Drive on Live hub takes 10 - 15 minutes to spin up

Mmmm I find it hard to understand why a USB stick being plugged in would speed up anything to be honest.

The firmware is in the Hub, only time the hard drive would have an effect is when it would be compiling the media.

You could maybe try a format, but as I said before you go there, might be worth speaking to support.

http://support.wdc.com/contact/index.asp?lang=en