USB 3.0 file transfer speed

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Tim Minke

PCHF Member
Jan 31, 2025
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im getting very pulse like TF speed rates on a usb 3.0 flash drive. yes its kingston, it's a 128GB "DataTraveler 3.0" and this is 1 folder with 1 file in it. (and then a second larger many folder TF)

It surges to 30mbps for 1-3 seconds then down to 2-3MB/s for another 3-5 seconds and then between 710 KB/s and 355 KB/s for 15-30 before surging for about 7-10 seconds after about 5 mins of TF a larger TF size with many folders of movies, it only ever hits 13mb/s peek and an average of 3.8MB/s before again 710/355 KB/s



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update: just saw it peek to 47 MB/s for .5 of a second before going back to 355 KB/s and then 0/s and back on the same file TF
 
Hello, please download the attached batch file.
Click Me To Download
Unzip to your desktop.
Right click and run as admin.
Select Option 4, create KillBatch
Hit enter.
This will create a batch file that you can run
It will kill all non essential processes
It will also close your browser.
Run this then try your transfer.
Basically you will be almost in a clean boot state after running.
 
+1 for what Mal has said.

You could also try rebooting into Safe Mode.
Then your PC will only be running core essential processes and any issues with transfer speeds would be hardware related or just plain old Microsoft doing things its way.

I've noticed this sort of activity all my life, it's just how MS does things, I've learned to live with it.
Having lived through the floppy, ZIP superfloppies, and IOMEGA tape drive eras, for me, even when it goes down to blistering 355KB/s, I still think back to the good 'ol days!

But yes, we all know this pain. (y)

I find USB transfer rates to vary wildly between brands, and advertised figures!!!
Doing this same task with another USB device (stick or drive) will yield different speeds.
 
Have you checked that everything in the transfer chain is USB3 - source drive, destination drive, port, cable?
What is the external USB format - FAT32 or NTFS?
Are the drives HDD or SSD?
What is your version of Windows? Do you have the latest OS updates, and motherboard chipset drivers?
And to double check, you are using File Explorer to copy, not some 3rd party software?
 
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