USB so slow + DVD backup

X- post: microsoft.public.windows.vista.general +
microsoft.public.windows.vista.hardware_devices
FU2: microsoft.public.windows.vista.general
Also posted to alt.sys.pc-clone.dell, I guess

Hello.
I am writing from France (though in English, hopefully).
I recently had to reinstall my laptop (Dell Inspiron). Before that, I had lots
of problems with backing up data onto USB keys, as the system required up to
thirty
minutes to copy some 600 favorites. It was just as slow when it came to erasing
files from the same.
After my hard disk failed I reinstalled the whole thing--accessing Vista's SP1
at last. Unfortunately, with the machine being updated and all, I am still
experiencing just the same problems with USB ports.
I asked on French forums, but no-one seems to encounter the same issue.
Therefore, I have two sets of questions:
-> 1. are there really very few people who are faced with hyper-slow USB?
-> 2. would anybody know why some of us have to face this?
-> 3. when Vista first came out, my Windows Mails was desperately slow, until
someone sent me a reg file (found on some American forum) which, though nobody
seemed to quite know why and how, made Windows Mail a usable program at last;
would there be such a "patch" to speed up the USB?

If I can't use USB ports, then I'd like to use DVDs, but I am still looking for
a good program, one that can erase a file from the DVD after noticing it was
from the hard disk.
-> 4. would anynone know of such a program?
I am using Nero on another machine with XP SP3, but it seems to malfunction:
each time I back up a directory onto a dedicated DVD, I find that the program
uses up more and more space, though the backed up files are listed only once, so
that after a few times the DVD is full with just the same files, although said
files are of course not 4,7Gb big; then I have to erase the DVD and do it all
over again.
-> 5. would anyone know why Nero does that, and how I could change it? I can't
seem to find any parameters that I could alter.

....Well, thanks for reading, thanks in advance for helping if you can.
PS If you think of any other forum where I could ask, kindly let me know.
--
a.