Problems with Slow data transfer rate from External Hard drive

Hello friends, I have recently bought a 1Tb Seagate External Hard drive which is formatted in FAT32. My desktop computer is running on Windows 7. The problem I am facing is The data transfer rate from and to my external hard drive is very slow. Even if the File size is in kb's it takes about a minute to transfer. The specifications of the hard drive suggest that it has faster data transfer rate. Is this because of Windows 7 or is my drive faulty? Please help.

May be configuration of your computer does not support such a large hard drive. There is a limit on the capacity of the data accessed by the system. The limit of the memory accessed by the system depends on the CPU whether it is 64bit or 32 bit and the motherboard. Check if your processor or motherboard is capable of handling such a large hard drive. If the system does not supports such a large capacity then it is better that you get it changed to a smaller capacity drive which will be supported by your system.

I think you will need to reformat the drive. If the drive is not formatted properly then the data transfer rate of the drive hampers. When a drive is formatted the system creates data allocation table and file allocation tables on it to access the data easily and at the faster rate. But if the entries in this table are not populated properly then it takes lot of time to store or access the data on the drive. Format the drive again using NTFS partition and see if the performance of the drive improves or not.

The data transfer rate of the drive also depends on the medium connecting the drive to the computer. I suppose you are using a USB data cord to connect the drive to the system. I would suggest you to check the USB cord for any faults by connecting some other device to computer by using it. USB cords get physically damaged if they are not properly stored. If such a damaged cord is used to connect the device to the system may lead to undetectable device or if the device is connected it will not function properly. Replacing the data cord might help you in achieving a better data transfer rate.

In my opinion the drive is faulty and needs to replaced. Portable hard drive are very unreliable mode of storage of data. The hard drive consist of a Platter and a movable head which are aligned such that the data access time is minimum. This alignment can be changed by a slightest physical shock. If this alignment changes then the data access time increases. Moreover if the hard drive goes a strong physical shock it may also lead to the drive becoming useless. To check if the drive has developed any problems, download and run hard drive diagnostics tools which are available for free online. Repair the errors if any and check the performance of the drive. If the performance does not improve even after the diagnostic tools then replace the hard drive.

I think the USB 2.0 compatibility on your motherboard is not enabled. All the new motherboard which are available are USB 2.0 compatible but this feature has to activated in order to be able to use it. To enable USB 2.0 compatibility you will have to access the BIOS setup. Press Del when the system boots to enter the BIOS setup. Now go to Advanced options and Locate USB configurations tab and check if the USB 2.0 is enabled or not. If it is disabled then enable it and save and exit the BIOS setup. Once the computer restarts you will not face any problems with the data transfer rate.