Portable Hard Drive
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Thread: Portable Hard Drive

  1. #1
    JLS is offline Virtual PC Specialist!!!
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    Portable Hard Drive

    I had a WD external portable hard drive connected to my dell xps 13 laptop and was just using it fine. I disconnected the usb cable from my usb hub and reconnected it and now my external drive does not connect. I have other usb devices connected to my usb hub and they all are working fine. I don't see any loose cables associated with my portable drive. What could be the problem? Btw, I am using win 10.

  2. #2
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    Connect to the computer, not to the hub.
    USB only has 500ma available and the hub and stuff maybe drawing to much.

    Now a powered hub, one that plugs into a wall socket too, it has enough power.
    Example:
    https://www.amazon.com/Plugable-port.../dp/B008ZGKWQI

    Yep, even charge your phone.

  3. #3
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    It has to be a POWERED hub to run USB-powered external hard drives. Obviously if the external hard drive is powered, then it would work fine on a non-powered hub.

  4. #4
    JLS is offline Virtual PC Specialist!!!
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    Like I said, I was using this external drive since I got my laptop and was using it earlier today. I am not sure why I can't get it to power on and have it detected on my laptop all of a sudden. What should I do?

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    Unplug everything else, then try it.

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    You still didn't tell us if it's a powered hub or not. make/model of the hub and external hard drive would give us a better idea of what we're dealing with.

  7. #7
    JLS is offline Virtual PC Specialist!!!
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    Midknyte, sorry for the delay in replying back. It is a Belkin usb 2.0 7-port hub F5U237. It does have a power cord because it has led lights on it. The portable drive is a WD MY Book WD7500H1U-00 external drive. I had the WD for some time but rarely used it and only would connect it once it awhile when I could back up my files. The most I've used it has been since I purchased the Dell laptop and was using it a a storage drive the past 2-3 weeks. I have a Rosewill RHB-346 USB 3.0 4-port hub that I had for a bit that I got really inexpensive some time ago that I will probably switch because the Belkin is only usb 2.0 and is old. I am not sure how good Rosewill brand is though. I do see lights pop up inside the WD drive when I first boot up but, then turns off.

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    What happens when you connect directly to a USB port, not using the hub? That drive is not bus-powered, so it should work even on a non-powered hub.

    USB3.0 is much faster than USB 2.0 anyway. I got rid of most of my USB 2.0 stuff, except a couple flash drives I use for UBCD and things like that.

  9. #9
    JLS is offline Virtual PC Specialist!!!
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    Midknyte, I tried connecting it to the usb port on my laptop and nothing seems to happen. Like I said, I see the blue lights appear briefly when my laptop first boots up, but, goes out shortly afterwards.

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    Hmm, the drive's controller might be going bad. Did you try it on any other computers?

    If you still can't get the drive to power up, you may need to crack open the case and test the drive with a SATA cable or another external USB hard drive enclosure. At least you'd be able to get the data off that way.

  11. #11
    JLS is offline Virtual PC Specialist!!!
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    I hope not being able to retrieve all my data from drive isn't the case. I have been having some bad luck lately and don't need more. I have another one of these WD my book drives that I never opened that I had for a while that I got on clearance few years back. All my data is on that drive. I was going to copy the data to a second back-up drive, but never got around to doing it. I just hope I can get my data or it is going to be a sad time.

    Midknyte, is there an easy way to crack it open, since I am not the most handy?

  12. #12
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    is there an easy way to crack it open, since I am not the most handy?
    No, not really. Those drives aren't made to be opened. You'll probably have to look at a youtube video in order to break open that model.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_2oMyoTBno
    https://www.google.com/search?q=wd75...utf-8&oe=utf-8

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    I have swapped power supplies on WD externals and had that work.
    I think what happened was it cleaned the connection as the original did work after that.

  14. #14
    JLS is offline Virtual PC Specialist!!!
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    Train, which power supplies associated with WD externals are you referring?

  15. #15
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    You can cross reference them here
    http://support.wdc.com/knowledgebase...r.aspx?ID=1378

    And they look something like this.

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