USB flash drive speeds

[Guest]

I just got an 8 GB USB 2.0 flash drive, and I timed some file
transfers.

Small file test (photos ranging from 100K to 4 MB):
- I copied 1.9 GB worth of photos from my HD to the flash drive, and
it took 25 minutes. That's about 1.3 MB/sec.
- Then I copied all 1.9 GB worth of photos from the flash drive back
to the HD, and it took 150 seconds. That's about 12.7 MB/sec.

Large file test:
- I copied a 550 MB file from my HD to the flash drive, and it took
105 seconds. That's about 5.2 MB/sec.
- Then I copied the 550 MB file from my flash drive back to the HD,
and it took 30 seconds. That's about 18.3 MB/sec.

Do you think the drive is slow? This was on XP on a HP laptop with a
T2400 processor @ 1.83 GHz and 1 GB of RAM.

 

[Guest]

Yes it's slower than some, but that seems about right for
the low end drives with MLC flash chips, the ones typically
costing about $40 USD /8GB these days.  Many other drives
would have about the same performance at similar price
points.

Yeah that's exactly how much it cost! It's an A-Data PD30 drive.
It's designed with a built-in cover, so you can't lose any caps.
Although is the cap really that important? I see so many reviews
where people are concerned about losing their caps.

As you've noted, small files take quite a bit longer.  You
might consider putting everything in a zip file writing it
to the USB drive as the destination to speed it up a little,
or of course return that drive for another that's faster...
which for 8GB would tend to cost about twice as much though
sometimes the higher priced drives have rebates to lower
cost a little.

Which brands or models are you thinking of?