I recently moved my VM from my internal SSD drive to an external USB 3 drive. I was shocked how slow it runs (5+ minutes to boot Windows) so I wanted to verify that the drive runs as a USB 3 drive instead of a USB 2 drive. According Apple, you use the System Report, USB section to check if a drive runs as a USB 3 device (listed under USB Super Speed) or a USB 2 device (listed under USB High Speed). I was so surprised to see when my drive is plugged into the left side port, it's listed as a High Speed device (i.e. USB 2) compared to the right side port as a Super Speed device (i.e. USB 3). No other USB device was plugged in. This is a 2012 MacBook Air (supposedly) with two USB 3 ports.
I just did a quick test by duplicating the VM file (12 GB) onto the same external drive. Plugged into the left side port, Finder shows it needs a whopping 5 hours. Plugged into the right side port, Finder shows it only needs 10 minutes. Now, my VM only runs a little slower than on the internal SSD. Lesson: Use the right side port for USB 3 drives!
Can anyone verify they share the same experience or contradict my experience?
Last edited: Mar 31, 2015
