I have a Mac Pro and a MBP and often copy and paste files of 50 to 500 mb (image files or quicktime movie files mostly) using a usb flash memory sticks.
I have noticed that when I plug in the usb drives to any of the Macs and start to copy a file from it to the hard drive of the computers, the transfer speeds can vary greatly.
Sometimes when it starts to copy a file, the progress is very slow and I stop the process, then try again and the copy speed is very fast on the exact same file. Sometimes the file copy speed is very fast the first time I do it.
There is no discernible pattern or specific type of file that is faster or slower than others. It's just that the file copy/paste speeds are quite different in a random sort of way.
I notice that at work, where I have an older iMac not as powerful as my home Macs, the copy speeds there are generally much faster and more consistent.
Both computers at home have loads of memory and free disk space (Mac Pro 2.8 8-core 10 gb ram 4 large hard drives & MBP 4 gb ram 2,4 santa rosa processor, 80gb free on hard drive) and this happens with a variety of usb memory sticks. This has always happened so it's not a new development. I currently run osx 10.5.6 but it also happened on all osx versions I have had on the machines since 10.4.9.
Could I have some options set on my Macs that are affecting the copy/paste speeds or might it be caused by something else?
Thanks for any advice.
I have noticed that when I plug in the usb drives to any of the Macs and start to copy a file from it to the hard drive of the computers, the transfer speeds can vary greatly.
Sometimes when it starts to copy a file, the progress is very slow and I stop the process, then try again and the copy speed is very fast on the exact same file. Sometimes the file copy speed is very fast the first time I do it.
There is no discernible pattern or specific type of file that is faster or slower than others. It's just that the file copy/paste speeds are quite different in a random sort of way.
I notice that at work, where I have an older iMac not as powerful as my home Macs, the copy speeds there are generally much faster and more consistent.
Both computers at home have loads of memory and free disk space (Mac Pro 2.8 8-core 10 gb ram 4 large hard drives & MBP 4 gb ram 2,4 santa rosa processor, 80gb free on hard drive) and this happens with a variety of usb memory sticks. This has always happened so it's not a new development. I currently run osx 10.5.6 but it also happened on all osx versions I have had on the machines since 10.4.9.
Could I have some options set on my Macs that are affecting the copy/paste speeds or might it be caused by something else?
Thanks for any advice.