file transfer speed...very slow

[AJB]

Whe transfering 4 files from a thumb drive to my vista system...or visa
versa...taks a very long time...much longer that on my xp system. I
addition I am asked to varify my actions each time...whic slows things down
even more.

What can I do?

[John Hanley]

I found that turning off "Remote Differential Compression" sped up my file
transfers significantly. You could try it by:

Control Panel|Programs and Features|Turn Windows Features on or off|uncheck
Remote Differential Compression.

I have found no negatives to turning off RDC, and you can always turn it
back on again.

[Dave]

I also understand SP1 will be addressing this issue as well.

[R. C. White]

Hi, AJB.

Your USB thumb drive is 2.0, right? And all drivers, hubs, and other
components are 2.0? Since you are running Vista on this computer, I assume
that your USB is all 2.0, but if you are using legacy hardware or software,
it might be using the older, slower USB.

[Flash Gordon]

Hi,

Actually that brings to mind a good question (I think).

My computer was built with 14 months ago and I would assume all USB ports
would be 2.0....

How can I check this is true for all the computers' USB ports (Front and
back, etc.)?

[John Hanley]

Possibly this has been suggested, but...I found that my file transfers both
to external devices and within my hard drive were greately speeded up when I
disabled Remote Differential Compression. You could try it by:
Control Panel|Programs and Features|Turn Windows Features on or off|uncheck
Remote Differential Compression.

I have found no negatives to turning off RDC, and you can always turn it
back on again.

[AJB]

My thumb drive is 2.0...wow and I check on my desktop usb?

[AJB]

How much of a difference should I expect to see...I hae follwed your
suggestion and am looking to see change.

[John Hanley]

The only quantitative test I did was a quickie test, consisting of copying a
1.91 GB
folder from my main hard drive to a folder on an external USB drive.

Results:

With RDC turned on: 3:23 - three minutes and 23 seconds (using a
stopwatch).

With RDC turned off: 2:25 – two minutes and 25 seconds.

So this quickie test reduced the copy time by about one minute, or a 33%
improvement. Not sure it is a valid test, but interesting. I also am
observing much faster file copy and move within my hard drive, remarkably
so. The whole system feels faster. Note that I did not do a reboot after
turning RDC off. I will leave it off, because even though my file
transfers were quite fast before, they are even faster now.

Will be interested to see your results.

[R. C. White]

Hi, AJB.

The fastest drive in the world will be slow if it is plugged into a USB 1
port. That's why I asked about drivers, hubs, etc. And you didn't answer
that part of the question.

If you have a brand new motherboard with all USB 2.0 ports, but with an old
legacy USB 1 hub plugged into your USB 2.0 motherboard port, with the new,
fast, USB 2.0 drive plugged into the hub - you'll get only USB 1.0 speed.
:>( Simply plugging that drive directly into the mobo, bypassing the hub,
might solve your problem.

The old "weakest link" analogy comes to mind.

I could make other guesses, but I would just be shooting in the dark without
knowing more about your whole USB "chain".