Slow USB3 write problems

DominionZA

DominionZA

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I purchased a Kingston 64GB USB3 flash drive from Esquire last week.
Toms Hardware showed very impressive speeds on this drive of up to 172MB/s read and 70MB/s write.

I have just copied a 3.2GB file from my Dell XPS 12 to the flash disk and I could not exceed 12MB/s. This is insane. Worse than USB2.

The XPS 12 has a 256GB SSD so source drive is not the bottleneck.
I am up to date with windows drivers and BiOS is on the latest version.

I tried the copy with the flash disk formatted both FAT32 and NTFS. Results were identical.

What else can I look at? This is driving me nuts.
 
Have you tried turning off your AV scanning / monitoring for the drive? That sometimes is the biggest bottleneck.

Also do a test with Teracopy and check the results.
 
Will disable AV. Never even considered that.
Surely a single large file would not be affected by AV scanning to this degree though?

I was testing the write speed with Teracopy. Or are you referring to a specific test function of Teracopy (never looked at what else it can do)?
 
Mike Smit said:
Will disable AV. Never even considered that.
Surely a single large file would not be affected by AV scanning to this degree though?

I was testing the write speed with Teracopy. Or are you referring to a specific test function of Teracopy (never looked at what else it can do)?
Click to expand...

AV scanning has become a huge bottleneck for me during copy processes of large data files / amounts. Personal preference to turn it off whilst copying or moving data that I know is clean.

The Teracopy comment was a generalised one for you to use it rather than normal copy. Also, in its settings tick on the use system cache for buffering option. (something like that)

I have seen articles where the native windows 7/8 copy process is faster than Teracopy in certain cases.

Then also ensure that firmware and software is all updated as manufacturers have been tweaking firmware for USB3 devices a lot since the large uptake.

For someone that regularly moves large data like you, it is worth investing some time to rectify the bottlenecks as they add significant time to workloads over a period.

If you manage to identify and fix this, please provide feedback so we can build up & increase the shared knowledge base.
 
Aquadyne said:
AV scanning has become a huge bottleneck for me during copy processes of large data files / amounts. Personal preference to turn it off whilst copying or moving data that I know is clean.

The Teracopy comment was a generalised one for you to use it rather than normal copy. Also, in its settings tick on the use system cache for buffering option. (something like that)

I have seen articles where the native windows 7/8 copy process is faster than Teracopy in certain cases.

Then also ensure that firmware and software is all updated as manufacturers have been tweaking firmware for USB3 devices a lot since the large uptake.

For someone that regularly moves large data like you, it is worth investing some time to rectify the bottlenecks as they add significant time to workloads over a period.

If you manage to identify and fix this, please provide feedback so we can build up & increase the shared knowledge base.
Click to expand...

Thanks dude. Helpful info.

Just sat down to start fiddling. Will definitely report back.
 
Did you buy the exact same flashdrive as the one that scored those fast speeds?

Secondly, just take note that those peak performance figures are usually in benchmarks such as CristalDisk, where they write very large blocks of sequential data and not actual file transfers.
Perhaps you should run the same benchmark utility that scored that high to compare your speeds.

My guess is that your write speed will remain at about 12MB/s, no matter what utility you try and with no AV.

Update:
Exactly what model flashdrive do you have?
 
Last edited:
Ye - exact same one. Very impressive scores.

Part of my fiddling now will be to benchmark mine, and to try it on my XPS 15 and desktop. Will help identify if a problem with my XPS 12 or the flash disk.
 
Sounds like you are plugged into a USB 2 port.

Is it blue inside?
 
Ran CrystalDiskMark. Gave me 81.51 on read and 10.40 on write. Lot more acceptable but nowhere near the benchmark tests I saw online (192/89).

Reckon I might have driver issues. Will investigate that now.

The benchmark write speeds are in line with what I was achieving with my file copy. Kingston rates the drive at 30MB/s write so I got room for improvement. Improvement I want.
 
Last edited:
Get Usbdeview, and check if it is actually connecting in USB3 mode. I had lots of fun trying to get my PC to actually connect in USB3 mode, was quite a hunt to find the correct drivers, although the crystal diskmark read speed would indicate that it is connected in USB3 mode.
 
Mike Smit said:
I purchased a Kingston 64GB USB3 flash drive from Esquire last week.
Toms Hardware showed very impressive speeds on this drive of up to 172MB/s read and 70MB/s write.

I have just copied a 3.2GB file from my Dell XPS 12 to the flash disk and I could not exceed 12MB/s. This is insane. Worse than USB2.

The XPS 12 has a 256GB SSD so source drive is not the bottleneck.
I am up to date with windows drivers and BiOS is on the latest version.

I tried the copy with the flash disk formatted both FAT32 and NTFS. Results were identical.

What else can I look at? This is driving me nuts.
Click to expand...

Could be a couple things.

1. The USB controller on your laptop is slow.
2. The hard drive you're copying from is slow.
3. You plugged the drive into a USB 2 port.
 
As a reference point for you, I bought a Kingston DT Ultimate G2 (made sure it was the same version as the tested one) and it performs as per spec - ie. fantastically.

OTOH, a Verbatim 16gig usb 3 performs as putridly as yours - swapped out for another and it performs just as badly - have just given up (even though it cost me more that the 32gig above).

USB3.0 really seems to be hit and miss - when it works it's brilliant, when not makes you want to pull your hair out.

If you can, test same files with a range of USB 3 sticks to see if it's your hardware / drivers or the stick itself (try that stick in another USB 3 machine as well).
 
Seems like my flashdisk may not be performing to spec.

Did the exact same 3.5GB file copy test on my desktop. Got 65MB/s read (bit better than notebook), but the identical write speed as my notebook - 12MB/s (Kingston rate it at 30MB/s).

Sigh...
 
AfricanTech said:
USB3.0 really seems to be hit and miss - when it works it's brilliant, when not makes you want to pull your hair out.
Click to expand...

You can say that again. Bought a AData SSD with USB3 port - it absolutely refused to connect to my notebook's (ASUS N53SV) USB3 port. Just didn't pick up at all. Worked perfectly if I used a USB2 cable in the same port or the USB3 cable in another port.

Eventually swapped it out for a normal OCZ SSD drive and a SATA <-> USB3 enclosure. Actually bought two enclosures - and eventually discovered that it will only work with enclosure 1 when I use enclosure 2's supplied cable.
 
ebendl said:
You can say that again. Bought a AData SSD with USB3 port - it absolutely refused to connect to my notebook's (ASUS N53SV) USB3 port. Just didn't pick up at all. Worked perfectly if I used a USB2 cable in the same port or the USB3 cable in another port.

Eventually swapped it out for a normal OCZ SSD drive and a SATA <-> USB3 enclosure. Actually bought two enclosures - and eventually discovered that it will only work with enclosure 1 when I use enclosure 2's supplied cable.
Click to expand...

Similar experiences here - I think the OEM's have very different ways of implementing the standards - possible a weak point that can be exploited by the alternatives being touted by intel.

Interesting to watch this space - very glad I didn't jump onto the bandwagon when the price was still at a premium
 
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