Increase Efficiency By Knowing The Read And Write Times Of Your Usb Sticks

By Author: Simon Britten
Total Articles: 9
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Time is money and in business the less time it takes to complete a task, the sooner another one can start. Efficiency is a great contributor to profit and a company with a good understanding of it will stand a better chance of prospering. Whilst it’s common practice to gauge the efficiency of members of staff, and to put any necessary improvement measures in place, it is also important to know how efficient the IT systems are and in particular how much time is taken up by data transfers.

Businesses using USB sticks as a means of data storage should be aware of the read and write speeds that can vary between make and model. Knowing these speeds will give an idea just how much time a file transfer will take between a USB stick and PC and vice versa.

Large files could tie up a computer for a long time and so knowing the likely timescale can help determine the best and most economical time for it to be done. Having an operator twiddling their thumbs at 10am in the morning, whilst waiting for data to transfer is probably not the best use of time, especially if it could be completed during a lunch break.

Calculating ...
... the likely time for a file transfer is a simple exercise but a very helpful one when planning workload. There are only two pieces of information needed, one of which is the size of the file in question. This can be determined by checking the files “properties”. The second piece of information required is the actual read and write times for the USB stick as indicated by the manufacturer/supplier.

A simple example would be to take a file size of 500MB and a file transfer speed of a typical USB stick of 8MB per second. Dividing 500MB by 8MB per second gives a result of 62.5 seconds or just over a minute.
There are of course other aspects that may affect transfer times and they could be slowed down if a lot of other processes and programmes are running at the same time. It is also fair to say that actual transfer times are also dependent on the USB controller within the computer itself.

For the average person who merely needs to move a few files around at home, read and write speeds may not be a top priority. For businesses with huge files of data however, knowing how long it could take to transfer them, and planning accordingly, could provide a meaningful contribution to efficiency.

Simon is part of the Bespoke USB team. Bespoke USB is the only place you need to visit for branded USB flash drives. Make a statement for your business with your own custom USB design. Visit our site today.