How to Fix Slow Micro SD Card/USB and Make It Faster (6 Tips) - Qiling  

6 Tips to Speed Up SD Card Transfer Speed and Fix Slow Micro SD Card


"Hi Guys, I have just bought a Toshiba UHS3 128GB Micro SD Card. At the moment, I am getting poor speeds using the SD card on my PC, with a read of 35.74MB and a write of 10.72MB. This is a card that is supposed to have read speeds up to 90MB/s. I hope that I would get a lot faster than the speeds I am getting on the PC. Am I unrealistic, or could there be an issue with my tablet? Would a factory reset help anything?"

How to Fix Slow Micro SD Card with 6 Solutions

Have you ever met this problem that the SD card, USB, or even external hard drive gets slower and slower after using it for a long time? When external storage gets full, it may also slow down the data or file transferring speed on Windows PC. If you are having such a problem or need a speed up your SD card transfer speed, follow the tips below to resolve this issue:

Workable Solutions Step-by-step Troubleshooting
Fix 1. Change Card Reader A memory card reader is a device for accessing the data on a memory card...Full steps
Fix 2. Convert SD Card to NTFS Install and launch Qiling Partition Master on your computer...Full steps
Fix 3. Format SD Card to NTFS Right-click This PC or My Computer, and select "Manage"...Full steps
Fix 4. Update SD card Drivers Connect the SD card to the PC. Navigate Control Panel -> System -> Device Manager...Full steps
More Solutions Optimize USB/SD Performance > Clean Up SD Card Junk Files...Full steps

Fix 1. Change Card Reader to Speed Up SD Card

A memory card reader is a device for accessing the data on a memory card such as a CompactFlash (CF), Secure Digital (SD), or MultiMediaCard (MMC). Most card readers also offer to write capability, and together with the card, this can function as a pen drive. If you have the right SD card reader, you can gain:

how to speed up sd card transfer

Fix 2. Convert SD Card/USB from FAT32 to NTFS

Another way to fix a slow SD card is by converting FAT32 to NTFS without losing data. A FAT file system is often used in removable storage devices, such as digital cameras, Smart TVs, and other portable devices. But it has many limitations:

While NTFS supports very large files, restores consistency by using a log file and checkpoint information, supports file compression when running out of disk space. You can convert FAT 32 to NTFS with the help of Qiling Partition Master Free. This free tool allows you to convert the drive from FAT32 to NTFS without formatting directly.

Free Qiling Windows Partition Tool

Step 1. Install and launch Qiling Partition Master on your computer.

Step 2. Select a FAT32 partition, right-click on it and select "Convert to NTFS". If you need to convert a storage device such as SD card or USB flash drive to NTFS, insert it into your PC first and repeat the previous operation.

Step 3. Click "OK" on the pop-up dialog box to continue.

Step 4. Now the converting process will start automatically. Wait until the operation process is finished.

Fix 3. Format SD Card/USB from FAT32 to NTFS

If your SD card is still slow, you can format it to NTFS in Disk Management. 

Step 1. Right-click This PC or My Computer, and select "Manage".

Step 2. Enter Device Manager and click "Disk Management"

Step 3. Open Disk Management and right-click the SD card, select "Format".

Step 4. Set "NTFS" for the selected device, tick "Quick Format" and click "OK" to confirm.

how to make sd card faster by formatting  

Fix 4. Update SD Card Drivers If SD/USB Is Slow

To speed up SD card transfer or write speed, you can update SD card drivers. Here are the steps to make it.

Step 1. Connect the SD card to the PC

Step 2. Navigate Control Panel -> System -> Device Manager -> Disk drivers.

Step 3. Find and right-click the SD card. Choose "Uninstall" and then choose "Scan for hardware changes" to refresh the drivers.

update sd card drive to speed up sd card transfer

You can update your SD card drivers in this way.

Fix 5. Optimize USB/SD Performance to Fix Slow Micro SD Card

After updating the SD card or USB driver, you can follow this method here to optimize USB or SD card performance by changing settings so to increase the data transferring speed with the following tips:

Step 1. Right-click on SD or USB drive and select Properties.

how to fix slow micro sd card -1

Step 2. Go to the Hardware tab and select your SD or USB drive, then click Properties.

how to fix slow micro sd card-2

Step 3. Click Change settings on Generic-Multi-Card USB Device Properties.

how to fix slow micro sd card -3

Step 4. Go to the Policies tab on the settings interface and select Better Performance under Removal policy.

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Step 5. Then click OK to confirm the operation and click OK to keep all changes.

Step 6. Finally, restart your computer to save all changes.

Besides all the above steps, you can also try to wipe data on the SD card or USB drive for a faster data transferring speed with the help of Qiling Partition Master Free.

Fix 6. Clean Up SD Card Junk Files to Make It Faster

If you still want to make your SD card or USB flash drive faster, you can clean up junk files with easy steps.

Step 1. DOWNLOAD and install Qiling Partition Master Suite for free and launch it on your Windows PC.

On the suite, hover your mouse on "PC Cleaner", click the Download icon to install and launch Qiling CleanGenius.

Step 2. On Qiling CleanGenius, select "Cleanup" on the main screen, and click "Scan" to start scanning.

Step 3. When the scanning process completes, select useless large files and click "Clean" to clean large files.

Step 4. When Qiling CleanGenius completes cleaning the files you choose, click "Done" to finish the process.

Bonus Tip - Back Up Files/Data Before Formatting

It's highly recommended that all of your extract and back up all essential data saved on your USB, SD card, or external hard drive to a safe location on your PC or another storage device to avoid unnecessary data loss.

You may use professional backup software for help or copy and save files to the target storage device step by step on your Windows PC. 

Step 1. Click "File backup" in backup page to initiate a backup.

create file backup step1

Step 2. Local and network files will be displayed on the list vieew. You may extend the directory to choose which files to back up.

File backup

Step 3. Select the location where you want to store the backup by following the on-screen instructions.

File backup step3

Click "Options" to encrypt the backup with a password in "Backup Options,". There are a variety of other customization options available for the backup process.

Backup options

Click "Schedule" to setup a backup schedule and choose to initiate a backup at a certain event in "Backup Scheme".

Schedule options

Step 4. You may save the backup to a local disk, Qiling' online service, or a NAS.

Backup to nas

Step 5. To begin backup, click "Proceed" Once the backup process has been finished, it will be shown as a card on the panel's left side. To further manage a backup job, right-click it.

Conclusion

Now that your SD card or USB drive will gain a faster transferring speed on Windows 10/8/7 and you can move and transfer all data back to your SD card or USB drive to continue using them again. 

How to Speed Up SD Card for File Transferring FAQs

If you have related questions, you can read the questions and answers below:

What is the fastest SD card?

SanDisk Extreme PRO microSDXC is the world's fastest transfer speeds of up to 275MB/s. Clocking in at up to 275MB/s, the SanDisk Extreme PRO microSDXC UHS-II Card delivers the fastest transfer speeds that you've ever experienced.

How do I recover a corrupted micro SD card?

To fix and recover data from SD card:

Step 1. Run SD card recovery software and scan the card.

Step 2. Check found SD card data.

Step 3. Restore SD card data...

How can I tell how fast my SD card is?

An SD card's speed class is identified on the SD card itself-look for the logo. You'll also see the speed class on the online store listing or the card's packaging when purchasing it. For example, in the below photo, the middle SD card is speed class 4, while the two other cards are speed class 6.

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