Strange speed spikes/drops with Kingston DataTraveler 100 G3

[CrisR82]

A few months ago I decided to buy a USB drive for storing some project data and minor portable work, so I saw the Kingston DataTraveler 100 G3, the 128GB variant at a pretty reasonable price so I grabbed one.

When I started using it however, I noticed a very strange thing that I have never seen before - once I start copying files to it, it starts at a pretty high speed, then drops to 0 for a few seconds (up to a minute in rare cases), then it goes back to really fast and then back to 0 until the copying completes.

I also noticed that sometimes, when just opening folders on the drive it takes a while, similar to how a suspended USB HDD takes some time to spin-up when opening a folder on it.

 

The copying issue happens during the process for both big and small files (1kb TXTs) so I haven't been able to find a specific pattern on it. Tested it on multiple USB 3.0 ports too but seems like the same thing happens on all of them. Also ran a check to see if the storage itself is damaged (through ChkFlsh) but it showed as fully functional.

I also tested the copy-process with an older USB drive (Kingston DataTraveler 106, also USB 3.0 but 32GB) - with it the copy process is kind'a slow but stable.

 

Anyone had any similar experience with USB drives? Any tips on things to try or information would be greatly appreciated.

 

Attaching a couple of screenshots from Task Manager, not sure if the data would be of use to determine the cause.

[Uptivuptiz]

Most likely what I think causes this, is either the controller on the USB or just Windows being Windows. 

[Moonzy]

21 minutes ago, CrisR82 said:

Kingston DataTraveler 100 G3

i've had issue with this drive, mine died within a week of using it

sent it to RMA, got it back, and it died again a week later (not even loading it much zzz)

 

i just never bothered with it ever again.

[CrisR82]

11 hours ago, Moonzy said:

i've had issue with this drive, mine died within a week of using it

sent it to RMA, got it back, and it died again a week later (not even loading it much zzz)

 

i just never bothered with it ever again.

Hope that's not the case for this one >_<

Been sticking to Kingston budget drives for many years and never really seen any issues, guess eventually it has to happen but still.

 

I guess I can add a side-question here - are there any recommendations for USB drives? I'm not looking for amazing speeds, read-speed and durability are my top priority. Or perhaps, would I be better off with a high-speed memory card and a USB 3.0 card reader?

[Moonzy]

1 minute ago, CrisR82 said:

are there any recommendations for USB drives?

no particular recommendations, not too familiar with them

but i would recommend against this particular model from my experience

never used any usb flash drive for a long time now, since it broke, just used external HDDs (bulky and fragile)

 

1 minute ago, CrisR82 said:

Or perhaps, would I be better off with a high-speed memory card and a USB 3.0 card reader?

i would suggest against this, compared to a usb drive

seems more clunky and less reliable