You are probably correct. I went back and checked the sizes of the
directories and the number of files:

Slow transfer - 213,255 files, 3.5 Gb => ~16.4KB/file
Fast Transfer - 803 files, 1.8 GB => 2.24 MB/file

I guess I won't return the stick as defective...;)

Mark

On Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 8:47 AM, Adam McCullough <ajmccul1@asu.edu> wrote:

> 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 <mark@phillipsmarketing.biz>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
>>
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