Windows 10: Slow transfer speeds to USB on Windows 10

I had the same slow speed problem as discussed in other threads. My problem was exactly to same. Slow speed 355 kb and then down to 0. I did a full format on the drive it took about 4 days but now the drive works properly. I was able to use a different USB drive which worked properly so I was fairly convinced it was not the computer. If you have the speed problem with any USB then this may not be helpful but if it seems to be just one drive try a full format.

:)

 

Slow transfer speeds to USB on Windows 10

Hi Richard,

Welcome to Microsoft Community.

I'm Hahn and I'm here to help you with your concern.

It sounds like you've managed to resolve the slow transfer speed issue by performing a full format on the problematic USB drive, which took quite some time but ultimately restored the drive's functionality. That's great to hear!

A full format essentially wipes the drive completely and rewrites the file system structures, which can fix underlying issues related to the drive's performance. If others are experiencing slow transfer speeds specifically with one USB drive, attempting a full format might indeed be a helpful step to consider.

For anyone encountering similar problems with slow transfer speeds on a specific USB drive, your experience could provide a useful troubleshooting tip. Thanks for sharing your solution!

Your Sincerely

| Microsoft Community Support Specialist

 

USB Transfer speed very slow on windows 10

Try with this

Method 1

Change Hardware Settings for Better Performance

The hardware settings require the external hard drive to remove from your machine safely, so safely disconnect your drive from the computer after finishing all the steps.

Step 1. Open Windows File Explorer and locate your external hard drive. Right-click the external drive icon and choose "Properties" from the drop-down menu.

Step 2. Choose "Hardware" tab, which will display the list of all disks mounted on the particular computer. Select the desired disk you want to improve its transfer performance and click "Properties" at the bottom of the window.

Step 3. In the device properties window select "Change settings".

Step 4. A disk window will pop up. Click the "Policies" tab and select "Optimize for performance".

Step 5. Be alert. You must disconnect the device safely. Right-click the tray icon and click "Safely remove USB Mass Storage Device".

Method 2

Turn off Auto-Tuning Feature in Windows 10

Don't let the auto-tuning feature retards the file transfer speed in Windows 10. You can only disable the feature by five steps.

Step 1. Press Windows key + X and select Command Prompt(Admin).

Step 2. Type "netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled" and press Enter.

Step 3. Now try to transfer the files and check the data transfer speed.

Step 4. Again go to Command Prompt(Admin) and type "netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=normal" and press Enter. This will turn on the Auto-tuning again.

Method 3

Check and Repair System Errors

Corrupted Windows 10 file system could disable, interrupt or slow down the file transfer speed, so let's use the System Maintenance Troubleshooter to repair the wrong files.

Step 1. Open Control Panel and click on the Troubleshooting icon.

Step 2. Select View all in the top left corner.

Step 3. Run System Maintenance Troubleshooter.

Method 4

Turn Off RDC

RDC or Remote Differential Compression has a similar goal but it utilizes alternative ways to help you synchronize large chunks of data. It compresses the data during the network sync, but it can also be a drawback. That’s why we suggest disabling it. If the
problem isn’t solved, you can always re-enable it and move onwards through the list.

Here’s how to turn off RDC:

Step 1. In the Windows Search bar, type Turn Windows and open Turn Windows features on or off.

Step 2. Scroll down and uncheck the “Remote Differential Compression API support” box.

Step 3. Confirm changes.

Method 5

Disable Drive Indexing

In order to speed up the access to files stored on the local storage, Windows offers Drive Indexing. When enabled, this feature will index all files and substantially reduce the waiting time when you search for them in File Explorer. This is a great feature
if you have dozens of similar files which and helps you distinguish them and access them quicker than usual.

However, even though it should work when PC is idle, it sometimes doesn’t. And you can imagine how it can slow the data transfer if starts indexing files while the copying is still at hand.

For that reason, we suggest disabling it. At least temporarily. Here’s how to do it:

Step 1. Open This PC or File Explorer.

Step 2. Right-click on the partition you want to relieve of indexing and open Properties.

Step 3. Uncheck the “Allow files on this drive to have contents indexed in addition to file properties” box and restart your PC.

Method 6

Disable your antivirus

In a similar manner, as Drive Indexing can slow down copying, an antivirus might, as well. Of course, instead of indexing, it’s real-time engine might scan them for malware presence. Besides slowing down the transfer, it can also affect the whole system and
hog on the resources. Which adds up to an already heavy burden. That’s the reason why you should disable it until all files are transferred. Obviously, you would want to enable it afterward.

Here’s how to disable Windows Defender:

Step 1. Open Windows Defender Action Center from the notification area.

Step 2. Choose Virus & threat protection.

Step 3. Under the Virus & threat protection settings, click Manage settings.

Step 4. Toggle off Real-time protection.

 

Slow speed transfer USB 3.0 on Windows 10

I have a Lenovo IdeaPad 3 15ALC6 laptop but right now I'm facing a issue with Windows 10.

When I try to transfer files to my external drive (which is a WD Elements 2TB) using the USB 3.0 port, i only get about 87MB/s to 104MB/s at maximum speed transfer. It turns out I have Ubuntu 22.04 dual booted on the same laptop so my first thought was to test the drive on this OS.

I used the same USB port and tried to transfer the same file to the same external drive and for my surprise speed transfer was about 320 ~ 372MB/s on Ubuntu. So it's not a problem with the external drive nor the USB Port itself, i guess.

I already did some research, but none of the things people told others to do fixed my problem.

What I already did:

• Check for USB drivers updates
  
• Uninstall then reinstall USB Serial Bus Controllers
  
• Check for firmware updates for my external drive
  
• Check for BIOS updates
  
• Check if USB 3.0 is enable
  
• Change USB removal policy to "Better performance"
  

I don't know what else to do, any help? Windows 10 is basically slowing down by more than half all my USB 3.0 speed transfers.

Windows version: 22H2 OS Build19045.3570