file transferring speed?

copying files (actually cut and paste) from the internal drive to a portable drive, on USB 2.0

The average speed is usually 20MB/s to 30MB/s .
Is it a normal speed or could it be optimized to higher speed?

 

Since no one can figure what system your using they can't help or know what to expect. USB2 can only go as fast as the system being transferred from HDD will be slower the SSD transfer but then you have to look at the hardware connecting the two as a hinder or bridge to the connections speeds. So without hardware specs no one can identify what is going on here.

 

Maximum USB 2.0 (theoretical) transfer speed is something like 48MB/s, give or take. So your bottleneck will be with either your internal hard drive or your external hard drive.

Even then, 20-30MB/s isn't too bad for USB 2.0. Just start the file transfer and make yourself a cup of tea if you're doing a particularly large transfer.

 

I've typically seen 20-30 MB/s when transferring files to a USB 2.0 drive. There's nothing to worry about. Oftentimes drives are rated at their "maximum" speeds but rarely come close to that for a variety of reasons.

 

The question begs on what system and hardware and O/S? Since no one has any way other then manufacture theoretical speeds there is no real way to test it.

 

Agreed, without details, we can't give more than a ballpark number.

It's not just the slowest part of the system that determines the transfer data rate, but also the type, size and number of files. Transferring 3 GB worth of files of a few kB each will be slow regardless of the rest of the system for example.

Short version, you will never attain max theoretical transfer rate due to overhead and other factors. The numbers stated here are pretty normal for USB2.0 on medium to large files.

 

What was said plus it depends on your usb transfer device, for instance Lexar P20 64 GB in USB 3 port copies and writes ~ 400/270 MB/second.

 

3Fees is right, the higher cost of certain USB3.0 sticks is not "just because" there are some that use better controllers and better memory chips that yield overall better performance.

 

Not really.

If the guest device is designed for only 2.0 or older, there is performance hit when it is attached to a 3.0+ host.

 

Not so much a performance hit, but limited to 2.0 speeds.