Question Is this normal transfer speed for an external HDD through USB 3.0 ?

[Wonderclam]

I feel like it should be faster. I got it plugged into the red USB port, which is labeled USB 3.2 gen 2

It started off at around 500 MB/s then it dropped all the way down to around 60 MB/s to 70 MB/s on average

I have Windows 10 home edition and my hardware is listed on my signature

External HDD is a "

Seagate Portable 4TB External Hard Drive HDD – USB 3.0 for PC, Mac, Xbox, & PlayStation - 1-Year Rescue Service (STGX4000400)"​

and data is coming from a 4 TB Samsung SSD

 

[evermorex76]

500MBps is the maximum you can get from a USB 3.0 device, whether it's a mechanical or SSD, and 75 to 100MBps is about the max write speed for a good modern 5400RPM mechanical 2.5 inch drive. As @Katherine75Lewis said, the initial burst would have been data going into the drive's cache. The reason you're not hitting even 100 consistently (the number you see is an average over a short period of time) and sometimes may even seeming to drop to almost nothing is because Windows is very inefficient when transferring a lot of smaller files versus one very large file (it's not multithreaded, and wastes a lot of time reading indexes and metadata and such). If you watch and see a very large file being transferred (like 10GB) you'd see the speed get high, and then it would drop down significantly if it started transferring a bunch of 500MB files.

If you tried copying the data from the external drive back to your internal drive, you would see closer to 100 average because reading is faster, and the internal SSD wouldn't be a bottleneck.

You can run benchmarks like AS SSD Benchmark (works fine on mechanical drives), ATTO, or others to see what the true maximum transfer rates of the drive are. If you use other tools such as Robocopy or Teracopy to transfer files, they are also much more efficient than the standard Windows copy dialog and will be able to max out the drive's capability.

If you're going to be doing a lot of copying to an external drive, a portable SSD is highly recommended, but a mechanical drive is fine if you're just using it to send your data files for storage to save space on the SSD or for backup.

 

[Misgar]

I feel like it should be faster.

Sorry to disappoint, but 4TB portable drives in USB housings are inherently slow. Most 2.5" hard disks (laptop drives) are often significantly slower than their 3.5" counterparts.

At best, you're not likely to see speeds much faster than 100MB/s for large files when the 2.5" disk is empty. Try Crystal Disk Info or ATTO to measure the speeds.
https://crystalmark.info/en/software/crystaldiskinfo/
https://www.techpowerup.com/download/atto-disk-benchmark/

I have a couple of 8TB Toshiba 3.5" hard drives directly mounted in a PC and they manage 250MB/s continuous transfer rate for big files on the outermost tracks, dropping to 120MB/s on the innermost tracks. Small file transfers are much slower.

As @evermorex76 says, if you want faster transfer rates, get a portable Solid State Drive. I regularly achieve 500 to 700MB/s on a Crucial X9 portable 4TB drive over USB-C when copying 50MB RAW files and 15MB JPGs.

The Crucial X9 works up to 1050MB/s.
https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-Pro-4TB-Portable-CT4000X9PROSSD902/dp/B0C9WGQY8G/ref=sr_1_3

The Crucial X10 up to 2100MB/s.
https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-X10-Pro-Portable-CT4000X10PROSSD902/dp/B0C9WJQ9GP/ref=sr_1_4

I wait until Black Friday or similar sales before buying these drives, otherwise they can be rather expensive compared to old fashioned spinning rust.

I still have two 4TB USB3 laptop hard drives (WD and Seagate) but I no longer use them because they're too slow and fragile (susceptible to knocks when running).

 

[Wonderclam]

I wish external SSD drive prices would drop. They cost 2.5x more than HDD drives

 

[evermorex76]

Smaller capacity external SSDs aren't all that expensive. Large SSDs in general are ridiculously expensive compared to an HDD, so external ones are as well (even when they can use a low-end drive internally because the USB interface is a bottleneck), and when you go for one with a 10GB or higher capacity, USB connection that just makes it so much more. You can save a LOT of money by getting a tier-2 brand (Silicon Power, Orico, etc.) internal SSD and just putting it in a USB enclosure yourself, but the SSD itself is still going to be the really expensive for a large capacity one.

 

[Misgar]

I wish external SSD drive prices would drop. They cost 2.5x more than HDD drives

As @evermoreex76 explained, you can build a cheaper USB SSD yourself using proprietary housings (enclosure) and a SSD of your choice.

For a faster experience, choose an M.2 NVMe drive enclosure (see example below):-
https://www.amazon.com/UGREEN-Enclosure-Tool-Free-Thunderbolt-Compatible/dp/B09T97Z7DM

Some come with a USB-C to USB-A and a USB-C to USB-C cable, so both connector types on your PC/laptop/console are catered for.

If you want to go really basic, buy a USB3 to SATA, 2.5in laptop drive enclosure and fit a SSD of your choice. You might even have an old laptop SSD lying around.
https://www.amazon.com/UGREEN-External-Enclosure-Adapter-Housing/dp/B06XWRRMYX

It might be cheaper to buy a lower capacity SSD e.g. 2TB and wait until it's getting full before buying a second 2TB drive. Remember it's not a good idea to exceed 90% capacity on an SSD. Stopping at 80% full is even better. Leave at least 10% free on an SSD, preferably 20% free.

With the volatile price of semiconductors, I usually wait until sale time, then buy what I need. This could mean it'll be Black Friday in November before I get another portable drive.