Use a High-Speed USB Port

• Always connect your drive to a USB 3.0/3.1/3.2 port instead of USB 2.0
• USB 3.0 ports are usually marked with blue color or SS (SuperSpeed) label
• Pair with a USB 3.0 or higher flash drive for maximum speed

Enable Better Performance Mode

• Right-click This PC → Manage → Device Manager
• Expand Disk Drives and right-click your USB drive → Properties
• Under the Policies tab, select Better performance

Format the Drive in the Right File System

• NTFS or exFAT works better for large files
• FAT32 is slower and limited to 4GB files
• Right-click the USB drive → Format → choose exFAT/NTFS

Update USB Drivers

• Press Win + X → Device Manager
• Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers
• Right-click each USB Root Hub → Update driver

Turn Off USB Selective Suspend

• Open Control Panel → Power Options
• Select Change plan settings → Change advanced power settings
• Expand USB settings → USB selective suspend setting
• Set it to Disabled

Optimize the USB Drive

• Right-click USB drive → Properties → Tools → Optimize and Defragment Drive
• Run optimization for smoother performance

Check for Errors

• Right-click USB drive → Properties → Tools → Error Checking
• Fixing bad sectors can improve speed and stability

Boost Transfers with TeraCopy

If you frequently move large files, try TeraCopy, a lightweight file transfer utility that significantly improves copy speed compared to Windows’ default system.

Benefits of TeraCopy:

• Faster file copying using optimized algorithms
• Error recovery: Skips problematic files instead of freezing the entire process
• File verification: Ensures copied files are identical to the original
• Queue management: Lets you pause, resume, and manage multiple transfers
• Seamless integration: Works directly with Windows Explorer’s right-click menu