How to Boost the Transfer Speed of an External Hard Drive

Speed Up External Hard Drives

1. Click the Start button, then right-click on "Computer" and choose "Manage." 2. Click "Device Manager" from the sidebar. 3. Expand the "Disk drives" category and find your "external drive" in the list. 4. Right-click on the "drive" and choose "Properties." 5. On the "Policies" tab, select "Optimize for performance."

4 Solutions to Boost the Transfer Speed of External Hard Drive

Is your external hard drive's transfer speed slow? You can learn how to increase the transfer speed of external hard drive using these solutions below:

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Also read: How to Fix a Slow External Hard Drive on Mac.

Problem: How to Increase the Transfer Speed of an External Hard Drive

"I have a backup file that is 140GB in size. I'm attempting to copy it to an external hard drive using a USB 3.0 port. The external hard drive is a Western Digital My Passport Ultra. The estimate given is that the transfer will take more than 2 hours."

1. What am I doing wrong?
2. Why is it taking so long?
3. How can I speed it up?

Your external USB hard drive is functioning slower than usual, particularly when copying or transferring files. How can you boost the transfer speed of your external hard drive or enhance the file transfer speed on Windows 10/8/7? You can explore the helpful tips provided in the articles below to copy files more quickly to an external hard drive:

• How to resolve Seagate external hard drive slowness issue
• How to fix a sudden slowdown of your hard drive
• How to speed up a slow WD external hard drive without data loss

Or try the new approaches outlined in this article:

Solution 1: Convert FAT32 to NTFS to Speed Up External Hard Drive

The file system of an external USB hard drive significantly impacts the file transfer speed. NTFS appears to perform faster and more efficiently for file copying and transferring compared to FAT32. To convert FAT32 to NTFS without data loss, download the tool Partition Master and follow these steps to change your FAT32 partition to NTFS.

Fix 2: Modify Default Hardware Settings for Improved Performance

Aside from altering the file system to potentially boost the transfer speed of an external storage device, you can also attempt to modify the default hardware settings on your Windows computer.

Step 1. Open "Windows File Explorer" and locate your external hard drive. Right-click on the external drive icon, and select "Properties" from the context menu.

Step 2. Click on the "Hardware" tab, which will display a list of all disks installed on the specific computer. Select the disk that you wish to optimize for better transfer performance and then click "Properties" at the bottom of the window.

Step 3. In the device properties window, select "Change settings".

Step 4. A disk window will appear. Click on the "Policies" tab and choose "Optimize for performance."

Step 5. Stay vigilant. You must safely disconnect the device. Right-click the tray icon and select "Safely remove USB Mass Storage Device."

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Solution 3: Clean Up External Hard Drive Junk Files to Speed Up the Drive

The transfer speed might be sluggish if there are numerous junk files on the external hard drive. To enhance the transfer speed of the external hard drive, it's essential to eliminate these junk files. You can utilize a free tool - one that effectively and swiftly cleans up large files.

Step 1. DOWNLOAD and install Partition Master for free and launch it on your Windows PC.

On the suite, hover your mouse on "PC Cleaner", click the Download icon to install and launch the tool CleanGenius.

Step 2. On CleanGenius, select "Cleanup" on the main screen, and click "Scan" to start scanning.

Step 3. When the scan is over, select the unnecessary large files and click "Clean" to remove them.

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Step 4. When CleanGenius finishes cleaning the selected files, click "Done" to complete the process.

Solution 4: Replace the Old External Hard Drive with a New One

If the hard drive is aged, the transfer speed might also be slow. In that case, you can replace the old hard drive with a new one. If you wish to preserve your data, you can clone the hard drive using tools like Partition Master. Here are the steps to replace your external hard drive: 1. Purchase a new external hard drive with the desired capacity. 2. Download and install Partition Master on your computer. 3. Connect both the old and new external hard drives to your computer. 4. Launch Partition Master and select the "Clone" feature. 5. Choose the old hard drive as the "Source Disk" and the new hard drive as the "Destination Disk." 6. Review the disk layout and ensure that the cloning process won't overwrite any important data. 7. Select an appropriate cloning method, such as " sector-by-sector clone," depending on your needs. 8. Click "Start" to initiate the cloning process. This may take some time, depending on the size of the data. 9. Once the cloning is complete, safely disconnect the old hard drive and use the new one for your data storage needs. Remember to always back up important files regularly to prevent data loss.

Step 1. Select the source disk.

Click "Clone" from the left menu. Select "Clone OS Disk" or "Clone Data Disk" and click "Next". Choose the source disk and click "Next".

Step 2. Select the target disk.

Select the desired HDD/SSD as your destination and click "Next" to proceed. Read the warning message and confirm by clicking the "Yes" button.

Step 3. View the disk layout and edit the target disk partition size.

Then click “Continue” when the program warns you that it will erase all data on the target disk. (If you have valuable data on the target disk, back it up beforehand.)

You can choose "Autofit the disk," "Clone as the source," or "Edit disk layout" to customize your disk arrangement. (Select the last option if you wish to allocate more space to the C drive.)

Step 4. Click "Start" to begin the disk cloning process.

Conclusion

The transfer speed can significantly vary depending on the drive model, file system, and other factors. These solutions should address most issues with slow transfer speeds. If you continue to experience problems, feel free to contact us for further assistance. Incidentally, tools like Partition Master can aid you in resizing partitions and managing a hard drive more effectively. Here's a demonstration of how to partition a hard drive on Windows 10.

How to Transfer Files from PC to External Hard Drive Faster - Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some relevant questions on how to transfer files from PC to an external hard drive faster. Feel free to read on if you're interested in these topics.

How to transfer files from a PC to a flash drive more quickly?

To accelerate the USB transfer:

1. Connect the USB to the Rear Port
2. Update USB/Chipset Drivers
3. Enable USB 3.0 Port
4. Optimize Performance
5. Convert FAT32 to NTFS
6. Format USB Drive

Outdated drivers can sluggish your computer. DriverHandy Tool can assist you in updating your USB driver to enhance USB transfer speed. Updating drivers is a breeze with just one click. Give it a try by downloading it.

How long does it take to copy 1 terabyte (TB) of data over USB 3.0? The time it takes to copy 1TB of data over USB 3.0 depends on several factors, including the read and write speeds of the devices involved, the quality of the USB cable, and potential interruptions or bottlenecks in the process. Generally, USB 3.0 has a theoretical maximum transfer speed of around 5 Gbps (625 MBps). However, real-world speeds are usually lower due to overhead and other factors. Assuming an average transfer rate of around 100 MBps (which is a conservative estimate for USB 3.0), it would take approximately: 1,000,000 MB / 100 MBps = 10,000 seconds To convert this into hours, minutes, and seconds: 10,000 seconds ÷ 3600 seconds/hour = 2.78 hours 2.78 hours ≈ 2 hours and 46 minutes So, under ideal conditions, it would take roughly 2 hours and 46 minutes to copy 1TB of data over USB 3.0. However, your actual transfer time might be more or less depending on the aforementioned factors.

Approximately 4.9 hours. For USB 3.0, the maximum speed is 5GB/s, which equals 625MB/s. Assuming 1TB is the standard 1024GB (1,048,576 MB), it would take 1,048,576 / 625 = 1,677.7333333 seconds, or 28 minutes and 9.77 seconds per GB. Therefore, for 1TB, it would take 28 * 1024 + 9.77 = 2,870.7777778 minutes, which is approximately 47.846 hours. However, this is the theoretical transfer time without considering any potential overhead or real-world performance factors, so the actual time might be slightly longer.

How can I accelerate file transfer?

Here's how to accelerate it:

1. Inspect the HDD and external media for corruption
2. Deactivate the Auto-tuning function
3. Shut Down Remote Desktop Connection
4. Utilize a different USB port
5. Verify USB drivers
6. Turn Off Drive Indexing
7. Temporarily disable the antivirus software
8. Run the Disk Cleanup tool