Resolved W7 atrociously slow file transfer speeds

Transferring from my USB external HD is extremely slow. I don't understand why. Less than 1.0 MB's sec. XP's speeds were lightning fast compared to this garbage.

 

There appears to be a problem with Windows 7 transfer rates but no specific solutions. This hotfix is available from microsoft but I'm not sure if this is going to have any effect on your particular problem.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-US;2283445


Your question suggests that you just have a problem with transfer of data from the external device to your PC. Is that correct, or are you also having trouble with slow data transfer from your PC to the external device. Here are a few ideas that might help.

One solution is to install a USB3 card.

Check for any firmware updates for the external drives and also check for updates to your motherboard chipset drivers.

Try these settings for the external drive.

1. Open "My Computer" or "Computer" from your (Start) Menu or Button.
2. Right-click the external Hard disk drive from the list and select "properties"
3. Click the "Hardware" tab.
4. Highlight the drive your having problems with from the drive list and click on "Properties ".
5. Click on the “Policies” tab.
6. You will see two radio buttons - "Optimize for quick removal" and "optimize for performance ".
7. If not selected, select "Optimize for performance" and click on "OK ". If running Vista or Windows 7 also check "enable write caching on the disk ".
12. Click on "OK" and exit.

 

I tried both solutions before I tried to transfer files between both drives again, so I'm not totally sure which was more helpful. Most likely both of them helped tremendously, but the transfer speeds have easily 30tupled.

Speeds have gone from less than 1.0 MBps to 32. Is that a normal average speed for Windows 7 between a HDD and an external USB?

P.S. I had no option for "enable write caching on disk" when I was tinkering with my external, is this normal or does it vary with different manufacturers?

 

Not sure about that but, as you have suggested, it may vary with different drives.

Glad to hear you have now got a decent speed of transfer. From what I have seen investigating this problem around 30MBps is about the norm. The key to increasing the speed, I would suspect, is optimizing for performance rather than quick removal.

PeteC was quite correct about USB3. If your external drive is USB3 you could invest in a USB3 card which will give you another big increase. If it is only USB2 I doubt if there is anything else that will speed it up.

If your happy with the result please mark this post as resolved from the 'Thread Tools' tab in the top right hand corner of the first post.

 

Here is a short article on transfer speed with USB2.

http://www.storagedepot.co.uk/buying_guides/tech_info/usb_transfer_speeds.aspx

 

Ah, thanks.

 

Well then 32 is above average. Good news. Thanks again.