Gail Eddy, Nederland.
Last week a customer asked Chris to transfer a bunch of files from his computer to a memory stick.
He handed Chris a brand new flash drive along with his laptop. I happened to be there when Chris was
transferring the files. He was frustrated at the speed at which the files were being transferred. You
might say they were being copied at a “turtle’s pace!”
I asked Chris why it was taking so long. I thought that all memory sticks were pretty much the same
except for their capacity. He then told me that memory sticks have different speeds.
* The less expensive ones will transfer files very slowly.
* The more expensive ones will be quick and snappy.
He explained that USB 3.0 thumb drives are generally much faster than USB 2.0 thumb drives. He
also mentioned that the packaging typically only lists the speed if they are faster than 150mBps. The
cheap memory sticks generally have speeds of less than 2mBps, but they don’t broadcast “turtle’s pace”
on the outside.
About 45 minutes later, Chris was done transferring all the files. The files included a handful of
photos, and two or three videos. If you need to copy files to a memory stick and don’t care how long it
takes, get the cheapest one.
Chris told me that I should expect to pay around $15 for a 16gig memory stick that is reasonably
fast, and about $20 for a 32gig flash drive.
Chris Eddy of Geek For Hire, Inc. has been providing computer service to families and small
businesses with Mac’s and PC’s for the past fifteen years. His company is highly rated by both the BBB
(Better Business Bureau) and by Angie’s List. You can find more on our website, or give us a call 303-618-
0154. Geek For Hire, Inc. provides onsite service (Tier 3) to the Denver / Boulder / Front Range area as
well as remote service throughout North America.
