How to Fix Slow External Hard Drive in Windows 11/10/8/7

Updated by

Tracy King 

Last updated on April 19, 2024

5 Ways to Fix Slow External Hard Drive in Windows 11/10/8/7

If your external hard drive is responding slowly or not opening at all, there are several solutions you can try to address this issue. Here are the top 5 fixes for a slow and unresponsive external hard drive:

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My external hard drive is responding slowly.

Hello! Do you know how to fix the issue with slow USB 3.0 external hard drive speeds on Windows 10? I have a Seagate 1TB USB 3.0 external hard drive that I've been using for over two years. I store almost all my data, like videos, images, and spreadsheets, on this drive. However, recently, when I try to transfer or save new files to this external drive, it has become very slow in its response.

On Windows 11/10, it takes forever to load, and when I try to copy or transfer new files or images to the external hard drive, the response becomes incredibly slow. I don't know why it's so sluggish, and how can I fix the slow external hard drive issue?"

A seemingly slow response or low transfer rate issue on external hard drives, USBs, or SD cards has become one of the common concerns for regular users. So, what can you do when your external hard drive or USB device becomes extremely slow? Buy a new, higher-capacity external hard drive to replace the existing one? That's not a wise choice. Below are some cost-effective ways to fix an extremely slow external hard drive issue in Windows 10/8/7.

Read also: How to Fix Hard Drive Suddenly Very Slow Issue

Fix 1: Defragment your external hard drive for better performance

If you haven't defragmented in a while, your external and internal hard drives may be running slower than they used to. The first thing you should do is run a disk defragmentation. Fragmentation makes your hard drive work harder, which can slow down both your computer and the drive itself. The Disk Defragmenter tool in Windows can rearrange fragmented data so that your hard drive and drives run more efficiently. To defragment an external drive:

Step 1: Connect the external hard drive to your Windows 11/10 computer.

Step 2: Open “This PC,” right-click your external hard drive, and select “Properties.”

Step 3. Go to Tools > Optimize. Select the drive again, and Windows will optimize it automatically.

This is one method you can try; learn more fixes here. Share these methods on your social media to help others, too!

Fix 2: Delete large files from the external hard drive

Another common reason for a slow disk is that it's overloaded. For example, you might be downloading several torrents, watching a movie from the same drive, and scanning it for viruses all at once. You can speed up an external hard drive by clearing out large, unnecessary files or closing some programs.

A professional disk cleaner tool can help you address slow performance, low transfer rates, or unresponsiveness issues on external hard drives, USBs, or SD cards with just a few clicks. Simply download it for free, install it on your computer, and follow this guide to boost the responsiveness of your external hard drive immediately.

Step 1. Download the free partition master tool and install it on your Windows computer. Then run it.

In the list, hover your mouse over “PC Cleaner,” and click the Download icon to install and run the CleanGenius tool.

Step 2: In CleanGenius, tap on “Clean” from the main screen and then tap on “Scan” to start the scanning process.

Step 3: After the scan, select the unnecessary large files and click "Clean" to delete them.

4. When CleanGenius has finished deleting the files you selected, click Finish to exit the program.

Solution 3: Check and fix corrupted files causing slow disk speed

Damaged system files or bad sectors on the storage device can also slow down the transfer rate. You can use a free partition manager to quickly check for file system errors and fix them. This free tool easily checks and repairs external hard drive errors. It has many other highlights:

• Easily increase C drive space
• Combine partitions to expand partition space
• Create, format, or delete partitions
• Perform MBR to GPT conversion without data loss

The steps to check and repair file system errors are:

Solution 4: Check and Replace the Cable to Fix Slow External Hard Drive Issue

Sometimes, the USB cable can cause slow disk responsiveness. When you connect an external drive to your computer, check the USB cable and power cord.

If the hard drive is connected to a front-panel USB port, try connecting it to a USB port on the back panel.

Step 2: Use a USB 3.0 port instead of USB 2.0. You may be plugging a USB 3.0 device into a USB 2.0 port, which generally won't work. Try switching to a compatible port!

Solution 5: Check and remove viruses from your computer or external hard drive

Another issue that might cause slow hard drive response is viruses and malware. If your computer or external hard drive is infected, you may encounter slow performance issues. Even if you're not a victim yet, it's essential to have a tool to protect your device from virus attacks.

Step 1: Open your antivirus scanner (e.g., AVG).

Step 2: Choose the “Scan” option to look for viruses. If you don't see that, choose a specific disk partition and have the tool scan it (this will vary depending on the security suite).

Upon completion of the scan, you can rely on your antivirus tool to handle the detected viruses.

If you're using a Seagate external hard drive, we have more specific solutions to address the slow performance. Please click the link for more information:

Read More: Seagate External Hard Drive Slow

Conclusions

When you encounter a slow external hard drive, you can try any of the above solutions to boost its performance. If the problem persists, you can format the external hard drive to NTFS, which will erase all data on the drive for optimized performance. However, note that formatting will wipe all data from the drive. Thus, if your slow external hard drive contains important data, make sure to export and back up your hard drive data to a secure storage device beforehand.