External drives · Speed, cables and hardware
Does it matter which port I plug the fast drive into?
Short answer: Not for recognising it — Storage Studio identifies your drive by its setup tag, not the port. Speed can differ between ports, hubs and displays, so use a port on the Mac itself for best results.
Not for Storage Studio — it recognises your drive by the tag it added during setup, not by the port, so moved apps and folders work whichever port you use.
It can matter for speed: on some Macs not every port supports the same top speed, and ports on a hub or display are usually slower than ports on the Mac itself. If speeds seem low, try another port on the Mac and re-run Run benchmark.