I'm willing to bet that the 1.5GB of files were a lot larger and less numerous than the 8 GB of files you moved previously. It isn't Windows, it has to do with how file systems work. Moving a million 1 kb files is going to take a lot more time than moving a tarball of the same files -- even if they are the same size, bit for bit. On 2 February 2012 08:21, Mark Phillips wrote: > I bought a new HP 32 GB USB stick. I plugged it into my Debian laptop to > make a quick back up of a large directory (~8 GB, lots of little files), > and it took overnight to transfer the files. Gnome reported that the > transfer speed was around 400 - 500 KB/sec. I then plugged the same stick > into the same port on my laptop, but transferred files (~1.5 GB lots of > little files) from Windows 7 running in VMPlayer, and got a transfer speed > of 4-5 MB/sec - 10 time faster! I checked the specs on the device, and HP > says it should r/w files at about 4-5 MB/sec. Is there some magic in > windows that makes USB sticks faster? > > Thanks, > > Mark > > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss >