How to Boost USB Disk Performance in Windows 8

We all twiddle our thumbs, stamp our feet and pull our hair while waiting for the completion of a large number of files being copied to or from the USB pen drives. This is because the USB pen drives do not give that fast a performance compared to the hard disk or the solid state drives. But very few of us know the little hidden secret in Windows settings that can boost the performance of a USB pen drive in an instant. So why waste on those expensive pen drives advertised to be faster than every other disk? Instead, you can make a few changes in Windows and make the most out of your existing pen drive.

Here is how you can boost USB pen drives in Windows 8 and 8.1:

  1. Press the hotkey Win+R to open the Run dialog. Type devmgmt.msc in the Run dialog and press Enter. This will open the Device Manager window.Get Better Performance from USB Stick
  2. In the Device manager window, select Disk drives from the tree view control. Clicking on the plus sign, you can expand the devices shown under any category. This way locate your pen drives that you have attached to your PC, right-click on it and select Properties.Get Better Performance from USB Stick
  3. In the device properties window, switch to the Policies tab. You would see two options here – Quick Removal and Better Performance. You have to select Better Performance option and then click on the OK button.Get Better Performance from USB Stick
  4. Although you would be getting great performance from your USB memory stick (pen drive) this way, but now you have to practice a little caution while removing it from your PC. Before you remove the pen-drive, right-click on the green USB icon in the system tray and select to eject your pen drive. It will flush the cache to the USB disk and make it safe for removal. Now you can remove the pen drive from the USB port.Get Better Performance from USB Stick

Conclusion: If your USB pen drive is not giving you the performance that you hope for, then you can make a little adjustment in the Windows settings to get the best possible performance from that USB pen drive. It is not hard to do and you can improve the disk read/write speeds of the USB disks.