SLOW transfer speed to external HD via USB

[odles]

And when I say slow, I mean slow. A 1.05 GB file took 5 minutes to transfer, so we're talking about a transfer rate of ~3.5 MB/s.

I'm using a 15" 2009 Macbook Pro running OS X 10.6.8. The external HD is a Western Digital Passport drive.

From what I've read online, these speeds are typically reserved for USB 1.0. I have no idea why transfer would be so slow, but I'm hoping that someone on here might. Any help is very much appreciated.

Edit: I just grabbed a flash drive and attempted the transfer to that. I'm getting about the same speed - Four minutes instead of five, but even so that's about 4.5 MB/s. Still not even in the neighborhood of what it should be.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Have you tried AJA System Test, Blackmagic Disk Speed Test or Xbench yet to benchmark your external HDD?
Have you tried another USB cable or USB port?

 

[odles]

Have you tried AJA System Test, Blackmagic Disk Speed Test or Xbench yet to benchmark your external HDD?
Have you tried another USB cable or USB port?

I've tried both USB ports and another USB cable and got similar results. I just edited my post above to include that I tried the transfer with a flash drive too and got similar speeds, so I'm fairly sure the problem lies somewhere in my macbook. I'll try one of those benchmark programs now, though. Thanks for your help.