« previous next »
Pages: [1]

Author Topic: Flashdrive write speed just dropped drastically  (Read 601 times)

cosine

  • Administrator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3,734
Flashdrive write speed just dropped drastically
« on: August 12, 2011, 09:56:04 PM »
I have a flashdrive I've used pretty extensively over the past year and a half, and just this week the write speed has consistency been a couple hundred kb per second, compared to the several Mb per second it used to be. Is it finally giving up the ghost? I don't know much about flashdrives, and I've never used one enough before to wear on out.
Report to moderator   Logged
Andy

RocketMan

  • Mad Rocket Scientist
  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 13,702
  • Semper Fidelis
Re: Flashdrive write speed just dropped drastically
« Reply #1 on: August 12, 2011, 11:54:46 PM »
It may be dying, but they usually last longer than a year and a half.  Unless you are really wracking up the write cycles.  Take everything off of it, then reformat FAT32.  See if that works.
Report to moderator   Logged
If there really was intelligent life on other planets, we'd be sending them foreign aid.

Conservatives see George Orwell's "1984" as a cautionary tale.  Progressives view it as a "how to" manual.

My wife often says to me, "You are evil and must be destroyed." She may be right.

Liberals believe one should never let reason, logic and facts get in the way of a good emotional argument.

Firethorn

  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 5,789
  • Where'd my explosive space modulator go?
Re: Flashdrive write speed just dropped drastically
« Reply #2 on: August 13, 2011, 12:53:00 AM »
Flash drives 'write' well until they run out of empty sectors and have to switch to the read-erase-write system.  This is probably what happened to you.

There's a TRIM command that will pro-actively do the erases where needed while the drive is otherwise idle, but it's dependent upon the drive(not all support it) and OS to tell it where it can.

Otherwise, most drives you can 'restore' by doing a sort of low level format - but that translates to a completely empty drive.

Question:  Is this an SSD or USB drive?
Report to moderator   Logged

cosine

  • Administrator
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 3,734
Re: Flashdrive write speed just dropped drastically
« Reply #3 on: August 13, 2011, 03:03:26 PM »
It's an 8 GB USB drive and I had a little under 5 GB of stuff on it. One of the first things I did was reformat it but that didn't do anything. Since this was my main school USB stick, most of the time I was working directly off of it (plug into school computer, open my files directly from the flashdrive, edit, save, auto-save, etc.) so I suppose I may have racked up a lot of write cycles.
Report to moderator   Logged
Andy

wmenorr67

  • friend
  • Senior Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 12,775
Re: Flashdrive write speed just dropped drastically
« Reply #4 on: August 13, 2011, 03:30:13 PM »
If using it a school you may also picked up a virus.
Report to moderator   Logged
There are five things, above all else, that make life worth living: a good relationship with God, a good woman, good health, good friends, and a good cigar.

Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you, Jesus Christ and the American Soldier.  One died for your soul, the other for your freedom.

Bacon is the candy bar of meats!

Only the dead have seen the end of war!
Pages: [1]
« previous next »