USB 3.0 Problem with WD MyPassport 1TB USB 3.0

Question

Hello all,
I have a Problem with my USB 3.0 Ports. I had an USB 2.0 external Harddrive which i used on my MacBook Pro 13" Mid 2012, but i needed a new one, so i bought a Western Digital MyPassport 1TB with USB 3.0. I also installed Tuxera NTFS because i bought the WD MyPassport in NTFS due to the fact that i use it on Mac aswell as on Windows. Now i read on the Apple Support page this:
How do I get the best performance from the USB 3 ports?
The first device you plug in will configure the port, so always connect USB 3 capable hubs or devices first.
What happens if I plug in a USB 2 device into the USB 3 port first?
If you plug in a USB 2 hub first, all devices connected or "daisy-chained" to that hub will operate up to the maximum transfer rate of USB 2 speed (480 Mbps).
I get now with my USB 3.0 MyPassport just write and read speed of an USB 2.0 device. (write/read +-35MB/s). I already tried my MyPassport on an Windows 8 PC with USB 3.0 Ports and there i get 85 MB/s read and 65 MB/s write. What is a huge diffrence.
I already tried to reset the USB 3.0 Ports with "Command-Option-P-R", but this also didn't solve the problem.
A friend of mine gets the same problem with an older version of the MyPassport (500GB) but also USB 3.0.
Does anyone has another idea what i could try to get USB 3.0 Speed on my Macbook Pro?
PS. I also installed the WD Turbo Drivers for Mac
PPS: I tested the Write and Read speed on my mac with xBench, Aja System Test and Blackmagic Disk Speed Test. All three gave nearly the same speed.

Answer 1

Diabolusz wrote:
Thanks for the answer, very appreciated.
Well sometimes i got 30 MB/s and sometimes 60 MB/s. I don't know what's happening there. Running the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test shows 60 MB/s, 2 minutes later it shows 30 MB/s ... But my Mac identifys the external Harddrive as USB 3.0 device ("up to 5 Gbit/s")...
...I bought it on Amazon, and i also read the review there, and nearly everybody is talking of speeds between 85 and 110 MB/s. So i would say that those 60 MB/s are not normal....
To your link: I got exactly that external HDD, just with 1TB. Thank you, i'll read the article
When you check out the article, look at the transfer rates as the file sizes get smaller.
My Mac Pro doesn't have built in USB 3.0 support but I've added a PCIe card and now it does. Using Carbon Copy Cloner to clone a drive to an external USB 3.0 WD MyBook, which has a 3.5" HD inside, I can watch what files are being transferred in CCC while I watch the transfer rate using the Disk Activity graph in Disk Utility. If I'm writing to the beginning of the disk, the files can fly by at close to 130 MB/sec if they're large and maybe 15 MB/sec if a bunch of them are very small. If they're going, instead, to the last partition on the MyBook, which is at the center of the drive, the transfer rate might be cut almost in half. I've tried something similar with a Seagate GoFlex external, and in addition to what I observed with the MyBook, I also found that when the GoFlex started to overheat (a common occurrence since it contained a Barracuda XT with no ventilation), the transfer rate dropped like a rock. I can't tell from the pictures if your MyPassport has any ventilation but that could be an issue too and might explain your finding with the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test (assuming that test doesn't intentionally change file size during the test).
In any case, while the USB 3.0 interface can theoretically deliver up to 5 Gbit/s transfer rate, there's no hard disk out there which can run that fast, although some SSD's might. And that applies to both the HD in the MyPassport and the HD in your Mac. Indeed, unless you've got an SSD in your MacBook Pro, it's a 5400 RPM HD, so even though the interface it's connected to is 6.0 Gbps SATA, the HD can't begin to saturate it.
Considering all the variables at work, the real answer may be "you can't get there from here."