I always figured that USB thumbdrives were pretty much the same. After all, they all adhere to the USB v2.x spec, which is supposed to define fast transfer speeds.
(Note that all USB drives use FlashRAM, which is slow for writing, but reasonably fast for reading.)
I came to the realization that there are differences when Windows Vista refused to use a 1GB USB drive for ReadyBoost, complaining it was too slow. This surprised me, for another, identical looking drive was speedy enough for ReadyBoost. (I get most of my USB drives free, from software vendors, ranging from 32MB to 4GB.)
I decided to test the speed of all my drives, to see which are the speediest. I found a couple of Windows programs to download that test drive speeds. But I backed off in a hurry, when the first one contained a virus.
I then searched for a similar program to run on Linux, and quickly found that Linux has drive test software built-in:
1. Open the terminal window (like the DOS window in Windows).
2. Enter the following command:
(Note that all USB drives use FlashRAM, which is slow for writing, but reasonably fast for reading.)
I came to the realization that there are differences when Windows Vista refused to use a 1GB USB drive for ReadyBoost, complaining it was too slow. This surprised me, for another, identical looking drive was speedy enough for ReadyBoost. (I get most of my USB drives free, from software vendors, ranging from 32MB to 4GB.)
I decided to test the speed of all my drives, to see which are the speediest. I found a couple of Windows programs to download that test drive speeds. But I backed off in a hurry, when the first one contained a virus.
I then searched for a similar program to run on Linux, and quickly found that Linux has drive test software built-in:
1. Open the terminal window (like the DOS window in Windows).
2. Enter the following command:
sudo hdparm -t /dev/---
Replace the --- by the name of the drive. To find the name of the drive, use the System Monitor program's File System's tab. On my computer, the hard drive is sda3, while one of the USB connectors is sb1.
3. You are prompted to enter your password, and then the test runs.
The read tests found a huge difference between those two identical-looking USB keys: one read data at 14MB/sec, the other at just 1MB/sec. I got those speeds from other USB drives, as well.
The results of testing other devices:
- Built-in hard drive: 33MB/sec
- Fastest USB drive: an 8MB Imation drive -- 24MB/sec
- Other USB drives had speeds of 8MB/sec and 12MB/sec
- Portable, external Western Digital hard drive (connected through USB): 25MB/sec
I also tested some SD memory cards:
- HP-branded 16GB SD card: 18MB/sec
- Class 4 4GB SD card: 16MB/sec
- Same card attached with a card reader: 15MB/sec
- MMC+ card: 12MB/sec
- PNY-brand 2GB SD card: 10MB/sec
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