How to speed up file transfers?

Question

I don't mean downloads, I mean simply copying and moving things from the PC to a removable device.
On my laptop the transfer rate is about 700mb/s but on my old outdated iBook G4 the fire transfer is in the 20 - 40 mb/s range. How can I make my file transfer speed really really fast? (I've tried teracopy, the changes are insignificant, especially on the long run, so don't recommend it.)

Answer 1

You cannot speed up the rate for a port. That's why people pay more for a MacBook Pro with Firewire 800 and Thunderbolt. If you could download some free app that makes a USB port change into a Thunderbolt port, who would be buying the new computers that have Thunderbolt?



Learn a few terms to make your report meaningful...

-- USB = the port where a printer, mouse, or HDD can connect. Speeds are 1.1, 2.0, and 3.0. PCs can be any of these. All iBook G4 are 2.0.

-- "my laptop" = what? You must mean you have two laptops, because the iBook is a laptop. Anyhow, what is the port speed of the PC?

-- Firewire = a very fast port on the iBook.



New PCs may have USB 3.0, but that will never clock 700MB/sec. The maximum theoretical speed is 625, and USB is notorious for failing to ever come close to its max due to bandwidth restrictions.



Next time, buy a Firewire case. That will make the iBook run circles around most PCs. Firewire 400 is much faster than USB 2.0 because it has much higher bandwidth (Transfer rate is rated slightly less, but in real-life, FW400 will be 2-3 times as fast as USB 2.0).



Lastly, no way you copy a 700 MB movie in one second through USB anything.

Answer 2

Its probably the port speed itself. A USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 device will transfer files very quickly from a USB 2.0 or 3.0 port. Your laptop more than likely has an old USB 1 port, so your transfer rate is locked to the output performance of the laptops USB port. You'll either need to upgrade the port if you can to a 2.0 or 3.0 USB. If that's not possible you can try compressing the files before transferring them to make them smaller, resulting in less transfer time

Answer 3

Hello,



External Hard Drive