Is my Hard Drive Read/Write speed slow? What is normal?

[♦Pieramyd]

Is my Hard Drive Read/Write speed slow? What is normal?
I've been transferring files from the hard drive to a USB to transfer them to a different computer, but the read/write speeds were horrible. This may be due to USB 2.0 Bandwidth, and this does seem to be the case (HDD>USB write speed is around 9-12MBps while USB>HDD write speed is 29-32MBps) but does this vary between different thumbdrives? My USB is a USB 3.0 but unfortunately I don't seem to have any 3.0 ports on my machine.

Man I should really bite the bullet and get one of those USB3 expansion cards.

So yeah, what read/write speeds are normal for a hard drive? Is there any way to test your hard drive to determine what it's platter RPM is?

[just.kamk /idle]

That doesn't sound right. USB2 should deliver way higher transfer speeds, and pretty much any HDD as well. Make sure you got latest chipset drivers installed.
More info on your setup would help.

Generally for some own checking up:
http://crystalmark.info/download/index-e.html
CrystalDiskInfo - for info
CrystalDiskMark - for benchmarking a little

[_I_]

20-30Mb/s is the usb 2.0 limit
hdd should be around 90-200Mb/s
use hdtune trial to test
http://www.hdtune.com/

[Fluffy]

your going to be capped with usb 2.0 and wont get full read/write transfer speeds from/to your hdd in this scenario

[fractal]

Free check tool.
http://www.softwareok.com/?Download=IsMyHdOK
No trial/installation bs.

[♦Pieramyd]

Originally posted by kamk:

That doesn't sound right. USB2 should deliver way higher transfer speeds, and pretty much any HDD as well. Make sure you got latest chipset drivers installed.
More info on your setup would help.

Generally for some own checking up:
http://crystalmark.info/download/index-e.html
CrystalDiskInfo - for info
CrystalDiskMark - for benchmarking a little

Where do I look for chipsets? I tried Intel but it said everything was up to date?

[Seven7]

Originally posted by _I_:

20-30Mb/s is the usb 2.0 limit
hdd should be around 90-200Mb/s

it's hight fragmented ntfs + zillion small files copy routine limit
on fully defragmented disk conected via usb 2.0 i'm get 30-60Mb/s on big files 150Mb-200Gb (60-90Mb on sata1)

[banzaigtv]

If you need faster transfer speeds, you may want to look into getting a USB 3.0 PCI add-in card.

[Bob the Boomer]

or find an e-SATA interface for your tower case and or external enclosure.

e-SATA is fine i use it and get 190MB/s on a SATA II drive

[rotNdude]

Post the make and model of internal HDD and USB drive.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

You system must be VERY old if it lacks USB 3.0
Even only AMD boards from 2011-2013 have 3.0 ports

Post the full Brand + Model of this drive please.

If it was an internal drive you installed into a 3rd party USB enclosure; then simply link us to the enclosure. Overall though, yes USB 2.0 will be much to slow for any HDD transfer rates. For USB Flash Drives though, yes around 20-30 read/write is normal; that is about as much as 2.0 can handle. For 3.0 you won't get higher transfer rates unless the device you are connecting actually supports USB 3.0