I have a monster PC running Windows 10. There are zero known hardware issues, and it's managed by me, a poweruser. There are no weird things slowing it down. It runs at expected speed normally.
It is only when I copy files via USB to a USB 3 stick (with a USB 3 socket) that it becomes completely crippled. And I really mean crippled. I don't mean slight slow-downs, but waiting for a full minute to open a new browser tab, Task Manager not opening upon request, and everything just becoming insanely unresponsive and "locked up" I/O-wise. Any currently running video stream (which uses the network cable) continues to work, but anything which in any way uses I/O just becomes like a pre-286 PC from the 1980s.
This doesn't always happen when copying files over USB. It seems to happen when there's a lot of big files to sync, or many new ones. But when I do get Task Manager open, it doesn't necessarily seem to be actually using much I/O. It seems to vary.
This happens regardless of whether I use ROBOCOPY, PHP CLI's copy() function, or File Explorer's file transfer mechanism. It appears to have nothing to do with which method/tool/software I use to actually copy the files. It appears as if the USB mechanism on the motherboard "clogs up" everything, even things unrelated to USB. My system disk is a fast SSD and it's most certainly not connected via USB.
This is absolutely maddening and just seems to make no sense. Currently, ROBOCOPY has been stuck for like an hour with one single 550 MB large file, slooowly adding to the percentage (currently 58% finished). The USB stick is not damaged. None of my USB storage devices are.
I truly don't understand what could be causing this. As soon as it's done, the machine is going to go back to being fast again. I know it because it's been like this so many times. I doubt telling Windows to not use the full speed of USB 3 will do anything since Task Manager doesn't say that it's "maxing" the transfer currently. Plus this is probably not even possible anyway.
I've had so many problems similar to this with specifically USB over the years. I've never experienced a technology that's so fragile and unreliable and problem-causing as USB. I hate USB. Why are "large" USB file transfers causing my "internal tubes" to get helplessly clogged like this? And why does it affect non-USB parts of my system?
