Using USB flash drive for both windows and on a Chromebook

[Rush2112]

I recently bought 2 USB flash drives. The Samsung MUF -256AB/AM FIT 256GB – 300 MB/s USB Flash Drive. 1 used as a backup in case the second one fails. To be able to transfer files from both my Chromebook and Windows 10 Version 2004 PC. I wasn’t sure if I had to format them. I found out after plugging them in that they were formatted. And I also wasn’t sure if the would mate up, but they do I have to add. The only issue I have is that when plugged into my PC, that my PC will get sluggish and unresponsive after a wile of moving a lot of files to the flash drive. Aside from that, I have had no issues. My only question that I have is. Is it normal for my PC to slow down while the USB flash drive is connected while selecting several files to transfer?

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[Paul T]

It depends on the flash drive and the machine, but it’s not unusual.
Fire up Task Manager and select the Performance tab when you connect the flash drive, then start copying. Let us know if anything is obviously performing poorly.

cheers, Paul

p.s. I don’t use flash drives for anything except temporary use. I have a USB hard disk for backup as these are large, cheap and very reliable.

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[bratkinson]

Many computer users have no clue in the speed differences between USB 2, USB 3, 3.1 and I think 3.2 is out there now.  Between USB 2 and 3, there’s a ten fold speedup.  Plugging a USB 2 thumb drive in a USB 3 slot forces all data transfer to be performed at noticeably slower USB 2 speeds.  Similarly, putting your USB 3.1 Samsung flash drive into a USB 2 slot on your computer will make the transfer run at USB 2 speeds.  In most computers, (note the word ‘most’), USB 3 slots have a blue insert in them vs black or some other color for USB 2.

Another issue that may cause is the internal hardware of your computer have limited I/O channel capability and have to ‘share’ interrupts, or multiplex/time-slice use of I/O channels causing slowdowns.

Step 1: I’d unconditionally format each USB drive on your computer.  There’s no guarantee that they way it’s formatted by Samsung works well with your computer.  Also note that using an ‘allocation size’ (in the formatting window) that’s too big or too small for the majority of files to be put there, that may slow down transfer speeds.  Note, too, that writing is always slower than reading on any device.

Step 2: make sure you are plugging it into a USB 3 slot (or 3.1) on your computer.

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alphacharlie

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[Paul T]

bratkinson wrote:

There’s no guarantee that they way it’s formatted by Samsung works well with your computer

There is no “way to format” specific to any vendor. The various formats are standard and work everywhere.

Allocation size makes no difference to sustained speed, you are writing data in the same way every time.

If you are deleting files as part of the copy (moving files) then a flash drive will be much slower as you need to erase and then write for each write operation using the space of a deleted file.

cheers, Paul

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[Rush2112]

Thanks for the advice. If I were to format the USB flash drive on my Windows 10 2004 version computer. How would I go about in doing so? Yes I do have a 3.x blue USB port on my computer which I have used.

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[doriel]

The only issue I have is that when plugged into my PC, that my PC will get sluggish and unresponsive after a wile of moving a lot of files to the flash drive.

It depends on what PC it is and what are you copying. My experience is, that copying large number of small files (photos) is slower than copying movie. Copying files can certainly slow down your PC, but should not cause freezes or so.

If I were to format the USB flash drive on my Windows 10 2004 version computer. How would I go about in doing so?

Open This PC, on the left pane, rightclick the USB drive and select “Format..”
!! Right click the USB drive, do not rightclick C: or other local drives !!
Dialog will appear.
Capacity is given
File system should be NTFS, to transfer large files (unless you need to transfer data specific to older GNU/Linux)
Alocation unit size should remain unchanged (usually 4096 bytes)
Check “quick format”

Click Start.

You should not have problems there. HTH.

Dell Latitude E6530, Intel Core i5 @ 2.6 GHz, 4GB RAM, W10 1809 Enterprise

HAL3000, AMD Athlon 200GE @ 3,4 GHz, 8GB RAM, Fedora 29

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Rush2112

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[Paul T]

Let us know if it’s faster post format.

cheers, Paul

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[Rush2112]

So far recently I haven’t needed to use my USB flash drives. I have already moved all my files onto both drives. I will make note of on how to format a USB drive for future use. Should the need arise. Luckily the slowishness/unresponsiveness lasts for just a few moments when it did happen.

Thanks for your advice.

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