I recently bought an external SSD, but downloads to it have become extremely slow—sometimes dropping to around 1 MB/s. A 116 MB file took about 20 minutes through a web browser, and game downloads through Steam have also been affected. The drive is practically new, with only about 5.05 GB used out of 1.9 TB. Downloads to my internal drive are much faster, so I'm wondering whether there's something I should check on the external SSD or its connection.
3 Answers
Start by checking the entire USB connection, not just the drive itself. The computer’s port, the SSD enclosure, and the cable all need to support a high USB speed. Even if the ports have an “SS” label, an old or faulty cable can force the drive to run at very low speeds. Try a different high-speed cable and another USB port.
Downloads aren’t a reliable way to measure SSD performance because the internet connection, download server, and software can all be bottlenecks. Test the drive directly by copying a large file—around 4 GB or more—between folders on the SSD, or run a disk benchmark such as CrystalDiskMark. That will show whether the drive itself is actually slow.
A poor USB cable can also cause strange behavior, including download speeds collapsing and the time remaining changing to “?”. Replacing the cable is a good first troubleshooting step, especially if the drive works normally when downloads go to the internal storage.
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