Sloooow finder copying..

Hi -

I use a Mac Pro at work with the following config:

Processor 2 x 2.66 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon

Memory 8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3 ECC

Graphics ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024 MB

Software Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5 (11G63)

When copying even small files (like a 300k PDF) from the desktop to a USB stick, it is

incredibly slow. Can take up to 20 secs to do the xfer. Clearly something is amiss. I have

searched for answers online, but came up with nothing. Since this is a company machine, please

don't tell me to "uprade," 'cause that's out of my hands.

Any ideas? Is there a finder level pref or cache that might need to be rebuilt?

Thanks.

Ron