Read and Write Speed Testers for the USB Flash Drive

Many people today simply buy on the storage size of the USB flash drive for the price and they do not take into account how fast or slow the performance of the drive is. After that you found out the high capacity USB flash drive it take hours or less to fill it up completely. So, this is why you feel frustrating but could be a waste of money if you have to go and buy something a bit faster for your needs.

The question is how do we know about the speed of USB flash drives? Maybe the following reliable freewares can show to us their results:

Check Flash

Check Flash is a free flash drive tester for Windows-based computers, developed by Cherkes Mihail. It allows user to examine the read and write speed of flash drive, edit partition information, save and reinstate full drive and partition images as well as MBR. It also carry out the full drive or partition cleaning and process device testing at the highest possible speed.

There is no installation for the application software. Simply download the files and then run the exe. The supported operating systems are Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7 and 8.

Take a look the video demonstration by Károly Zsidi:

This program can be very dangerous with the dull person, be careful. After performing full erasing or write and read test with partition or device all data will lost forever! The programmer does not responsible for usage of this software.

CrystalDiskMark

CrystalDiskMark is a portable freeware for disk benchmarking especially to true techno-geeks. It can measures the performance for sequential and random reads/writes of various sizes for any storage device. You can select your own test data (Random, 0Fill, 1Fill), includes theme support and has multilingual support.

This freeware it has seperate distinction for 32-bit and 64-bit for operating system and it requires admin rights to operate.

In order to get the precise result, it's recommended to close all the other applications or programs before hitting the start button. Therefore, it needs just a couple of minutes to perform all the benchmarks.

Click here to download.

FLASH DRIVE/CARD TESTER

This generic freeware tool developed by Virtual Console, is used to testing flash drives, SD, CF, MMC cards for bad or unstable sectors. You must manually select the type of test you like, and it will create a log report after the read or write test or both. Please take a prudent decission before you choose "write test" or "read, write and compare" action, backup first your files or else it will delete all your files during the test operation. This software it also requires installation.

Click here to download.

SPEED OUT

SpeedOut is a small and portable freeware tool which tells the reading and writing speed of your USB flash drives and developed by unknown source or author. It can be handled even by beginner. The program runs the tests at a low level (needs to be run as admin) which means the scores aren’t affected by the drive file system.

The best portion of this software is that it doesn’t require any formatting after you test your flash drive and also it doesn’t damage any data during the test operation.

To save test results, just point your mouse pointer to the title bar of the window software. Right-click or another alternative is ALT+SPACE the context menu will appear, select your option; copy to clipboard or save as text file.

Click here to download.

USB FLASH BENCHMARK

USB Flash Benchmark is a portable freeware tool developed by Heep.ru. It can be used to probe the read and write speed of any USB flash drive, or even other drives. USB Benchmark Speed Testing is done by way of small 1KB file chunks up to large 16MB file chunks, and the results are graphed so you can see completely how well a drive conducts with varying file sizes. When the testing is done, the information on screen is a bit enormous and puzzling. After that there is a option, a pop-up window provides a URL which will take you to your online results, including well-displayed read and write speeds.

Take a look the video demonstration by Юрий Шатохин:

Click here to download.

USBDeview

USBDeview is a small and potable utility developed by Nirsoft that lists all USB devices that currently connected to your computer, as well as all USB devices that you previously used. Some of the feature is the option to benchmark a flash drive and the given or final results can be publish to the Nirsoft Speed Tests webpage for viewing and comparison. 

How to execute the speed test for the flash drive?

By simply find your USB device which should be highlighted in green with a device type of “Mass Storage”, right click on it and select Speed Test (Ctrl+T). Click Start Test and it will sequentially read and write a 100MB file to get the scores. Then you can choose to publish the test results if you wish by clicking the button and ticking the box to agree to publish the results.

Click here to download.

References:

• http://downloads.tomsguide.com/Flash-Check,0301-22182.html
• http://www.filecluster.com/System-Utilities/File-Disk-Management/Download-Check-Flash.html
• http://www.filecluster.com/reviews/122013/check-flash-quickly-test-and-format-your-usb-drives/
• http://www.pcworld.com/article/2455205/test-the-speed-of-your-usb-drives.html
• http://www.pendriveapps.com/usb-flash-benchmark/
• https://www.raymond.cc/blog/test-read-and-write-speed-of-usb-flash-drives-with-usbdeview/
• http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html
• http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Benchmarks/SpeedOut.shtml
• http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/speedout-checks-usb-external-hdd-readwrite-speed/

Some List of USB Flash Drive Security Tools

Unsecured storage devices that are the size of a human thumb can store a sufficient amount of data to cause extensive misery when they are inevitably misplaced or temporarily lost because of their extreme movable or lightweight.

After all the security of the visible drive cannot be subsidize or underwrite without compromising the benefits of portability, precautionary measure are primarily constant to making the data on a jeopardize drive isolated to unauthorized users and unauthorized processes, such as may be executed by malware. One common technique is to encrypt or conceal the data for storage, and routinely scan drives for malware with an antivirus program, however other strategy are possible.

Secure USB drives are the principal way to stop the expand of data security breaches that have afflict corporations and government agencies ever since unsecured flash drives became accessible. Some traders perform security by encrypting data behind passwords. Some come up with security by including a biometric fingerprint scanner on the device. Some manufacturer build both types.

IMATION

SANDISK

KINGSTON

TRANSCEND

References:

• http://secure-usb-drive-review.toptenreviews.com/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_flash_drive_security
• https://guardianproject.info/2014/03/28/security-in-a-thumb-drive-the-promise-and-pain-of-hardware-security-modules-take-one/
• http://cimg1.ibsrv.net/cimg/www.carsdirect.com/330x185_85/119/Unsecure-padlock-1119.jpg
• http://s0.static.mymemory.co.uk/images/product_shots/thumb_41462_1343747814.jpg

What is a USB flash drive?

A USB flash drive is a small and portable data storage device that includes flash memory chip with an integrated USB interface, that plugs into a computer's USB port and functions as a portable hard drive. USB flash drives have shorter storage capacity than an external hard drive. They are pocket-sized and more long-lasting because they do not contain any internal moving parts, unlike an optical drive or a traditional hard drive.

USB flash drives also are called thumb drives, jump drives, pen drives, key drives, tokens, or simply USB drives.

There are typically five parts to a flash drive:

• Standard-A USB plug – provides a physical interface to the host computer.
• USB mass storage controller – a small microcontroller with a small amount of on-chip ROM and RAM.
• NAND flash memory chip(s) – stores data (NAND flash is typically also used in digital cameras).
• Crystal oscillator – produces the device's main 12 MHz clock signal and controls the device's data output through a phase-locked loop.
• Cover – typically made of plastic or metal, protecting the electronics against mechanical stress and even possible short circuits.

Different Uses of USB Flash Drives:

• Transporting and storing personal files.
• Storage security.
• Computer forensics and law enforcement.
• Updating motherboard firmware including BIOS and UEFI
• Launching of an operating system by way of booting.
• Application carriers.
• A backup medium.
• A digital audio player.
• Media storage and marketing.
• Brand and product promotion 
• Security systems.
• Arcade game.

References:

• http://pcsupport.about.com/od/termsag/g/flashdrive.htm
• http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/U/USB_flash_drive.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_flash_drive
• http://images.wisegeek.com/plugging-in-usb-drive.jpg

What are the prerequisites before you set up a second computer monitor?

• Compatible Computer Monitor: It should be work in Windows XP or later. If it's new, it probably does, but you should still check to make sure.
• Compatible Video Cable: Most likely your CPU and monitor use a VGA or DVI-I interface, so you just need to make sure they've both got the same kind of port. If not, you need to pick up an adapter.
• Compatible Video Ports: Monitors are typically connected to either the motherboard or the graphics card. Most graphics cards support two or more monitor connections (e.g. DVI, HDMI or VGA), while most motherboards support one and sometimes two (e.g. VGA or S-Video).
• Supported Operating System: The OS must have a features for controlling configuration of the video controller e.g. Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 or Mac OS X.

Take a look the video demonstration by DarkkxVoid The Lamp Post:

Take a look the video demonstration by Howcast:

References:

• http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-set-up-dual-monitors-in-windows-7/
• http://www.wikihow.com/Set-Up-Dual-Monitors
• https://support.lenovo.com/ph/en/documents/ht005251
• http://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/04/SLN149317?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04
• http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ph/windows-vista/set-up-multiple-monitors
• http://hothardware.com/ContentImages/NewsItem/31719/content/dell-monitor-deal.jpg

Two Varieties of DVI Connectors

• Single-link DVI employs a single 165 MHz transmitter that supports resolutions up to 1920 × 1200 at 60 Hz.

• Dual-link DVI adds six additional pins (located in the center of the connector) for a second transmitter increasing the bandwidth and supporting resolutions up to 2560 × 1600 at 60 Hz.

Some DVI connectors also have pins that pass an analog signal, which can be used to connect an analog monitor. The analog pins are the four that surround the flat blade on a DVI-I or DVI-A connector. A VGA monitor, for example, can be connected to a video source with DVI-I through the use of a passive adapter. Since the analog pins are directly compatible with VGA signaling, passive adapters are simple and cheap to produce, providing a cost-effective solution to support VGA on DVI. The long flat pin on a DVI-I connector is wider than the same pin on a DVI-D connector, so even if the four analog pins were manually removed, it still wouldn't be possible to connect a male DVI-I to a female DVI-D. It is possible, however, to join a male DVI-D connector with a female DVI-I connector.

Some DVD players, HDTV sets, and video projectors have DVI connectors that transmit an encrypted signal for copy protection using the High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) protocol. Computers can be connected to HDTV sets over DVI, but the graphics card must support HDCP to play content protected by digital rights management (DRM).


References:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Visual_Interface
• http://www.buildmyowncabin.com/electrical/dual%20link%20dvi%20pinouts.gif

What is a DVI?

A example of DVI-I (Dual-Link)

DVI (Stands for "Digital Video Interface") is a video connection standard created by the Digital Display Working Group (DDWG), it was introduced in 1999. Most DVI ports support both analog and digital displays. If the display is analog, the DVI connection converts the digital signal to an analog signal. If the display is digital, no conversion is necessary.

DVI sockets are also found on TVs, Blu-ray/DVD players, data projectors and cable and satellite TV boxes. For digital rights management (DRM), DVI supports HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection). DVI uses TMDS (Transition Minimized Differential Signaling) signaling and was designed as a digital replacement for the analog VGA standard.

There are three types of DVI connections:

1) DVI-A (for analog)
2) DVI-D (for digital)
3) DVI-I (integrated, for both analog and digital)

The digital video interface supports high bandwidth signals, over 160 MHz, which means it can be used for high resolution displays such as UXGA and HDTV. You may find DVI ports on video cards in computers as well as on high-end televisions.

Using a DVI connector and port, a digital signal that is sent to an analog monitor is converted into an analog signal. If the monitor is a digital monitor, such as a flat panel display, no conversion is necessary. Many monitors now include a DVI connection and many video adapters include a DVI port along with, or instead of, the traditional 15-pin Video Graphics Array (VGA) port.

References:

• http://techterms.com/definition/dvi 
• http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/DVI-Digital-Visual-Interface
• http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/42144/dvi
• http://e.cdn-hardware.com.br/static/blog/60662-dvi_html_53d3a3e4.jpg.optimized.jpg