infection and eliminating it
Viruses are the most common reason flash drive slowdown. Most types of malware create a bunch of small hidden files, due to which the speed of access to normal data is significantly reduced. To solve the problem once and for all, you should clean the flash drive from existing viruses and protect against subsequent infection.
Method 2: Connecting a flash drive to a faster port
Nowadays, the USB 1.1 standard, adopted almost 20 years ago, is still widespread. It provides very low speed data transfer, which makes the flash drive seem to be working slowly. As a rule, Windows reports that the drive is connected to a slow connector.
Message about slow work can also be obtained by connecting a USB flash drive USB standard 3.0 to the most common USB 2.0 now. In this case, the recommendations are the same. If all the connectors on your PC or laptop are standard 2.0, then the only solution to the problem is to update hardware. However, some motherboards(both desktop and laptop) do not support USB 3.0 at the hardware level.
Method 3: Changing the file system
Method 4: Changing settings for working with a flash drive
IN modern versions Windows USB drive works in mode quick removal, which provides certain advantages for data safety, but also slows down the speed of access to it. The mode can be switched.
The only drawback of this method is the dependence of the flash drive on « Safe removal» . However, for most users, using this shutdown option is rather the norm, so this drawback can be neglected.
Method 5: Changing the BIOS Configuration
Flash drives have been around for a long time, and modern PCs and laptops are not always compatible with older flash drives. The BIOS has a corresponding setting, which is useless for modern drives and only slows down access to them. You can disable this setting like this:
We have looked at the most common reasons for a drop in the speed of flash drives and solutions to this problem. However, if you have any other options, we'd love to hear them in the comments.