your HDD is failing

Check your bios and USB settings. Whether it's FullSpeed or HISpeed.

>>20275339
I tried that, apparently I have a shitty bios because it doesn't even give any options to change USB settings, except being able to enable/disable support for legacy usb devices.

>>20275322
I've not noticed any sign of HD problems. No crashes, temps stay in the low 40s, basically no signs of trouble. my laptop IS 5 years old, but runs smooth as hell.

Posting a Speccy screencap of my HD in case it helps anyone figure out wtf my problem is.

>>20275810
How many files are you copying?
If it's in the ten-thousandth range, it's normal. Doesn't matter if the combined size is 10MB or 100GB. It's going to take time.

>>20275827
This pretty much, I transfered my 5GB-ish collection of images to an external USB hard drive, it took hours to complete.

While the same amount, 5GB, in video files worth takes a minute or two.

>>20275827
33.5GB 28,984 files.

OK, that's a lot of files, but I guess what I don't understand is why it takes so long. Seems all the hardware has the capacity to read/write much faster, the CPU is not stressed at all & there's plenty of free RAM. What is the limiting factor here?

>>20275925

When I transfer over pictures or folders with lots of picture in them, they will take forever. I'm guessing it's just how the Operating System handles transfering over images. I know if you transfer over videos it takes almost no time at all. Very good question though, I don't have any idea as to why pictures do that.