This is on the VM and the main PC (host).
It's normal if you either :
1. Store the blockchain files on HDD
2. The HDD also used to store guest or/and host OS
3. Use shared folder feature, which is known to be slow. Source : https://superuser.com/q/1025864
Could it be also that the HDD is failing ?
I doubt it, if the HDD is failing, most likely you will experience another problem or error such as I/O error when load blockchain database.
And as HCP mentioned, can you mention exactly how long is "a hell load of time"? For example, it took almost 2 minute on my HDD, even though the HDD is only used by Bitcoin Core.