External hard drives are a great way to store large files, but they can take a long time to load in Windows 7 or Vista. Here are four tips to speed up external USB hard drives in Windows 7 or Vista.

  1. Make sure your external USB hard drive is plugged into an active port on your computer.
  2. Use the “File Explorer” window to browse to the external USB hard drive and open the “My Computer” folder.
  3. Right-click on the external USB hard drive and select “Properties.” Under “General,” make sure that the “Speed” setting is set to “Normal.”
  4. If you need to access the files on your external USB hard drive while you’re working on your computer, make sure you have installed the latest drivers for your device. ..

Write caching isn’t enabled by default for external drives because removable devices could lose data if you unplug them too quickly, so take care when using this setting.

To change this setting, just type Device Manager into the start menu search box, and hit enter.  

 

Browse down to the external hard drive that you wish to enable write caching on, and double click it to open up the properties screen.

Just change the setting to “Optimize for performance” and hit OK to continue. You’ll have to reboot for the setting to take effect.