Hello all,
I'm aware that Windows 7 does not support USB 3.0 per the following link:
http://communities.vmware.com/message/2137028
I have a new MacBook Pro Retina that has USB 3.0 and desire to install my guest (Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit) on an external USB 3.0 drive.
1) Given what the forum mentioned above, can you do this without a USB 2.0 hub? If so, how? Can you step down a specific drive to operate in 2.0 speed... especially important in that I'd be connecting through a preferable 3.0 hub so other drives can be accessed at 3.0 speeds. Explanation... I'd connect a USB 3.0 hub to my MacBook, then connect various 3.0 drives to this hub. Could the external drive with the Guest OS operate at 2.0 speed as to be compatible with Win 7, but leave the rest of the hub ports available for 3.0 speeds? Another scenario will be connecting the USB 3.0 external drive with the guest OS directly to the USB 3.0 port of my MacBook Pro... how would this work?
2) If I were to consider installing my Guest OS on the drive internal to the MacBook it would then allow all external drives to be connected at USB 3.0 speeds. What would the speed differences be between:
2a) Booting up with the Guest on the internal SSD, versus the external drive?
2b) Accessing program data / files on a 2nd partition of the external hard drive when the Guest OS is on the internal MacBook drive (connected to the external drive via USB 3.0) versus the Guest OS being in a 1st partition of the same external hard drive, and thus this entire drive needing to be connected via USB 2.0 instead to maintain Win 7 compatibility?
Thank you for your replies!