USB Transfer Rates

[cgurr1]

I have a Macbook (Blackbook 2.4ghz 250GB HDD). When I copy a movie (700MB) over to a USB device it takes about two minutes. I was thinking that this is kind of slow. Does this sound correct or is it something wrong with my USB or computer? Thanks!

 

[tdgrn]

USB will burst up to 480 mb (mega bits not mega bytes) but you should average roughly 280-320mb with USB...
If you got a 700MB movie to transfer in 2 mins, you have nothing to worry about.

 

[plinden]

What kind of USB device? If it's a USB flash drive, 700MB is ok (about 6MB/s) but not particularly fast (I get almost twice that to my SanDisk Cruzer).

If it's an external hard drive, 6MB/s is slow. I get 16-20MB/s to my NewerTech MiniStack v3 with USB, about 36MB/s with FireWire 400.

Remember though, the USB ports on the MBs aren't equal. The one towards the back shares the USB with internal devices. Use the forward one for external drives etc.

 

[DoFoT9]

for a flash drive that is fairly basic these days.

for an external HD, that is just poor im afraid.