How to improve USB 2.0 transfer speeds under mac os x?

Get a firewire external HD. It just makes things so much simpler…..

You’re sure you’re using USB 2.0, not 1.1? I agree that Firewire seems to be more reliably speedy.

yeah, it’s a brand new macbook pro

Well since USB 2.0 is rated at 480 or so megaBITS per second, <1 megaBYTE is correct.

i’ve never had this problem with USB 2.0 before though…especially on my older machine

Your USB transfer speed is limited by a number of factors. First you’ll want to make sure you have both a USB 2.0 Cable AND a USB 2.0 Port on your computer. You’ll also encounter problems if you have a slower BIOS or processor on your Macbook. USB doesn’t process all of the data on the port itself, and relies on the computer’s processor and memory to help handle the load. Because of this, you should try to keep other tasks to a minimum when transferring via USB. If you really can’t handle the slow speeds, it may be worth while to get a Firewire external HD.

A little respons to glial:
480 megaBITS = 60 megaBYTES, according to http://www.matisse.net/bitcalc/?input_amount=480&input_units=megabits&notation=legacy ;-)
I’m currently using Windows 7, and I get 15 megabytes from my USB 2.0, and I’m not happy with it. I’m considering to buy a firewire external HDD.