The USB device has evolved from a common way into the most used way to transfer data. With the continuous growth of the USB drive storage capacity, problems of transfer speed have evolved. Although USB 2.0 has appeared a while ago and we are ready for the USB 3.0 speeds, there are other ways that you can increase the transfer speed.

By default, Windows operating system has enabled Quick-Removal of the removable storage devices (including USB). By optimizing a storage device for quick removal, it means Windows disables write-caching to the external drives so that the external drives can be quickly plugged out without using the Safe Removal icon.

Increase Speed of USB drive

To optimize a storage drive for performance, follow these steps (For Windows 7, Vista, and XP):

• Click on the Start button.

• Go to Control Panel

• Click on System and Security category

• Go to the Device Manager link.

Device manager location

• Click yes if User Account Control (UAC) dialog prompts.

• Expand the Disk Drive option.

Disk Drive tree

• Right click on the USB storage disk drive to improve its performance, and select Properties.

• Go to Policies tab.

• Select the first checkbox in order to enable write caching on the USB device

enable write caching on the device

• Click OK.

The external drive is now write-caching enabled. But please note, always use the Safety Remove Drive from now on or you may lose the data.