usb flash drive - USB hub damages an external hard disk (and storage devices) on use attempt
2014-07
I recently bought a USB hub because I find myself needing more than just two USB ports on my prebuilt laptop. However I come to the problem that when I use an external hard disk with it I cannot navigate to the hard disk, (including from My Computer on Windows or using cd E: on cmd). I've tried my other flash drives as well, and they don't work with the Hub either.
A problem I encounter is that Windows complains about an "Unrecognizable device" and fails to "download the drivers". When attempting to use the external hard disk normally (directly plugged in to this computer, or my workstation) it seems to have been "damaged from my misuse". Also, it appears as "Hard Drive FAT-32" instead of its original name.
My USB hub has the following specifications:
USB2.0 Super Hub Specifications:
Interface: USB2.0, Compatible with USB1.1
Data Transfer rate: 1.5Mbps/12Mbps/ up to 480Mbps
Bus-Power Limit current protection: 500mA
(PS I was able to repair it with some utility applications, namely disc doctors. To think it was named Super Hub... ha!)
- Devices that doesn't demand data transfer works fine with the hub. (Such as a wireless mouse)
- Flash drives and my Hard disk seems to break with it.
This is a sole problem of the hub and when plugging in directly, my devices works fine.
Am I using a USB hub wrongly, or are such hubs known to be defective with demands of data transfer and or is there a way to fix them?
(I've seen other similar questions but the answers seems to be related to the power supply. I've triple checked my Hard disk specifications and it demands less power than the Hub can relay, supposedly.)
Additional (unimportant) information: The hub has seven ports and has a switch for each port, but I usually only use one to three ports at once, for mechanisms such as external cooling and charging my phone. Those works fine.
I've never had much experience with using Hubs before so I would really appreciate it if anyone can give some information on what I can do to diagnose it. Or, are there a specific type of USB hubs I should buy instead (for compatibility)?
agnul
I've tried connecting a 2.5" external drive to an old laptop which has only USB 1. The LED on the disk lights up, but the disk doesn't seem to spin up. Since the same disk works fine on a newer laptop my guess is that the old one doesn't output enough power on the USB port. Besides looking for an external drive with its own PSU, what would you suggest? Will one of those USB cables with two connectors work? What about a powered USB hub?
William Hilsum
As far as I know, USB 1 and USB 2 may have different speeds, but the power should be 5v on each.
If it works fine on other laptops, it could be that your laptop is outputting the incorrect power. (Or, the ports are un-powered :S... remember something similar a few years ago, but cannot find reference).
I would not risk using a dual USB cable or you could do damage.
If you have a powered USB hub, it is worth a try, but make sure it works fine on your other computer first.
If all else fails, you can look in to putting it on another machine and using Windows networking or another file transfer method.
Jared Harley
I would have to agree that you're drive is probably drawing too much current for the USB port. When this happens, there's usually an internal current limit switch on the hardware which trips, preventing your USB device from sucking any more power (so there's no damage to the motherboard). Your drive's LED is probably green because current has been limitted, but is still on.
If you need to connect your 2.5" drive to the laptop via USB, I would recommend purchasing a cheap 2.5" PATA drive to USB converter that comes with a power adapter. Here's one on Newegg for $19.99 (USD). It comes with power adapters for 3.5" and 2.5" PATA drives, and a power brick.