# USB 3.0 HDD issues



## vutonium (Feb 9, 2014)

Hello all,
      I am facing a weird issue with my external HDD. Whenever I connect it to the USB 3.0 port on my laptop, it is detected. But as soon as I access it be it read/write, I get the error location not found especially when copying files on to the hard disk. It doesn't vanish from My Computer but copying is interrupted as if someone momentarily disconnected the drive. Same goes if I try to watch a video from the HDD. All the drivers have been updated and even all the windows update packages have been installed. I had this issue in Windows 8 too. 


The hard disk works flawlessly (albeit slower) when connected to a USB 2.0 port. The USB 2.0 ports are actually in a pair and I had at times connected 2 HDD's to the 2.0 ports and haven't had any issues with low power for the HDDs. USB 2.0 Flash drives and phones connected to the USB 3.0 port work properly.



I even installed the KB 2911106 update, I tried  Help! After installing Windows 8.1, my USB drive disappears or file transfers stop unexpectedly
Even that didn't work. I disabled USB Selective suspend, I disabled turn off HDDs from the power options. Nothing helps.


It is a Freecom ToughDrive 3.0 1TB and the computer is an Asus S46CM Ultrabook running Windows 8.1 fully up to date. 

Laptop Specs:
Core i5-3317U @ 1.7GHz
6GB DDR3
NVidia GT650M 2GB


Admins I hope this is the right section for this query.


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## whitestar_999 (Feb 10, 2014)

i don't know if this is related but my cousin has an asus k53sv laptop running win 7 & its usb 3.0 port too often fails to detect more power hungry usb devices like 3g usb modems.


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## vutonium (Feb 10, 2014)

So is it totally a power related issue?


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## whitestar_999 (Feb 11, 2014)

it seems so.


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## vutonium (Feb 14, 2014)

New discovery: I have this cable, it has a USB 2.0 male on one side and USB 2.0 female on the other side and is almost 15cm in length. An extension. I used that to connect the HDD and it works. Although slow. So this is not a power issue I guess. Or is it?


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## whitestar_999 (Feb 14, 2014)

usb port makes a kind of electronic handshake with the connected usb device to set transfer speeds etc.this is why when usb is inserted incorrectly into a usb2.0 port it shows as slow usb 1.1 device.maybe the insufficient power at usb3 port connector(it is a complex arrangement & by power it means tiny electronic signal power at certain pins & not overall power required to spin the drive which is separate) causes device to not work correctly since both port & device are usb3 but when using a cable(since cable is usb2) the usb3 port set itself at usb2 speeds & it works.


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## vutonium (Feb 14, 2014)

Turns out, it is my HDD who is the issue. I connected a friend's WD passport and it worked fine. Then connected my hdd to his laptop. It died within seconds of starting copying


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