54

Why is copying to USB stick on Linux so damn slow?

posted
by
Avatar
WereCat@lemmy.world
in
Avatar
linux@lemmy.ml
49 comments
hidereport

For context:

I’m copying the same files to the same USB drive for comparison from Windows and from my Fedora 41 Workstation.

Around 10k photos.

Windows PC: Dual Core AMD Athlon from 2009, 4GB RAM, old HDD, takes around 40min to copy the files to USB

Linux PC: 5800X3D, 64GB RAM, NVMe SSD, takes around 3h to copy the same files to the same USB stick

I’ve tried chagning from NTFS to exFAT but the same result. What can I do to improve this? It’s really annoying.

Sort:
HotTopControversialNewOld
You are viewing a single thread.
View all comments View context
Avatar
WereCat@lemmy.worldOP
1 point
*

No it did not get warm at all because it was barely doing anything. But so that I’m fair I’ve borrowed different USB 3.2 Gen1 drive and tested also with my Fedora Laptop.

single 4.4GB video file

  • Zen1 based Windows PC - 2min 10s (could unmount right after progress finished)
  • Zen4 based Fedora41 laptop - 3min 1s (progress finished within 1min but then took 2min to unmount)
  • Zen3 based Fedora41 PC - 5min 16s (progress finished within 20s but took almost 5min to unmount)
permalink
report
parent
reply
Avatar
jollyrogue@lemmy.ml
1 point

Linux, and macOS, enables write caching by default and Windows does not. This is what you’re seeing.

Mounting the drive with “noatime,flush” (preferred) would adjust the write caching and mounting with “sync,dirsync” would turn off write caching.

permalink
report
parent
reply

Linux

!linux@lemmy.ml

Create post

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word “Linux” in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

  • Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
  • No misinformation
  • No NSFW content
  • No hate speech, bigotry, etc

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

Community stats

  • 6.8K

    Monthly active users

  • 6.8K

    Posts

  • 185K

    Comments

Community moderators