USB file transfer speed reduced with Windows 8

[jdetnerski]

I've been having USB file transfer speed issues since I initially built my rig but using the ASRock FastUSB application allowed me to get file transfer speeds around 27-29MB/s with a Mushkin USB 3.0 certified 32GB flash drive. The files are being transferred from either my SSD drive or my SATA III storage drive and vary is size and type. With upgrading to Windows 8 I can no longer use the Fast USB utility and now my file transfer speeds have dropped to a max speed of 12-13MB/s, are there any bios settings or Windows 8 setting that can improve my speed?. All drivers have been updated with the latest releases from ASRock and it is a clean installation.

My build is described below.

Mainboard: ASRock 970 Extreme3
CPU: AMD FX-8150
Memory: (x2) G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL8D-4GBRM
Video: XFX Double D FX797GTDFC Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition 3GB
SSD system drive: OCZ Agility 2 240Gb
Storage Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 ST3000DM001 3TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s
OS: Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit fully updated

[jdetnerski]

Re: USB file transfer speed reduced with Windows 8

Over 200 views and no suggestions?..

[odiebugs]

Re: USB file transfer speed reduced with Windows 8

Have you tried installing USB Xfast on 8 and installed using 7 compatibility ? My bad, looked like you said win 8.1, so I changed the post, why are you not running 8.1 ? in a year you will be forced to update anyway.

Just a note, just because you have a Sata 3 HDD doesn't mean anything, it will still run at Sata 1 speed.
A Sata 3 HDD is only for interface connection, has ZERO to do with it actually running at a Sata 3 speed.

[jdetnerski]

Re: USB file transfer speed reduced with Windows 8

Found a windows 8 version of FastUSB and it improved to 20Mb/sec top transfer speed, still slower than windows 7 and about 10 MB/sec slower than my 7 yr old laptop using the same flash drive on a USB 2.0. Don't get it.. I wonder if its just the board..

[profJim]

Re: USB file transfer speed reduced with Windows 8

Try copying a large ~ 200MB file to your flash drive to see what the maximum throughput is when you don't have a lot of smaller files that really slow things down to a crawl. I'm not familiar with AMD systems and I don't know speeds you'll get with a usb flash drive. The best performing usb 3.0 flash drives will be more expensive than economy or mid-range flash drives.

You can't go by the view count in your thread.
Right now the ratio of guests to forum members is about 55 to 1 and only members can post in threads.

[jdetnerski]

Re: USB file transfer speed reduced with Windows 8

The Max tops off at 22MB/sec when transferring files ranging in size from 750mb to 1.5 gig in size. I have seen the flash drive being used reach speeds of 60mb/sec on other USB 3.0 motherboards. This one has never come close to that.

[parsec]

Re: USB file transfer speed reduced with Windows 8

Your board has an Etron add on chip to supply two USB 3.0 ports, since the two AMD chipsets on that board don't provide USB 3.0 support. So that is one reason it does not perform extremely well.

If you're using the Etron USB driver, the Windows 8 version might be a poor performer. You might want to try the native Windows 8 USB 3.0 driver, if it will work with the Etron USB chip, it may not. The "latest driver" does not always mean a better driver, or one that is even equal to an earlier version.

Intel does not even supply a USB 3.0 driver for Windows 8 and 8.1 for their latest chipsets/boards with USB 3.0 support on the Intel chipset, the native Windows 8 USB 3.0 driver is used. Windows 8 has been a problem for some of the smaller chip manufactures, their drivers are not working well.

What BIOS version are you using? I see at least two BIOS updates that mention USB related changes.

XFast USB uses a different protocol for transferring data than standard USB, which is faster.

Where are you getting the transfer speed figures, from the Windows display when you copy files? For all we know, the Windows 8 display may be more accurate than the Windows 7 display or vice versa. Can you actually tell it takes longer to transfer files using Windows 8 than Windows 7? The type and size of a file affects the speed of USB transfers, are yours the same as they were in the past?

You said you did a fresh install of Windows 8. Are you certain that every aspect of the board's BIOS and OS configuration is identical to what it was when you used your previous version of Windows (which was...?)

Saying your laptop is faster transferring files over USB than your 970 Ex 3 PC, is like asking why is an unknown car faster than yours. You're talking about things at a very high level without any details, such as do you use a USB hub, or directly connected to the USB 3.0 port on the I/O panel.

[odiebugs]

Re: USB file transfer speed reduced with Windows 8

I would say the OP needs to run crystal disk mark on the flash, start with rolling back to MS default and then bench, and bench with say three Etron drivers, old, middle, newest. Then use the best driver, and save the best bench, in case a newer driver comes out to compare. ( If MS has a default driver )

Then that's it, as Parsec said, each OS can give different results, you might see a better transfer with 8.1, or not. Until after a while win 8 was garbage compared to 7, in gaming, benching drives. Now with better drivers, it's on par with 7 in gaming, and in some cases faster with drives.

[jdetnerski]

Re: USB file transfer speed reduced with Windows 8

Tried a few different drivers and topped off at 12mb/sec all tests were run with flash drive plugged into the onboard USB 3.0 port without hub. Runs at 28-30 mb/sec on 7 yr old AMD based USB 2.0 laptop running Win 7 pro but maxes out at 20-22 mb/sec when using FastUSB on the 3.0 port on the 970 Extreme3 motherboard using Win 8 (topped at 24mb/sec in Win 7 Pro). I'm just wondering if the low transfer speeds are common with this board/controller or if I'm just a special case, have contacted ASRock themselves 10 days ago and have yet to hear back from them.