File transfer rate is EXTREMELY slow

I bought a new 500 gb Buffalo Technology external drive back in November (2008). I plugged it in and computer reads the drive no problem. However, when I try to transfer files into the external drive it is extremmmmely slow. Example. Takes 30 minutes to maybe get 10 pictures transfered. Pic files are not that large (shot at 3.2MP). I have older external drives that transfer at a much faster rate. I noticed it had some driver for TurboUSB and tried that as well. had it on "active" but yet still incredibly sluggish. The only thing I can think of, is it is b/c of having Vista operating system? Noticed on the Buffalo page that it was for Windows 2000/XP - didn't mention Vista