Goal | Test USB Speed in Windows 10 |
Duration | 3-5 minutes reading |
Tools | USB, Windows 10 computer, USB speed test tools - Qiling Disk Master, CMD, Task Manager |
Price | $0 |
Knowing the read and write speeds of your USB speed drive is going to save you from unbelievable mental pain. Imagine yourself going on a trip, but you grab a random USB drive from an electronic store only to realize that it's unbelievably slow and the photos or files that you want to transfer are going to take hours. But you also have to leave in the next few minutes!
You could avoid this by making a conscious purchase, but what about the USB that you bought a long time ago? Is it fast? Or is it slow?
By performing a USB speed test Windows 10 PC, you could figure that out, and if you don't know how to check the USB's speed, don't worry! Continue reading this article from Qiling, and we'll show you how!
Here we provide you with 3 methods. Continue reading, and you will see our step-by-step guide on using those tools to test the speed of your drive, but before that, here's a peek at how they stack up against each other.
USB Speed Test Methods | Pros | Cons |
Accurate & Reliable👍 | - | |
Reliable | Clunky | |
Live transfer speeds | Not accurate |
In our opinion, Qiling Disk Master is the best tool to perform a speed test of your USB drive because it generates a detailed report. This can also be helpful in comparing multiple USB drives' speeds.
The Qiling Disk Master offers a feature called "Disk Mark" that lets you accurately check your USB drive's speed. In fact, this is a free tool that is available for Windows 11/10/8/7. With this tool, you can run a speed test on any USB drive from any brand, as well as a disk performance test of your HDD or SSD.
Here are the steps.
Step 1. Launch Qiling Disk Master. And click the download button to activate the "Surface test" feature under the "Disk management" section.
Step 2. Click on the drop-down box to choose the target drive, test data, and block size.
Step 3. Once everything is configured, click "Proceed" to begin the disk test. Then, you can see the Sequential read speed, I/O, and Delay data.
If you want an easy tool that gives accurate results, download Qiling Disk Master!
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The Command Prompt can also run a speed test for your USB drive. However, since using CMD could be risky for beginners, you should be careful when following this tutorial guide. Here's how to do that:
Step 1. Click "Start" and search for "Command Prompt."
Step 2. Select "Run as administrator."
Step 3. Type and enter the following command: winsat disk -drive X (In place of "X", write the letter that corresponds with the USB drive in "This PC.")
Step 4. Allow some time for the results to be generated and displayed.
Step 5. Then, you can check the USB speed results to determine if they are fast enough for you or not.
Task Manager is another great Windows tool with which you can check the write/read speeds of your USB drive. However, it isn't accurate because it is live and only shows the speed at which a file is copied to the USB.
As you know, during the transfer process, the transfer speed drops and increases multiple times for various reasons. This is not the appropriate tool for testing your USB drive's maximum performance.
But if you want to check the speed in real-time, here's the guide:
Step 1. Press "Ctrl+Shift+Esc" simultaneously.
Step 2. Open the "Performance" section.
Step 3. In the left menu, select your USB drive.
Step 4. You can check the read and write speed of your USB drive on the right-side window.
Now you have the results of your USB drive's speed test, and you should compare the speed with the results of the industry standard. There is an issue with your USB drive if its speeds are slower than those same-spec USB drives from a different brand. You should find a way to fix the slow USB transfer speed to improve the performance.
Here are the average speeds for each USB generation. After this, I'll show how to optimize the drive's performance if it is slower than the average speed.
Many factors can affect the average speed of your USB drives. For example, the generation (USB 3.1, USB 3.0, or USB 2.0). In addition, the PC and the manufacturer also play a role.
Here are the average write speeds of USB 3.1, 3.0, and 2.0:
USB 3.1 | 30-70 MB/s |
USB 3.0 | 10-40 MB/s |
USB 2.0 | 1-5 MB/s |
Here are the average read speeds:
USB 3.1 | 30-90 MB/s |
USB 3.0 | 50-60 MB/s |
USB 2.0 | 1-10 MB/s |
If you think your USB drive is running slower than it should be, read the following section, where we offer some suggestions for improving your USB drive.
Here's what you can do if your USB drive speeds are slower than average:
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If your USB drive is becoming slow or stuck when opening files, or you notice that the transfer speeds have slowed down, you should run a speed test. You may evaluate the speed of your USB drive using the above methods, but the recommended tool is Qiling Disk Master, which is the most accurate and dependable tool.
It also offers other features, such as changing the file system of your USB drive from FAT32 to NTFS, checking for file system errors, and testing the health of the USB.
Here are some other frequently asked questions and answers about how to run speed tests for your USB drive on Windows 10.
You may use Task Manager to do a speed test on your USB 3.0 disk to determine the transfer speed.
Your USB 3.0 should have a write speed of about 10-40 MB/s and a read speed of about 50-60 MB/s.
Here's how:
Yes, you can use CrystalDiskMark to test the speed of your USB drive. CrystalDiskMark can test the speed of any storage device or memory card. After the test is complete, you can see the outcomes report. The report shows your drive's performance and how it compares against the results of other drives in the same class.