Reall slow backups to nvme externsal usb drive (and solution).

cereberus said:

I have an nvme external drive and by backups were very slow from SS USB 3.1/2 ports. Even manual copying of files was at max 40 MB/s. I know I should get nearer 500-600 MB/s (real world speeds).

I tried all the usual advice - checking cables, updating drivers, checking bios up to date etc.

Googled around and surprising little advice (same advice from MS regurgitated by wannabe tech reporters - almost word for word)

I persisted google, and was on some forum, and the guy explained most usb cables just did not live up to claims, and most pcs default to usb2 speeds if anthing is not perfect. It recommended you ensure cables are marked 20Gbps (or 10 GBps) or SS (superspeed but my cables marked SS just did not cut the mustard!).
It seems ost usb c cables are really only designed to charge mobile phones rather than high speed transfer.

So I went on Amazon and found these cables

Amazon.co.uk

and decided to try them (great thing about Amazon is returning stuff is easy).

Bam - my copy / backup speeds went from 40 MB/S to around 600 MB/s.

So, it is obviously important to get quality cables.

I am sure this is well known to many users here, but I thought it was worth posting to others frustrated by slow external drive speeds as a possible solution.

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DennisG said:

Good advice. Thanks for the reminder - buy cheap, buy twice.

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