Pendrive speed test
I made this speed test because I make installers that use cloning with dd and expansion of compressed tarballs. So the test measures the speed of those particular operations. See also the general speed tests at this link to USB 3.0 Flash Drive Speed Tests
The focus of this test was on 8 GB drives, because I make 8 GB images for the One Button Installer, but there are also some 4, 16, 32 GB pendrives, that I know after years of usage.
When using USB pendrives, you often notice that they are slow compared to internal disks. There are big differences between fast and slow pendrives, and it makes a big difference, when you use them as general mass storage devices, but the difference seems to be even bigger, when you boot an operating system, that is installed in the pendrive.
USB 3 is much faster than USB 2. The flash hardware is often limiting the read and write speed below the limits of the USB system. USB 3 pendrives are often but not always made with faster hardware than standard USB 2 pendrives. This makes it worthwhile to use USB 3 pendrives in USB 2 ports, so USB drives can be useful also with old computers without USB 3.
Reading and writing single or few big files can be fairly fast with USB pendrives, but the time to start and stop writing is often much longer in pendrives compared to hard disk drives and SSDs. It makes many pendrives very slow when writing many small files, like when you install an operating system or backup a file system or directory tree. This is why I included a test expanding a tarball with many small files. It is actually installing the text version of the One Button Installer, writing 68417 files with the total data amount 1.2 GB. The average file size is 17.7 kB (10-base). The complete result of the test is shown in attached files, and includes reading and writing single big files with dd.
Write small files MB/s
in USB 2 port
Code:
18.989 SanDisk Extreme (scsi) / new 32 GB
17.855 SanDisk Extreme (scsi) / new 16 GB - undersized
5.224 Kanguru SS3 (scsi) / 16 GB - undersized
4.673 SanDisk Extreme (scsi) / old 32 GB - damaged
3.797 Kanguru FlashBlu (scsi) / 8GB USB 2, write-protect switch
3.313 JetFlash Transcend 32GB (scsi) / 'new 700' good booter - undersized
2.953 JetFlash Transcend 16GB (scsi) / 'old 700' USB 3 – undersized
2.769 JetFlash Transcend 4GB (scsi) / old with green rim
2.731 Kingston DT Ultimate G3 (scsi) / 32GB USB 3 - undersized
2.629 SanDisk Ultra (scsi) / 8 GB USB 2
2.561 Kingston DataTraveler 3.0 (scsi) / 100 G3 8GB - undersized
2.446 SanDisk Cruzer Blade (scsi) / 4 GB, USB 2, good booter
2.257 JetFlash Transcend 8GB (scsi) / 760 USB 3 - undersized
2.091 JetFlash Transcend 8GB (scsi) - 500 USB 2
1.923 UFD 2.0 Silicon-Power8G (scsi) / Ultima U01
1.680 Verbatim STORE N GO (scsi) / 8GB - undersized
1.427 Corsair Voyager (scsi) / 8GB USB 2 'Flash Voyager'
1.294 Kingston DataTraveler 2.0 (scsi) / 101 G2 8GB - undersized
in USB 3 port
Code:
32.333 TOSHIBA External USB 3.0 (scsi) / HDD 320 GB
23.926 SanDisk Extreme (scsi) / 16 GB - undersized 15693664256 bytes
23.006 SanDisk Extreme (scsi) / 32 GB
8.365 Kanguru SS3 (scsi) / 16 GB - undersized
4.747 JetFlash Transcend 32GB (scsi) / 'new 700' good booter - undersized 31608274944 bytes
4.069 Kanguru FlashBlu (scsi) / 8GB USB 2, write protect switch
3.987 Kingston DT Ultimate G3 (scsi) / 32GB USB3 - undersized 31440502784 bytes
2.795 JetFlash Transcend 16GB (scsi) / 'old 700' USB 3 - undersized 15812526080 bytes
2.658 Kingston DataTraveler 3.0 (scsi) / 100 G3 8GB undersized 7803174912 bytes
2.583 JetFlash Transcend 8GB (scsi) / 760 USB 3 -undersized 7902068736 bytes
2.187 SanDisk Cruzer Blade (scsi) / 4GB, USB 2, good booter
Read 2 GB file with random content (cloning with dd) MB/s
in USB 2 port
Code:
36.1 SanDisk Extreme (scsi) / old 32 GB, damaged works only in USB 2
36.1 SanDisk Extreme (scsi) / new 32 GB
36 JetFlash Transcend 16GB (scsi) / 'old 700' USB 3 – undersized
36 SanDisk Extreme (scsi) / new 16 GB - undersized
35.9 Kingston DataTraveler 3.0 (scsi) / 100 G3 8GB - undersized
35.9 JetFlash Transcend 32GB (scsi) / 'new 700' good booter - undersized
35.3 Kanguru SS3 (scsi) / 16 GB - undersized
32.8 Kingston DT Ultimate G3 (scsi) / 32GB USB 3 - undersized
30.4 JetFlash Transcend 8GB (scsi) / 760 USB 3 - undersized
29.2 Kanguru FlashBlu (scsi) / 8GB USB 2, write-protect switch
22.2 SanDisk Cruzer Blade (scsi) / 4 GB, USB 2, good booter
21.9 SanDisk Ultra (scsi) / 8 GB USB 2
21.3 JetFlash Transcend 8GB (scsi) - 500 USB 2
20.5 Kingston DataTraveler 2.0 (scsi) / 101 G2 8GB - undersized
20.2 Corsair Voyager (scsi) / 8GB USB 2 'Flash Voyager'
17.9 Verbatim STORE N GO (scsi) / 8GB - undersized
15.1 UFD 2.0 Silicon-Power8G (scsi) / Ultima U01
14.9 JetFlash Transcend 4GB (scsi) / old with green rim
in USB 3 port
Code:
104 SanDisk Extreme (scsi) / 16 GB - undersized 15693664256 bytes
74.6 Kanguru SS3 (scsi) / 16 GB - undersized
64.1 TOSHIBA External USB 3.0 (scsi) / HDD 320 GB
60.1 JetFlash Transcend 32GB (scsi) / 'new 700' good booter - undersized 31608274944 bytes
59 Kingston DT Ultimate G3 (scsi) / 32GB USB3 - undersized 31440502784 bytes
51.6 JetFlash Transcend 16GB (scsi) / 'old 700' USB 3 - undersized 15812526080 bytes
49.3 JetFlash Transcend 8GB (scsi) / 760 USB 3 -undersized 7902068736 bytes
38.9 Kingston DataTraveler 3.0 (scsi) / 100 G3 8GB undersized 7803174912 bytes
37.8 SanDisk Extreme (scsi) / 32 GB
28.7 Kanguru FlashBlu (scsi) / 8GB USB 2, write protect switch
20.3 SanDisk Cruzer Blade (scsi) / 4GB, USB 2, good booter
Write 2 GB file with random content (cloning with dd) MB/s
in USB 2 port
Code:
29.5 SanDisk Extreme (scsi) / new 32 GB
27.5 SanDisk Extreme (scsi) / new 16 GB - undersized
26.9 SanDisk Extreme (scsi) / old 32 GB default (finished with tar)
20.9 JetFlash Transcend 16GB (scsi) / 'old 700' USB 3 – undersized
17.4 Kingston DT Ultimate G3 (scsi) / 32GB USB 3 - undersized
16.9 SanDisk Extreme (scsi) / old 32 GB full test finished with dd
16.3 Kanguru SS3 (scsi) / 16 GB - undersized
13.9 JetFlash Transcend 32GB (scsi) / 'new 700' good booter - undersized
10.9 Kanguru FlashBlu (scsi) / 8GB USB 2, write-protect switch
7.8 SanDisk Ultra (scsi) / 8 GB USB 2
7.2 JetFlash Transcend 4GB (scsi) / old with green rim
7.1 UFD 2.0 Silicon-Power8G (scsi) / Ultima U01
5.9 JetFlash Transcend 8GB (scsi) / 760 USB 3 - undersized
5.9 JetFlash Transcend 8GB (scsi) - 500 USB 2
5.1 Kingston DataTraveler 3.0 (scsi) / 100 G3 8GB - undersized
4.9 Corsair Voyager (scsi) / 8GB USB 2 'Flash Voyager'
4.7 SanDisk Cruzer Blade (scsi) / 4 GB, USB 2, good booter
4.1 Verbatim STORE N GO (scsi) / 8GB - undersized
3.2 Kingston DataTraveler 2.0 (scsi) / 101 G2 8GB - undersized
in USB 3 port
Code:
88 TOSHIBA External USB 3.0 (scsi) / HDD 320 GB
44.1 SanDisk Extreme (scsi) / 16 GB - undersized 15693664256 bytes
43.6 SanDisk Extreme (scsi) / 32 GB
30.0 Kanguru SS3 (scsi) / 16 GB - undersized
25.9 Kingston DT Ultimate G3 (scsi) / 32GB USB3 - undersized 31440502784 bytes
20.8 JetFlash Transcend 16GB (scsi) / 'old 700' USB 3 - undersized 15812526080 bytes
20.5 JetFlash Transcend 32GB (scsi) / 'new 700' good booter - undersized 31608274944 bytes
10.5 Kanguru FlashBlu (scsi) / 8GB USB 2, write protect switch
5.7 JetFlash Transcend 8GB (scsi) / 760 USB 3 -undersized 7902068736 bytes
5.4 Kingston DataTraveler 3.0 (scsi) / 100 G3 8GB undersized 7803174912 bytes
4.7 SanDisk Cruzer Blade (scsi) / 4GB, USB 2, good booter
Comments
Sandisk Extreme is much faster (approximately 3 times faster than the second best, Kanguru SS3, and 5 times faster than the third best, Jetflash Transcend 700) writing 'many small files' compared to the other tested pendrives, but not as fast as a USB 3 HDD. Kanguru FlashBlu was fastest writing 'many small files' among the 8 GB pendrives, even though it is a USB 2 device and competed with some USB 3 devices.
There are several pendrives that read single big files with high speed, so if that is what you need, there are many good candidates. Writing speed of single big files differs more than reading, but the results are more even than writing 'many small files', and the ranking is somewhat different. See also the attached files.
Disclaimer
This is a fairly simple speed test without statistical validation. The pendrives were bought as a regular consumer from a web store, and in most cases a single specimen of each model was tested. Make your own test, if you need reliable results for your particular application.
-o-
Edit: There was a request from the Lubuntu mailing lists to upload the scripts and input files to perform this test (or a similar one), so they are uploaded now. See this link
http://phillw.net/isos/linux-tools/usb-speed-test/
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