External drives · Speed, cables and hardware
Can I daisy-chain external drives on a Mac?
Short answer: Thunderbolt drives with two Thunderbolt ports can be chained so several devices share one Mac port; plain USB drives can't — use a hub instead. A chain shares bandwidth, and unplugging the first device disconnects everything after it.
Thunderbolt drives with two Thunderbolt ports can be daisy-chained: the second device plugs into the first, and both reach the Mac through one port. Ordinary USB drives can't be chained — for those you use a hub or dock instead.
Everything in a chain shares one connection to the Mac, so a fast drive copying alongside others will slow down, and unplugging the first device disconnects everything after it. Eject the drives further down the chain before unplugging the first one.
For a drive Storage Studio moves things to, a direct connection is the simplest and most reliable — see whether the port matters.