Using GRC ValiDrive To Assess USB Read/Write Performance

I have been using the free Gibson Research Corporation ValiDrive program to check USB flash drives for some time now to ensure that they have the indicated storage capacity.

I recently had the occasion to copy some large HD video files to several older Kingston DataTraveller USB 3.0 flash drives of various sizes (purchased before I got ValiDrive and not tested). I had always had good luck with Kingston USB flash drives. The write speeds were glacial, when trying to do a file copy.

I ran the ValiDrive program, and the testing was also very, very slow. I tried a couple of Samsung Bar USB flash drives that I had. The difference in write speeds was phenomenal. Scrolling down to the end of the GRC ValiDrive home page, I noted that the program does provide read/write speeds as well.

I don't know whether I got a bad batch of Kington DataTraveller USB 3.0 drives. Older Kingston DataTraveller USB 2.0 flash drives tested much faster than the four Kingston DataTraveller USB 3.0 drives. I have discarded the four drives because they were too slow for their intended purpose of writing and sharing large HD video files.

So if you have flash drives that seem slow, ValiDrive can inform you of whether your suspicions are based on factual analysis.

I just thought I would share this "new" finding for me about the GRC ValiDrive program.

Have a great day.

Regards,
Phil

I don't have many Hero's , but the ONE that comes to mind is Steve Gibson. I have a whole folder full of his little programs.
I especially like his "Decombobulator". I run it after every Windows install.

I don't yet have his ValiDrive program, but I'll go find it now. Sounds like a good one to have.

Thanks for the info,
TM

garioch7 said:

I have been using the free Gibson Research Corporation ValiDrive program

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If you have not taken the time to read some of the docs for ValiDrive, it is well worth the time to do so. I learned a few things that I never had a clue about. For example, the reason that some of the tests in ValiDrive run so slow is that the program switches between reading and writing from/to the drive and apparently some flash drives are REALLY slow at making the switch between these modes.

I agree that it is a wonderful little program.

Ditto!
I just downloaded and ran the program on a Sandisk Cruzer 2GB Flash Drive.
Here are the expected results:



Now that I have the program, I may run it on several more Flash Drives. Not that I have any reason to suspect those drives to be bad, but just for Grins.
The program display reminds me of the old Defrag program of yesteryear, where I could watch the little blocks of data moving around.

Years ago, it was reported that Steve Gibson writes all his little programs in "Machine Language". I've had some experience myself with that programming discipline, so I greatly respect his efforts.

On every Windows Install, I run Steve's Decombob.exe and Unpnp.exe. I love his sense of humor, calling that first program the "Decombobulator".

Years ago, I bought his "Spinrite 6.0" program. I used it extensively on mechanical HD's.

Cheers Mates,
TM

TechnoMage2021 said:

Years ago, I bought his "Spinrite 6.0" program. I used it extensively on mechanical HD's.

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Spinrite was absolutely amazing back in the old days when HDDs were from 10MB to 30MB (yes, MB, not GB or TB). I rescued several drives that had become otherwise unreadable. One of the most useful tools I have ever used.

I know this thread is about ValiDrive, but there is a new version of SpinRite (6.1) that is free to 6.0 owners.

Pseymour, Do you know if it works for SSD's like the 6.0 worked for Spinners?

TM

pseymour said:

I know this thread is about ValiDrive, but there is a new version of SpinRite (6.1) that is free to 6.0 owners.

Click to expand...

Wow, thanks for pointing that out. I check to see if there is an update maybe once every 6 months or so, but I was not aware of this one yet.

@TechnoMage2021 - The main page for SpinRite has a section called "Amazingly effective for SSDs!".

I contacted GRC.com (Gibson Research) and inquired about an update to my Spinrite 6.0.
They emailed me a new license and a link to the new version.

I'll run it on several of my old Spinners.

Thanks Y'all!

TM

I'm waiting for version 7 since that will run on all systems without UEFI security issues (I can't run it because of this) and also since it will be able to target "slow" blocks directly.