u/Sofia_easy17

I ran a speed test on my external SSD, and the benchmark results look pretty normal for the drive and connection. Windows also recognizes the SSD without any problems.

But when I actually transfer files, the speed is only around 20 MB/s. That's much lower than what I get in the benchmark.

The SSD doesn’t disconnect, and I’m not seeing any obvious errors. I’ve also tried a different USB cable, but it didn’t really make a difference.

I need to move a few hundred GB of videos and other large files to free up space on another PC. I have several USB flash drives, including several with large capacities. But the transfer took much longer than I expected.

Is a portable SSD better for this kind of work? I’ve read that SSDs are way faster and more reliable for big file transfers, but I’m not sure if the difference is that noticeable in real life.

If you’ve used both, which one do you prefer?

I got a 128GB USB drive. It was working fine until I formatted it on my Windows PC. After formatting, it suddenly only shows 64GB in File Explorer. That’s the strange part. The capacity drop happened right after I formatted it, not before.

Should I format it again? Could formatting have messed up the partition table?

I already checked Disk Management, and it still reports half its capacity. There’s no obvious unallocated space I can extend.

I know here is more USB-focused. But I see some posts about drive issues, so I figured I’d ask for some help.

My external SSD suddenly stopped being recognized after a recent Windows update. It worked fine before. I used it regularly to store project files and transfer data. But after the update, I plugged it in, and it was not recognized. No drive letter, nothing in File Explorer. I can hear the connect sound when plugging it in. There is no obvious physical damage, and the cable seems fine.

I’m thinking of getting a new SSD. But I’m hesitant in case this is a software issue that might get fixed with another update.