slow USB flash drive

hey all, i just have a quick question:

i have a 2 gig usb flash drive which is formatted for my powerbook. (i know the difference when you format something on a PC, it has a different icon and whatnot.) the thing is, when i want to transfer large files to the drive, it is really slow. but when i connect it to my pc, the place to where i'm transferring these files, it's super fast. i know both have USB 2.0 so what's the deal? i mean, it's just a plain Sony 2 gig drive. any ideas? thanks in advance.

~Me

Hi Samrocksmyshire, Welcome to Mac Forums!

Can you tell us a little about your Mac and the OS version and amount of RAM you have?

Is it possible you have plugged your USB2.0 memory stick into a USB 1.1 port?

Are you SURE it is formatted for HFS+ and not Windows FAT32? Much as I hate to say it, I do find that things formatted for FAT32 seem to work more slowly on my Mac than things formatted for HFS+ (the native Mac OS X file system). If you can read the memory stick on your PC, it is FAT32 or NTFS. Windows can't read HFS+ unless you are using something like MacDrive on it.

Unfortunately, right now if you need to share the stick between PC and Mac, FAT32 is the best option, and you will just have to put up with the slowness... that and make sure you are plugging into a USB2.0 port on your Mac.

thanks, mac57, for such an expedited reply. but i have a 12" 1.5 Ghz Powerbook with 1.25 gigs of RAM, i think the last one they made in the 12". it definitely is the newest version of Tiger and indeed does have USB 2.0 ports. and i'm almost 90% sure it is formatted for HFS+ because the icon is white, not that orange color when i plug in my other Windows FAT formatted USB drive.

but i will try formatting the drive to FAT32 when i get a chance. thanks, again.

Hi Samrocksmyshire, Welcome to Mac Forums!

Can you tell us a little about your Mac and the OS version and amount of RAM you have?

Is it possible you have plugged your USB2.0 memory stick into a USB 1.1 port?

Are you SURE it is formatted for HFS+ and not Windows FAT32? Much as I hate to say it, I do find that things formatted for FAT32 seem to work more slowly on my Mac than things formatted for HFS+ (the native Mac OS X file system). If you can read the memory stick on your PC, it is FAT32 or NTFS. Windows can't read HFS+ unless you are using something like MacDrive on it.

Unfortunately, right now if you need to share the stick between PC and Mac, FAT32 is the best option, and you will just have to put up with the slowness... that and make sure you are plugging into a USB2.0 port on your Mac.

hey, this is a fairly old post but I just wanted to add that I have an external hard drive (WD Elements) which is formatted to HFS+ (this i am 100% sure of, i did it myself) and that appears as an orange icon on my mac...

(re: "and i'm almost 90% sure it is formatted for HFS+ because the icon is white, not that orange color when i plug in my other Windows FAT formatted USB drive.")

I dunno, i'm a little confused now lol