# Replaced my 2GB flash drive with a 16GB one, performance now sux. WTF? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 6, 2009, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/replaced-my-2gb-flash-drive-with-a-16gb-one-performance-now-sux-wtf/505581 "2009-08-06T23:53:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2009, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/replaced-my-2gb-flash-drive-with-a-16gb-one-performance-now-sux-wtf/505581/1 "2009-08-06T23:53:14Z")
Today I’m using a 16GB flash drive for the first time. I’ve been using a 2 GB for a while but I wanted a little more breathing room. Alas, the breathing room seems to be causing a general performance decline. As I type this, I am regularly getting as much as an entire word ahead of what I can see on screen. I have never seen this kind of performance lag in a flash drive before. Is this a symptom of a big flash drive, or do I just have a crappy flash drive? ---
**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/replaced-my-2gb-flash-drive-with-a-16gb-one-performance-now-sux-wtf/505581/2 "2009-08-07T01:26:16Z")
Unless you have some strange configuration that has a swap partition on your flash drive, the drive should not affect performance. Perhaps a virus check is in order. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/replaced-my-2gb-flash-drive-with-a-16gb-one-performance-now-sux-wtf/505581/3 "2009-08-07T01:29:06Z")
Sorry, I posted in haste and wasn’t clear: the applications I’m suddenly seeing poor performance on are run as portable apps from the flash drive. Firefox being chief among them. ---
**Author:** ![Fake\_Tales\_of\_San\_Francisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8491ac/32.png) [@Fake\_Tales\_of\_San\_Francisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fake_Tales_of_San_Francisco)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/replaced-my-2gb-flash-drive-with-a-16gb-one-performance-now-sux-wtf/505581/4 "2009-08-07T01:44:01Z")
Having a larger flash drive shouldn’t cause performance issues. Has anything else changed? Are you connecting via a USB hub? (is it powered or unpowered?) Since you’re running apps from it, I assume you’re not using it on a home PC (where it’s best to just install them on the hard drive). Have you tried it on other PC’s with better results? Otherwise, it’s quite possibly the brand. I think Corsair 16GB drives have had noticeably slower response times. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/replaced-my-2gb-flash-drive-with-a-16gb-one-performance-now-sux-wtf/505581/5 "2009-08-07T01:59:09Z")
> [@Fake\_Tales\_of\_San\_Francisco](#): > > Has anything else changed? Nope. Same PCs at work and (only occasionally) at home. It’s branded Memorex, though I doubt for some reason they actually manufactured it. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/replaced-my-2gb-flash-drive-with-a-16gb-one-performance-now-sux-wtf/505581/6 "2009-08-07T02:02:01Z")
If you put it in our library computers, you might have the worm. Just a thought. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/replaced-my-2gb-flash-drive-with-a-16gb-one-performance-now-sux-wtf/505581/7 "2009-08-07T02:09:18Z")
What kind of flash drive? eg: Plain USB, SD, Memory Stick? If you’re using a high capacity SD card, I know that can cause problems with some readers - when I got a new camera that used SDHC cards, I had to get a whole new reader - plugging an 8 GB SD card into the old reader made the whole PC turn to oatmeal, even though the card could not be mounted or read. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/replaced-my-2gb-flash-drive-with-a-16gb-one-performance-now-sux-wtf/505581/8 "2009-08-07T02:26:41Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > If you put it in our library computers, you might have the worm. Just a thought. There’s a new worm? News to me. > [@gotpasswords](#): > > What kind of flash drive? eg: Plain USB, SD, Memory Stick? > > If you’re using a high capacity SD card, I know that can cause problems with some readers - when I got a new camera that used SDHC cards, I had to get a whole new reader - plugging an 8 GB SD card into the old reader made the whole PC turn to oatmeal, even though the card could not be mounted or read. Nope, plain old USB 2.0. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/replaced-my-2gb-flash-drive-with-a-16gb-one-performance-now-sux-wtf/505581/9 "2009-08-07T02:46:09Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > …or do I just have a crappy flash drive? This gets my vote. There’s all sorts of different specs on these things, and I imagine you got one made with slower chips: that’ll happen more often as you get larger, since folks are often buying these for capacity (backup and transfer), not speed. Running apps off them is unusual, except for folks using the CD-based Linux distros and the like. If you decide to replace it, look for one with “ReadyBoost Certified” or some such label. You probably don’t actually want to USE it for ReadyBoost, but one of the qualifications is decent (although not necessarily fantastic) speed. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/replaced-my-2gb-flash-drive-with-a-16gb-one-performance-now-sux-wtf/505581/10 "2009-08-07T02:49:31Z")
Yeah, the read/write rates on different flash drives can be different. You can have good hardware or bad cheap hardware. A premium 16gb stick may be significantly faster than a low end 16gb stick. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/replaced-my-2gb-flash-drive-with-a-16gb-one-performance-now-sux-wtf/505581/11 "2009-08-07T04:43:18Z")
When I switched from an 8 gb USB stick to an 8 GB SDHC card (in a USB card reader) the speed went up. It matters what brand you use. BTW, I switched to [this reader](http://cgi.ebay.com/Thumb-USB-2-0-microSD-microSDHC-reader-1-2-4GB-8GB-16GB_W0QQitemZ120398862713QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item120398862713&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A4%7C65%3A10%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318) because I snapped off a memory stick in my laptop. Only 1/4 inch of it sticks out. I also use it in my car stereo as a hard drive. ---
**Author:** ![Scruff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Scruff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scruff)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/replaced-my-2gb-flash-drive-with-a-16gb-one-performance-now-sux-wtf/505581/12 "2009-08-07T05:41:16Z")
Yeah, the read and write speeds can vary a lot between flash memory devices. Not in any terribly predictable way, either. Try getting one of the free/cheap tools and check the read/write speed of your old USB drive and your new one. I did a quick Google search (“usb drive measure speed”) and came up with these two; don’t know if they work, but it is probably a good start: > **[Flash Memory Toolkit website](http://www.flashmemorytoolkit.com/)** > > Flash Memory Toolkit > **[HD Tune website](http://www.hdtune.com/)** > > HD Tune ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/replaced-my-2gb-flash-drive-with-a-16gb-one-performance-now-sux-wtf/505581/13 "2009-08-07T06:03:06Z")
The drive doesn’t encrypt the data does it? Some USB drives have disk encryption or even some goofy proprietary file access scheme that has to be disabled before using it as blank storage. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2009, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/replaced-my-2gb-flash-drive-with-a-16gb-one-performance-now-sux-wtf/505581/14 "2009-08-07T06:33:27Z")
The cheaper thumb drives often use relatively slow (ie cheaper) flash memory. IIRC Memorex branded thumb drives are at the bottom of the barrel re flash drive performance. You can buy very fast thumb drives but they are usually a bit pricier than the bargain models. Having said this running apps off a thumb drive - any thumb drive- can get very slow if your app is writing to the thumb drive. Flash memory reads very fast, but writes are pretty slow, often much slower than writing to a hard drive. If a lot of data is being written to flash drive, things can bog down. Although it’s solid state surprisingly a flash drive is not a perfect hard drive replacement when it comes to performance.