Windows experiences delays while moving files between the OS and an M.2 drive via USB.
Windows experiences delays while moving files between the OS and an M.2 drive via USB.
While moving files between my C:\ folder and an external USB drive, Windows often slows down. When watching videos, audio clips and video play about once per second. The mouse freezes and I suspect other OS tasks will also lag. I tried a file move from the M.2 drive to another internal SSD and it worked fine. Some details: my system runs Windows 11 on an i9 processor with 64GB RAM. The internal SSD is in a Gigabyte Z690 slot. When moving to a USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, I noticed major stuttering. Moving to a SanDisk Extreme Pro caused minor issues, but not severe. Transferring from M.2 to an internal SATA 3 drive had no problems. From the external Seagate drive to another SanDisk drive, I experienced major stuttering again. My motherboard warns about needing the Intel RST VMD Controller driver for M.2 PCIe SSDs. I tried installing it during setup, but wasn’t sure if that helped during the install. It seems possible it might be related.
Have you tested this on a Linux distribution? I'm gathering insights to see if the issue stems from Windows or the firmware.
I don't have experience. I'm not familiar with installing Linux or testing it.
It appears the issue occurs whenever I use external USB devices for file transfers. When moving files between two external drives, I notice stuttering, but it disappears when switching to internal storage. Transferring large files—like around 600GB or even a single 500MB file—triggers the problem again. My mouse briefly freezes during playback, and this happens consistently until the transfer finishes. This has happened before with a new PC, so it’s unusual. I’m finding it really difficult to diagnose and fix.
Updated changes made to the removal policy for both SSD and HDD USB devices from Quick Removal to Better Performance. This reduced the SSD's stuttering, though it remained. The HDD still showed some stuttering. I reverted the HDD drive back to Quick Removal, but the SSD now appears stuck in Better Performance mode, displaying an error about not being able to change the write-caching setting. Additionally, I removed two of my four 16GB DDR5 RAM sticks, reducing the total from 64GB to 32GB. This adjustment improved file transfers from internal drives to external USB devices, with no stutter observed. The NVMe M.2 SSD and internal HDD still experience noticeable stuttering when moving files in the opposite direction. I’m unsure what’s causing this beyond memory, motherboard, or CPU issues. I attempted using both memory kits, ruling out faulty RAM. Now I’m considering a fresh Windows installation to test if installing the Intel RST VMD driver during setup resolves the problem.
I just completed a new Windows 11 setup. It looks like the problem has been resolved. The original issue remains unclear.