Summary: Logically speaking, the transfer rate of USB 2.0 is 480Mbps, whereas a USB 3.0 can send or receive data as fast as up to 5Gbps. But why does the USB some users just bought have prolonged transfer speeds? Sometimes, users even get stuck at 99% while transferring files. Windows, by default, isn’t configured correctly to get those transfer speeds for USB. This article will introduce all possible methods to help you fix the USB transfer speed slow issue in Windows 10.
Overview of Slow USB Transfer Speed
The minimum transfer speed for USB 3.0 is 400MB per second, while it is 35MB per second for USB 2.0. But if the file transferring process never ends, USB doesn’t start communicating, or the time lasts hours or even a day, you should realize there is some wrong with the USB transfer speed.
Generally, USB transfer speeds can decrease significantly if you encounter one or more of the following problems:
- Bad sectors.
- Unstable power supplies.
- Transferring large files.
- The USB port needs to be updated and incompatible with a newer drive.
- USB is almost complete, therefore limiting transfer speeds.
If these situations are happening to you, there are a few things you can do.
How to Increase USB Transfer Speed in Windows 10?
Method 1: Recover Data from USB Drive
If your USB drive cannot read and write files correctly, you may have corrupted sectors in your drive, which means you might risk losing your data. To remedy this, you can recover all your files from the USB and format the drive to repair the bad sectors to increase speeds.
Bitwar Data Recovery Software has a high data recovery success rate and recovers 580+ deleted, formatted, lost, and disappeared data from internal & external hard drives, SD memory cards, USB flash drives, or other digital storage media on Windows or Mac.
- Go to Bitwarsoft Download Center, find and install Bitwar Data Recovery on the computer.
- Select the USB drive you want to recover from the Disk Partitions and Devices list.
- Choose the Quick Scan mode. You can choose the Deep Scan mode if the deleted data can’t be found. It performs an in-depth search to look for data in every corner of your computer. After that, click on the Next button.
- Choose your target file type, and click Scan.
- Choose, preview the scanned files you need, then click Recover and save the files into different devices or partitions.
Method 2: Format to Speed Up USB
To improve transfer speed and fix bad sectors, you can format the USB flash drive after obtaining the data. Follow these steps to format the USB device to fix bad sectors and speed it up:
- Insert the USB drive into your computer and double-click This PC on your desktop.
- Find and right-click your USB drive, then choose format… in the appearing drop-down menu.
- In the Format window, check the box of Quick Format and choose NTFS from the Format system drop-down section.
- Tap the Start button. Then a warning will appear, and just click OK.
- After that, Windows will remove all of the data from your USB drive, and a message will pop up, saying Format Complete.
Method 3. Convert USB File System to NTFS
Typically, USB flash drives are formatted as FAT32 for their broad compatibility. However, NTFS can provide faster file transfer speed, particularly for files larger than 4GB. If your USB drive is currently formatted as FAT32, you can convert it to NTFS to enhance transfer speed.
- Type CMD in the Start search field, and click the Run as administrator option to open Command Prompt.
- At the Command Prompt window, type in the following command and press the Enter key. (X is the drive letter of the USB drive that you want to format):
convert E: /fs:ntfs
NOTE: You can use Bitwar Data Recovery Software to prevent any potential loss of files by copying all files from the USB to another drive.”
Method 4: Optimise Performance
Optimizing the overall performance of your USB is a great way to boost transfer speeds. To do this, follow these steps:
- Press Win + X and choose Device Manager.
- Toggle down to Disk drives and click to expand; here, you should find your USB device, right-click on it and select Properties.
- Navigate to the Policies tab, and check Better performance.
Once you’ve confirmed this, it will optimize your drive, and once you’ve rebooted your computer, you’ll notice improved read and write performance from the port itself.
Method 5: Update the USB Driver
- Press Win + X and choose Device Manager.
- Expand Disk drives, right-click the USB drive from the available list, and click Update driver.
- Then select Search automatically for updated driver software.
- Your computer will now search the internet for recent drivers and install them.
Method 6: Enable 3.0 Drives in BIOS
On most modern devices, USB 3.0 is usually enabled as a standard. However, if you have either a USB 3.0 or a 3.1 and it’s running slowly, you should check and ensure that USB 3.0 is enabled in BIOS. Here’s how to do this:
- Restart your computer, and as it’s rebooting, select F2 and Delete simultaneously on your keyboard to enter BIOS.
- Once you’re in BIOS, use the arrow keys to navigate the Advanced tab.
- Use the up and down keys to select USB Configuration, and then select Enter.
- If you notice that the USB 3.0 Support has been disabled, utilize the arrow keys again to fix it and press Enter.
- When the options window appears, choose enabled and press Enter.
- Once you’ve made the changes press the F10 key to save your changes.
When your computer boots again, you can reconnect your USB device, and you should notice a marked difference in the speed of transfers between the USB and your device.
Conclusion
That’s all we want to introduce about the methods to fix a slow USB transfer speed issue. It is essential to remind everyone that when it comes to repairing a faulty USB drive, remember to back up and recover critical data using our Bitwar Data Recovery Software before any repair.
