To see what's connected to what in the USB configuration go into device manager's view menu and select the "show devices by connection" option. That will show you which ports connect to which controller etc.
 
USB 1.1 controllers are labelled "Universal Host".
USB 2 controllers are labelled "Universal Host" and "Enhanced Host" or just "Enhanced Host".
USB 3 controllers are labelled as USB 3.

tlw
To see what's connected to what in the USB configuration go into device manager's view menu and select the "show devices by connection" option. That will show you which ports connect to which controller etc.
 
USB 1.1 controllers are labelled "Universal Host".
USB 2 controllers are labelled "Universal Host" and "Enhanced Host" or just "Enhanced Host".
USB 3 controllers are labelled as USB 3.

Well, shiver me timbers! That's a View option I never considered. And I was writing real-time code running under Win386 (yeah, that long ago ). Thanks!

Another useful view is to see ghost/hidden devices.

These are devices that have been connected but aren't now. Windows has habit of retaining entries for these even when they're the same thing that's been connected to USB ports. MIDI devices in particular seem to end up as these ghosts unless always connected to the same USB socket. Which can result in MIDI devices being connected but refused by Windows because the allowed number of ports has been used up. Or why Windows announces it,s installing the driver for a MIDI device that's been connected auccessfully before, but to a different socket.

It's not unusual to find ghosts of other hardware lurking around as well.

Jim Roseberry
A USB Thumb drive is nowhere near the speed of a USB3 HD.

 
Some are. The Sandisk Extreme USB 3.0 drives are faster than 7200RPM HDDs, and are roughly as fast as old SATA-2 SSDs. They get in the realm of 250MB/sec read and 190MB/sec write in my testing. Low latency too (as you'd expect from flash). They have a new one, the Extreme Pro that is supposedly even faster.
 
We use them a lot at work and the limiting factor is always the magnetic drive in the computer.
 
If you need a fast drive for moving files around, they are wonderful.
 
That said, I don't know how good they'd be for sampled data because I haven't checked on their overhead. I think they use BOT rather than UASP so they may put more overhead on the CPU than a drive dock that knows how to do UASP.

tlw
Another useful view is to see ghost/hidden devices.

These are devices that have been connected but aren't now. Windows has habit of retaining entries for these even when they're the same thing that's been connected to USB ports. MIDI devices in particular seem to end up as these ghosts unless always connected to the same USB socket. Which can result in MIDI devices being connected but refused by Windows because the allowed number of ports has been used up. Or why Windows announces it,s installing the driver for a MIDI device that's been connected auccessfully before, but to a different socket.

It's not unusual to find ghosts of other hardware lurking around as well.

Here's an Anderton article on this ... still relevant as of 8.1
http://www.harmonycentral...dows-midi-port-problem

Thanks everyone. Been offline for awhile. You all have answered not only my question but a whole bunch more that I didn't know I should have asked! Lots of great info. This is a great forum for sure. I'll definitely look into the newest SSD drives when $ allow. Thanks again. While I purchased X3 a few months ago, complications in my life have kept me from it. I'm sure I'll need more help once I get into it.

Jim Roseberry
Hi John,
 
FWIW, You can do the same thing with a USB3 docking station (easily swap SATA drives for quick/easy backup and data shuffling).

Thanks for that Jim. As soon as I read it I knew I had to have it. That adds a lot of value to the 320 and 500 GB SATA II's laying around.