Slow/Fluctuating Data Transfer Speeds to USB

[RainbowofDeath]

I was copying some files across from an internal HDD to an external USB 2.0 Flash Drive. The data transfer started off at 10MB/s and then rapidly dropped to 0. It then keeps going up to around 20-50 KB/s and then drops back to 0 b/s.

I've tried plugging in the USB into different ports, USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports, doesn't change anything.

USB is an ADATA C802 4GB; formatted with FAT32
HDD is a Seagate Barracuda 2TB formatted with NTFS\

I thought that maybe it was because of the different fomatting, but I tried copying the same thing to a Toshiba USB (also 4GB) formatted to NTFS, and the same thing happened (kinda...). It started off at 12MB/s and then slowly dropped to 5MB/s then stayed around 4-5 MB/s then dropped to zero, went back up to 5, dropped to 0 etc.

USB 2.0 can supposedly transfer at 60MB/s...and I'm pretty sure those USB's can do better than this.

So...just to clear it up, what I'm asking for is:
1. A fix for the fluctuating transfer speed.
2. How to speed it up...a lot...

Thanks in advance.

EDIT:
System Info:
Intel i5-4690 3.5Ghz CPU
ASRock Z97 Extreme4 Mobo
16GB HyperX Fury DDR3-1600
EVGA GTX750 Ti FTW
Samsung 850Evo 250GB SSD
Seagate Barracuda 2TB HDD

All internal devices plugged into SATA 6Gb/s

 

[unksol]

Theoretical speed does not equal reality. 12 to 5 is normal for a slow USB 2.0 drive transferring lots of small files. Get a better drive

 

[D_Know_WD]

Hi there RainbowofDeath,

Are you trying to transfer one big file or many small ones? I would be nice if you try transferring a big one and see whether the issue persists.
Have you tried transferring files from your SSD to your flash drive?

One thing you can do is to just test your internal HDD: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/282651-32-best-diagnostic-testing-utility
Also, I guess it will not hurt to update your USB drivers.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

 

[RainbowofDeath]

Hi there RainbowofDeath,

Are you trying to transfer one big file or many small ones? I would be nice if you try transferring a big one and see whether the issue persists.
Have you tried transferring files from your SSD to your flash drive?

One thing you can do is to just test your internal HDD: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/282651-32-best-diagnostic-testing-utility
Also, I guess it will not hurt to update your USB drivers.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

I was copying Cinebench 15, CrystalDiskMark, CPU-Z, and GPU-Z onto the USB so I can run it on another computer. I will do CrystalDiskMarks of all the USB's and drives today.

 

[RainbowofDeath]

Here are the results for the SSD, HDD and both USB's:

Samsung 850Evo 250GB SATA 6GB/s

Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6GB/s

ADATA USB 2.0 4GB (Plugged into USB 3.0 Port)

Toshiba USB 2.0 4GB (Plugged into USB 3.0 Port

Here's what it looks like copying Cinebench 15 from HDD to SSD:

This started off at 50 MB/s and dropped to 8 MB/s

Here is what it looks like copying Cinebench 15 from SSD to ADATA USB:

This peaked at 6.49 MB/s and took 11 minutes to complete.

For reference, Cinebench is 364 MB large. I will try to find a 1 GB file and tell you how that goes as well if you want.

EDIT: The same fluctuating happened when I deleted Cinebench from the ADATA.

 

[D_Know_WD]

Transfer speed depends on various factors.
Regarding your USB 2.0 speed, I would say that it could be normal. There's nothing much you can do except for updating your USB 2.0 drivers. In case you get a drive that supports USB 3.0, you should get better speeds. Also, you can try attaching those to the ports on the back of the casing.
Regarding your HDD to SSD transfer speed, I would say that it should be faster. Things you can do:
- Defragment the HDD.
- Test your HDD as well as your SSD
- Which ports are these attached to? You can swap around SATA ports as well as cables(both SATA and power ones)
- Try transferring a bigger file. Several GBs lets say.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

 

[RainbowofDeath]

Transfer speed depends on various factors.
Regarding your USB 2.0 speed, I would say that it could be normal. There's nothing much you can do except for updating your USB 2.0 drivers. In case you get a drive that supports USB 3.0, you should get better speeds. Also, you can try attaching those to the ports on the back of the casing.
Regarding your HDD to SSD transfer speed, I would say that it should be faster. Things you can do:
- Defragment the HDD.
- Test your HDD as well as your SSD
- Which ports are these attached to? You can swap around SATA ports as well as cables(both SATA and power ones)
- Try transferring a bigger file. Several GBs lets say.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

Tests for HDD and SSD are in my previous post. All the SATA cables are SATA 6 GB/s and so are the SATA ports. But, I'll try to find a big file...if I can...

Thanks for all the help so far 🙂

EDIT: Windows Defrag isn't letting me defrag it, it says it's 0% fragmented.