USB flash drive for OS installs: 3.0 vs 2.0 speed

Special K

Diamond Member
Jun 18, 2000
7,098
0
76
If my primary use for a USB flash drive is OS installs, would a 3.0 drive show much benefit over a 2.0 drive? Based on the benchmark results I've seen, the 3.0 drives slow to almost 2.0 speeds when dealing with lots of smaller files. The large speed improvements are mainly when dealing with large, sustained transfers. I'm guessing an OS install is much closer to the small file case?
 

TheELF

Diamond Member
Dec 22, 2012
3,967
720
126
Modern (windows) OSs only have one file, its on the usb in sources/install.wim ~3.5Gb it get's extracted straight from the usb to your HDD/SDD and the installation is done from those extracted files.

USB3 support during installation is somewhat iffy,I do recommend to always use usb2 ports for installation.
Unless it's only for your machine and it does support usb3.
 

Elixer

Lifer
May 7, 2002
10,376
762
126
When I install windows (or linux) via a USB 3 flash drive, it is much faster across the board, so, I think it is worth it.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,226
9,990
126
I use the Adata UV128 (they come in various sizes, that's just the model number) USB 3.0 drives. They're cheap on sale at Newegg ($4 shipped for 16GB), and they're fast, even in a USB2.0 port.