# Write speeds for flash drives **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 11, 2010, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/write-speeds-for-flash-drives/539042 "2010-05-11T13:37:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/write-speeds-for-flash-drives/539042/1 "2010-05-11T13:37:07Z")
I bought a sort of cheapie flash drive on ebay, and I notice that when writing to it using Terra Copy, it only runs at about 2MB/s. This means it can take over an hour to fill its 32MB. What is a respectable write speed for flash drives? Is it possible that Terra Copy is a limiting factor? Would buying a name brand drive improve this? ---
**Author:** ![HorseloverFat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8e8cbc/32.png) [@HorseloverFat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HorseloverFat)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/write-speeds-for-flash-drives/539042/2 "2010-05-11T13:47:57Z")
What are you copying? Is this one big contiguous file? A bunch of files will always be much slower to copy than one large one. USB flash drives aren’t engineered to be fast. Theyre made to be cheap and disposable. Your speed is on the slow end of things but not too atypical. There are a few fast ones out there like this OCZ Turbo: > **[Legacy Products | KIOXIA - United States (English)](https://americas.kioxia.com/en-us/personal/support/legacy-products.html)** ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/write-speeds-for-flash-drives/539042/3 "2010-05-11T13:52:41Z")
Ummm…if it runs at 2 MB/s, it would fill 32MB in 16 seconds…I assume you mean its capacity is 32GB? It sounds like you only have a USB 1.1 port, not 2.0 (1.1 writes at about 1.43 MB/s, USB 2.0 is about 57 MB/s.) Edit: And is there a reason yoiu’re using 3rd party file copy software instead of just Windows Explorer? ---
**Author:** ![HorseloverFat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8e8cbc/32.png) [@HorseloverFat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HorseloverFat)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/write-speeds-for-flash-drives/539042/4 "2010-05-11T14:22:33Z")
Its probably not USB1.1. The limitation is probably how fast the media can write. Flash media on these super cheap drives is pretty lousy. I bet if he plugged in a USB drive that had a mechanical disk in it, it would fly. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/write-speeds-for-flash-drives/539042/5 "2010-05-11T17:14:30Z")
BTW - I would be **VERY** careful about buying large Flash drives on ebay - Many (most?) of them are fakes. Get a drive [tester](http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives/2009/08/26/test-and-detect-fake-or-counterfeit-usb-flash-drives-bought-from-ebay-with-h2testw/) and confirm that your drive is as big as it says it is, before trusting your data to it! ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/write-speeds-for-flash-drives/539042/6 "2010-05-11T22:46:26Z")
I’m using Terra Copy because it will skip overwrites in bulk, and especially because it will skip corrupted or in-use files without stopping the entire operation. However, I’m getting corrupted data. I don’t know if it’s the drive or Terra Copy. I’ve not had problems with TC using the HDDs I have. I’m getting the feeling this flash drive was either cheaply made is an actual reject. ---
**Author:** ![Palooka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/palooka/32/2902_2.png) [@Palooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palooka)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/write-speeds-for-flash-drives/539042/7 "2010-05-11T23:26:20Z")
Sounds like your USB drive is made out of a crappy SD card. A real drive is going to be 20x faster. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/write-speeds-for-flash-drives/539042/8 "2010-05-12T00:46:36Z")
This is what it is, probably from the same seller, even. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/write-speeds-for-flash-drives/539042/9 "2010-05-12T00:53:55Z")
Huge differences in flash drive write speeds. Better ones are about as quick as good hard drives. slow ones take forever. Look at [www.newegg.com](http://www.newegg.com) comments for best performing units. ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2010, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/write-speeds-for-flash-drives/539042/10 "2010-05-12T14:53:49Z")
I used Teracopy about 18 months ago, and in fairly short order identified and submitted a bug report for a case where using it would result in data loss. I can’t remember the exact circumstances, but the TeraCopy [bug listing](http://bugs.codesector.com/) is pretty big, and pretty old. I don’t think they’re interested in fixing things really.