An Informal Survey Of Speeds From Various Types Of External Drives

This is an informal test of the speed of various external drives. The test was conducted in the following way:

  1. Copy a 29 GB file from an external drive to a 2022 Macbook Air — this is to test the drive’s read speed
  2. Then copy same the file back to the drive — this is to test the drive’s write speed

Samsung Duo Plus Flash Drive — USB 3.1

Samsung Duo Flash Drive
Samsung Duo Flash Drive

The Samsung Duo Flash Drive is a flash drive that supports both USB-A and USB-C connections.

For a 29 GB file, the actual time to copy was: 1:38 (read) and 14:10 (write)

The tested read speed was 296 MB/s.

Sandisk Ultra FIT Flash Drive — USB 3.1

Sandisk Ultra FIT Flash Drive

The Sandisk Ultra FIT Flash Drive is one of the largest capacity Flash Drive currently available — with a capacity of 512 GB.

For a 29 GB file, the actual time to copy was: 3:23 (read) and 15:50 (write)

The tested read speed was 143 MB/s.

Shadow Mini Portable SSD — USB 3.1

Shadow Mini Portable SSD

The Shadow Mini Portable SSD is a speedy, high-capacity drive.

For a 29 GB file, the actual time to copy was: 1:40 (read) and 2:01 (write).

The tested read speed was 290 MB/s.

Seagate Slim HDD — USB 3.0

Seagate Slim HDD

This is a Seagate Slim HDD.

For a 29 GB file, the actual time to copy was: 5:12 (read) and 6:30 (write).

Hard Drives (HDD) tend to have slower read speeds than Flash Drives and Solid State Drives (SDD). However, they will almost always have faster writer speeds than Flash Drives.

The tested read speed was 92 MB/s.

Western Digital My Passport HDD — USB 3.0

Western Digital My Passport HDD

This is a Western Digital My Passport HDD. As with the Seagate Hard Drive, this drive has a slower read speed than an SDD External Drive.

For a 29 GB file, the actual time to copy was: 4:00 (read) and 4:18 (write)

The tested read speed was 120 MB/s.

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