Slow transfer speed from external HDD

[alarustic]

Hi,

I have a new 15" MBP with Touch Bar. I bought a Samsung T3 as external storage, it can be seen here.

Basically it is an external SSD which has a usb-c socket, so I can use the regular cable that is was supplied with when working on my iMac, then attach a usb-c to usb-c cable to use it on my laptop.

Problems is, transfer speeds are 4x higher on the iMac than the MBP. I don't understand why it would be slower?

My other external hard drive is a Lacie Thunderbolt Rugged SSD drive. When hooked up to the laptop (using usb-c -> thunderbolt2 adapter) it is really fast. The reason I upgraded to the Samsung is because it is more compact and doesn't require a dongle, however the slow speed is a major issue.

Thanks for your help.

 

[DarthBradicus]

What USB-C cable are you using? Not all USB-C cables are created equal. Some may not support faster transfer speeds (especially ones that are designed primarily for charging, like Apple's).

 

[alarustic]

What USB-C cable are you using? Not all USB-C cables are created equal. Some may not support faster transfer speeds (especially ones that are designed primarily for charging, like Apple's).

I didn't realise that. The cable I bought was this one, pretty cheap! I will try it with a better cable and see if that makes a difference.

 

[DarthBradicus]

I didn't realise that. The cable I bought was this one, pretty cheap! I will try it with a better cable and see if that makes a difference.

And it says in the description data transfer speed is 480 Mbps, which is USB 2.0.

 

[alarustic]

And it says in the description data transfer speed is 480 Mbps, which is USB 2.0.

Thank you.