Windows file transfer problem to large USB data sticks - any ideas?

[ColinJ]

I've got 1.5 GB spread over 3 files. I'll try copying those to one of my USB sticks tomorrow and see what happens on my 5 year old laptop which is running Win 10.

Too late to do it now!

 

[Tigerbiten]

I'd go Ctrl-Alt-Delete to open task manager then go to the performance screen.
That will bring up real time graphs of what's happening.
Then start the file transfer again and watch what happens.
Does the CPU usage get pegged at 100% when the transfer hangs ??
What's the read/write speeds of all the drives when the transfer is ongoing ??
Is everything normal or does something look wrong.
Do it on both computers and see if they are identical.

Luck ........

 

[DCBassman]

Correct size reporting or not, this sounds suspiciously like fake drives to me. Where did they come from?
I only get mine from Ebuyer. The age of your gear is irrelevant in this instance.

 

[beanzontoast]

Correct size reporting or not, this sounds suspiciously like fake drives to me. Where did they come from?
I only get mine from Ebuyer. The age of your gear is irrelevant in this instance.

Both reputable brands from a well-known online retailer. One stick has heading for 20k reviews, the vast majority positive. The other not so many in total, but was also chosen because of reviews.

 

[bikingdad90]

It might be your USB port that is the problem. In the laptop what type of port is it? USB B 2.0 or one of the latter generations such as a USB 3.0 or the fastest one yet a USB C (granted this has a different connector).

EDIT: just seen you tried a 2.0 and 3.0 USB without success.

Are you using Windows? I know with things like MS Excel when you delete a line in a large dataset it deletes that line and then moves every line below it upwards by one and then reformats the code in each cell afterwards so sometimes bogs down. They’ve tried to fix it in the latest generation of MS Office which makes me wonder if it’s something with to do with how it’s coded to read the card by going to the furtherest available spot to “dump” the file and then the next furthest etc.

 

[the_mikey]

Other things to consider: Perform a full format of the flash drive (not quick format) , this will either work or cause the computer to hang, do it when you're not going to need the computer for a while.

Maybe consider using SSD with a SATA-USB drive instead?

USB thumb drives are very likely to be slower unless you're paying a huge premium for ultra-fast drives, the SSD will be quicker. Even a traditional HDD for a laptop might give you better service.

 

[beanzontoast]

I'd go Ctrl-Alt-Delete to open task manager then go to the performance screen.
That will bring up real time graphs of what's happening.
Then start the file transfer again and watch what happens.
Does the CPU usage get pegged at 100% when the transfer hangs ??
What's the read/write speeds of all the drives when the transfer is ongoing ??
Is everything normal or does something look wrong.
Do it on both computers and see if they are identical.

Luck ........

So…

CPU spent most of the time around 3-5% with occasional peaks up to 20%.
Computer’s memory never went above 34%
SSD wasn’t taxed at all - nothing above a few %.

Two interesting discoveries…
1. The SSD (from its graph) achieves file transfer for maybe 2 seconds every 30 seconds or so. You could set your watch by it.
2. The USB stick’s graph is maxed out at 100% the entire time when the transfer speed is zero - i.e. for the vast majority of the transfer attempt, that graph is stuck at “100% busy”. When files are actually being copied - which lasts only a couple of seconds - the graph drops to about 50%. It goes up to a peak of maybe 25mb/s and falls away to zero rapidly.

*edit* Similar results on both laptop and base unit.

 

[beanzontoast]

It might be your USB port that is the problem. In the laptop what type of port is it? USB B 2.0 or one of the latter generations such as a USB 3.0 or the fastest one yet a USB C (granted this has a different connector).

EDIT: just seen you tried a 2.0 and 3.0 USB without success.

Are you using Windows? I know with things like MS Excel when you delete a line in a large dataset it deletes that line and then moves every line below it upwards by one and then reformats the code in each cell afterwards so sometimes bogs down. They’ve tried to fix it in the latest generation of MS Office which makes me wonder if it’s something with to do with how it’s coded to read the card by going to the furtherest available spot to “dump” the file and then the next furthest etc.

Yes, Windows 10. USB2 and 3 ports are fine with the smaller data sticks on both machines.

 

[beanzontoast]

Other things to consider: Perform a full format of the flash drive (not quick format) , this will either work or cause the computer to hang, do it when you're not going to need the computer for a while.

Maybe consider using SSD with a SATA-USB drive instead?

USB thumb drives are very likely to be slower unless you're paying a huge premium for ultra-fast drives, the SSD will be quicker. Even a traditional HDD for a laptop might give you better service.

I’ve reformatted it fully, trying both exFAT and NTFS. Unfortunately, the problem persists.

 

[beanzontoast]

OK - I hate to say it, but life’s too short for this! It’s just a flipping computer data stick and I’ve got a bunch of files to move back and forth.

Thanks everyone for the help - especially since most of it came in the middle of the night! All I can think of is that there’s something about the size of the drives that isn’t working in my situation and isn’t going to. Looking around the internet, it’s a problem that other Windows users have had.

I have a spare 2.5” external drive caddy that doesn’t require an additional power supply. Think I will dig around for an old hard drive and use that instead.

 

[Rezillo]

I have to agree with DCBassman - this does sound very much like fake capacity drives.

In my own experience, I have bought two 128gb Lexar drives from a well-known online retailer but which turned out to be using fake brand name packaging. They gave the same symptoms. Replaced them with 128gb Sandisk ones sold direct from the online retailer (and not a third party seller from the same site) and those worked fine.

The problem with relying on the site reviews is that all reviews of all sellers of the same named product will be included together. If the named product is being faked, you can't easily tell from reviews as the 'real' ones will swamp those of the fake ones, but a glance at the one star reviews might help. I wouldn't rely on the correct capacity reporting as proving they are not fake either. The flash controller can be configured to report a wrong size and is not over-writable.

You may be able to tell more if the sticks were sold by a company on that site that has feedback on the supplier rather than the product. There are also tools to test for fake drives - these are freeware but I can't vouch for any particular one. For me, if it has got to the stage of testing being needed then it is bin time.

 

[beanzontoast]

I have to agree with DCBassman - this does sound very much like fake capacity drives.

In my own experience, I have bought two 128gb Lexar drives from a well-known online retailer but which turned out to be using fake brand name packaging. They gave the same symptoms. Replaced them with 128gb Sandisk ones sold direct from the online retailer (and not a third party seller from the same site) and those worked fine.

The problem with relying on the site reviews is that all reviews of all sellers of the same named product will be included together. If the named product is being faked, you can't easily tell from reviews as the 'real' ones will swamp those of the fake ones, but a glance at the one star reviews might help. I wouldn't rely on the correct capacity reporting as proving they are not fake either. The flash controller can be configured to report a wrong size and is not over-writable.

You may be able to tell more if the sticks were sold by a company on that site that has feedback on the supplier rather than the product. There are also tools to test for fake drives - these are freeware but I can't vouch for any particular one. For me, if it has got to the stage of testing being needed then it is bin time.

You and DCBassman may well be right - file transfer should be so simple, so this amount of bother is a real red flag. Unlucky on my part, but probably best to chalk it to experience and move on. If I get back to using a Linux distro in the near future - maybe just firing up a live distro from disc over a coffee - I may well give them a try there. If they still baulk at behaving themselves, that will pretty much seal their fate. Expect a thread resurrection when I try it!

 

[Tigerbiten]

Just tried moving a 2gb folder to a USB STICK under Win10.
The USB was pegged at 100% for the first half of the transfer, then got more variable for the second half.
So that works.
It does sound like the stick is iffy.

Luck ........

 

[Jody]

If it's any concolation I had a similar issue at the weekend after transferring on to a new 512 stick bought to house my music.

Had about 50gb to transfer which went OK for the first half. But after that the transfer kept dropping to 0 for anywhere up to 5 minutes at a time then it would spring into life again. No obvious reason for doing this that I could see.

 

[beanzontoast]

If it's any concolation I had a similar issue at the weekend after transferring on to a new 512 stick bought to house my music.

Had about 50gb to transfer which went OK for the first half. But after that the transfer kept dropping to 0 for anywhere up to 5 minutes at a time then it would spring into life again. No obvious reason for doing this that I could see.

If these sticks sprang back to life it would be something at least. As it is, I’ve spent about 100 times more minutes (than the transfer should have taken) just investigating why they got stuck so badly!