How to set up USB 3.0 connection?

[maddogchen]

I recently got a 2 TB Seagate external hard drive that is USB 3.0. I plugged it into my USB 3.0 slot and my computer was able to recognize it. But I don't know where to look to see if its running at USB 2.0 or USB 3.0. Where would I go to see if its running at USB 3.0?

Copying a 5GB dvd disc it was going at from 116 down to 80 MB/second according to Win7. Copying the same 5GB dvd disc to my other USB 2.0 external HD, I got it going at 120 down to 46 MB/second. So its not running significantly faster.

 

[Vincent]

You should time the transfer manually instead of looking at the rates Windows reports. Just try it with a smaller file, maybe a hundred megabytes.

USB 2.0 will give you a maximum real-life transfer rate of 20-40MB/s. USB 3.0 should be faster than that.

 

[intextra29]

You could try the official USB.org website - http://www.usb.org/developers/ssusb/ssusbtools. They have a tool to verify that it's truly running at USB 3.0 speeds.