Transfer to USB very slow

[joeg679]

I just bought a Sandisk 1TB USB-c drive that says it will transfer 400 mb per second. This is the 2nd one - I returned the first one because Sandisk told me it was faulty. I'm trying to transfer a 40 gb folder to it and it's saying that it will take about 4 hours. I used disk utility to erase it, initially, and made it OS journaled. I've transferred this folder to an external drive (in a case) via USB before and it takes about 15 minutes. Also, the thumb drive gets VERY hot. Any Idea what the Issue is? Thank you!

 

[MacInWin]

USB-C is, in addition to being a standard for the connector, is a speed standard. Not all "USB-C" drives are capable of the speeds of USB-C for data transfer. That said, the fact it is getting hot is the most likely cause of the slowdown, as heat is the enemy of electronics and the drive itself may be throttling the speed of transfer to avoind overheating.

Try this, open Activity Monitor on the Mac (In the Utilities menu), and go to the Disk tab. Start the transfer and monitor the read/write speeds. A folder with a lot of small files will take a longer time to move than a folder with a few very large files because each file move will include updates to the drive directory, which takes time.

EDIT: USB-C specs here: USB-C - Wikipedia

 

[Raz0rEdge]

If you were truly getting 400 MB/s, then a 40 GB folder of data would transfer over in about 100 seconds.

A transfer time for 15 mins means, you're getting more like 40 MB/s.

Beyond what Jake suggested, you can also grab Blackmagic Disk Test and run it against the drive to see what kinds of speeds you are getting.

While the drive would get warm as you are writing a lot of data to it, it should get ridiculously hot or anything.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

I just bought a Sandisk 1TB USB-c drive...

You may want to return it for a refund and get something better.

SanDisk Portable SSDs Are Failing So Frequently, We Can No Longer Recommend Them
https://petapixel.com/2023/08/08/sa...o-frequently-we-can-no-longer-recommend-them/

A Warning About Sandisk SSD's
https://www.reddit.com/r/editors/comments/10syawa/a_warning_about_sandisk_extreme_pro_ssds/

 

[joeg679]

You may want to return it for a refund and get something better.

SanDisk Portable SSDs Are Failing So Frequently, We Can No Longer Recommend Them
SanDisk Portable SSDs Are Failing So Frequently, We Can No Longer Recommend Them

A Warning About Sandisk SSD's
https://www.reddit.com/r/editors/comments/10syawa

Wow, thanks. I like to have the portability of a thumb drive.

 

[joeg679]

If you were truly getting 400 MB/s, then a 40 GB folder of data would transfer over in about 100 seconds.

A transfer time for 15 mins means, you're getting more like 40 MB/s.

Beyond what Jake suggested, you can also grab Blackmagic Disk Test and run it against the drive to see what kinds of speeds you are getting.

While the drive would get warm as you are writing a lot of data to it, it should get ridiculously hot or anything.

USB-C is, in addition to being a standard for the connector, is a speed standard. Not all "USB-C" drives are capable of the speeds of USB-C for data transfer. That said, the fact it is getting hot is the most likely cause of the slowdown, as heat is the enemy of electronics and the drive itself may be throttling the speed of transfer to avoind overheating.

Try this, open Activity Monitor on the Mac (In the Utilities menu), and go to the Disk tab. Start the transfer and monitor the read/write speeds. A folder with a lot of small files will take a longer time to move than a folder with a few very large files because each file move will include updates to the drive directory, which takes time.

EDIT: USB-C specs here: USB-C - Wikipedia

Thanks - I found something on a different thread that said to go into spotlight and de-index the drive and that helped and it transferred in about 13 minutes. I guess that's good.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

Wow, thanks. I like to have the portability of a thumb drive.

You might want to check out:

Kingston External 1TB XS1000 USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 External SSD
$75
https://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Pocket-Sized-External-SXS1000-1000G/dp/B0CCQB7BN7/ref=sr_1_2

 

[joeg679]

You might want to check out:

Kingston External 1TB XS1000 USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 External SSD
$75
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CCQB7BN7/?tag=macforums0e4-20

Awesome. Thank you, everyone!

 

[MacBiter]

I've stopped using SanDisk (especially thumb drives) - one, they get hot, and two, they're very slow.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

I've stopped using SanDisk (especially thumb drives) - one, they get hot, and two, they're very slow.

In case folks don't realize, SanDisk is now (as of 2016) owned by Western Digital. In recent years just about all of WD's products, except at the high end, have been POS's.

 

[pm-r]

Thanks - I found something on a different thread that said to go into spotlight and de-index the drive and that helped and it transferred in about 13 minutes. I guess that's good.

Don't forget that not using the proper certified cable can reduce the throughput and data transfer speeds that each device might be capable of:

Apple says:

Data transfer
Use this cable to connect your Mac to a device that uses Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) or USB-C for data transfer, such as an external hard drive or dock. It supports Thunderbolt 3 data-transfer speeds up to 40Gbps, and USB 3.1 Gen 2 data-transfer speeds up to 10Gbps. It also supports Target Disk Mode. Check the specifications of your device to determine which data-transfer standard it supports.

About the Apple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) Cable - Apple Support

Connect a device that has a Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) port to a device that has a Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) or USB-C port.

support.apple.com

- Patrick
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