>A lot of inexpensive USB flash drives are slow, which was probably the limiting factor of your first test. You saw full drive speed with the second test.
>
>It looks like you have some sort of intermittent issue, which is the hardest type of problem to troubleshoot. If you keep getting the kinds of errors you reported earlier, then you still have a hardware or driver issue.
>
>I'll leave it to you to chase down the latest system BIOS and chipset drivers for your computer. If you're convinced you have the latest ones installed, and these problems persist, then either:
>
>- You have a bad SSD, or
>- You have bad motherboard hardware
>
>You can replace the SSD for $95 or less: https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/wd-blue-3d-nand-500gb-pc-ssd-sata-iii-6-gb-s-m-2-2280-solid-state-drive-wds500g2b0b/12918196
>
>If it turns out to be motherboard hardware instead, and the machine is a few years old, it probably won't be worth fixing unless you can get a second hand mobo or parts machine from EBay or similar.

Thanks, the last time it did this, I recall that there was some Windows update in pending to be installed. They are being downloaded but I took the control to install them when I want. I have seen this behavior for 20 years from the operating system in an incentive to force users to update as soon as possible. I do not know if this was a coincidence but I'll watch for that the next time.