Question Disk use reaches 100% and slows when transferring files

TiCoyote

Distinguished
Dec 8, 2014
45
1
18,535
I have had this problem for a while now. I will fill a 64gb CF or CFexpress card, and then try to download files to my PC. At first, the download speeds are great. With the CF express they might be 400mb/sec. Then, after a few seconds, it slows all the way down to 500kb/sec. It lags there for a bit, then it speeds up a bit, maybe to 30mb/sec, then slows down again, and back and forth.

I opened Task Manager, and it says that disk usage is 100%.

I am using a CFexpress Type B write speed 1700 mb/sec in a USB-C card reader.

I am downloading to my system disk, which is a SanDisk 1TB SSD. I am downloading to a new folder on the desk top.

I also tried downloading to a non-system HDD. That was faster, but I still had the same fast-slow-fast-slow cycle.

What can I do to speed up these downloads? Should I try downloading to a non-system SSD?

Thank you.
 

DFace1_2

Reputable
Aug 20, 2020
53
1
4,535
So I think, and I may be corrected, that what is happening is the flash memory of your SSD gets filled up very quickly i.e. "At first, the download speeds are great" and the speeds you are expecting from your SSD e.g. "up to 540mb/s write speed" that they brag about on the packaging and marketing refer to the transfer of very small files that essentially are completed in a matter of seconds utilising the SSD's flash memory. When that memory is filled up, in the case of transferring bigger files, it becomes a matter of moving data much more slowly as the flash memory is saturated and, as one block of data is moved out, another block moves in to take its place.

I think :LOL:
 
I have had this problem for a while now. I will fill a 64gb CF or CFexpress card, and then try to download files to my PC. At first, the download speeds are great. With the CF express they might be 400mb/sec. Then, after a few seconds, it slows all the way down to 500kb/sec. It lags there for a bit, then it speeds up a bit, maybe to 30mb/sec, then slows down again, and back and forth.

I opened Task Manager, and it says that disk usage is 100%.

I am using a CFexpress Type B write speed 1700 mb/sec in a USB-C card reader.

I am downloading to my system disk, which is a SanDisk 1TB SSD. I am downloading to a new folder on the desk top.

I also tried downloading to a non-system HDD. That was faster, but I still had the same fast-slow-fast-slow cycle.

What can I do to speed up these downloads? Should I try downloading to a non-system SSD?

Thank you.
In device manager do you have write caching enabled?