So yesterday I wanted to do my periodic data backup on my 2TB Samsung T7 Shield. However, shortly after I started copying files, I realized that something was awfully off with the transfer speeds.
At first, I thought it was simply the type of data I was copying, but larger files showed the same behavior with write speeds of a whopping 2 MB/s.
I started troubleshooting the usual suspects: drivers, cables, ports, and the drive's health, but alas, nothing helped.
While there are some "solutions" on YouTube, these only seem to speed things up when the drive is already performing decently.
Today, I was actually going to give up and buy another SSD, but I read somewhere that keeping the drive plugged in and letting it sit for 30 mins might help. While this did not exactly work at first (benchmark still showed hours for estimated completion), I did uncheck both optimization and trimming and ran the benchmark again, which now showed a write speed of about 100 MB/s. Not great, not terrible, but after turning on optimization again, I got my usual speed back.
To sum things up, let the drive sit idle for an extended period, then start turning off and on both trimming and optimization with some optional benchmarking in between.
Alternatively, you might try plugging the drive into a power-only USB socket, which could help reset the controller.
Hope this helps my fellow troubleshooters!
