What's new

who else uses a usb hub 3.0 and external 3.0 hard drive? questions 4 you

D

demandarin

Active Member
I have a Surface pro, an ANKER usb hub 3.0 and a Toshiba canvio usb 3.0 external hardrive. the 1.5tb version. the reason I made this thread is because, when hooked up to my hub, non powered, the portable hard drive loves to act funny and mount and dismount when it pleases basically. lol

I bought this drive to store my numerous amounts of steam games on. they work just fine off of it. issue is, at times, the drive doesn't seem to want to mount when it plugged up to my usb 3.0 targus hub. I have to keep playing around with it or restarting to get it to mount from it. now if I plug the drive directly into the pro it works fine. but the problem is I use xbox 360 controller for gaming. so I bought the hub. its non self powered and is powered from the pro. now itll act right sometimes but most times lately it seems like I have to go through hoops to get it to mount.

is my issue that im not getting enough power? it does work at times or eventually. but even if I have it hooked up to the hub by itself, it loves to act funny. now if I plug it directly into the pro, it works everytime. ive researched on this and its not the portable hard drive cable as it works everytime plugged into the pro directly. is it that me using the hub and controller causing the issue? because it will work eventually after me playing around and plugging it and unplugging it. is my iSSUe not enough power? do I need to buy a self powered usb 3.0 hub or docking station? like the dockable one. or is the pro docking station self powered? that only has one usb 3.0 port right? its just getting tedious keep having to play around to get it to work. its not my targus hub because it does this on my 2.0 hub also.

im hooked on all these steam games and sales and external drive was the only solution. it works great when it wants to mount. also all latest drivers installed also. anyone else have this issue or know solution. any insight greatly appreciated.
 
Last edited:
I just did a search on "targus usb 3 hub" and the first hit I got was for the 4-port ach119us (http://targus.com/US/4port-usb-3_0-superspeed-hub-ach119us); however, that model uses an AC adapter, so which model do you have?

In my case, when I am "docked" at home, I use a 10-port USB 3 hub and when I am mobile, I use a 4-port USB 3 hub. The 10-port requires an AC adapter and the 4-port does not. I also have a Surface Pro 1 with a 4-port USB 3.0 hub.

The 4-port USB 3 self-/Surface-powered hubs have never given me an issue; however, I am now embarking on my third 10-port USB 3 hub. After several months, the first one would randomly disconnect during use--and I wouldn't even had touched it nor would it have moved! Eventually, I got fed up and bought a different model. With the second hub, it worked great and I recall only once did it ever just disconnect for no apparent reason. However, just today, as I was copying several gigs of data onto a USB 3 drive, I noticed that the performance was about 1/3rd of what I had experienced using the 4-port self-/Surface-powered hub. I thought, maybe, it had to do with all the additional devices I had connected to my 10-port hub.

So I unplugged everything except the drive and the performance was still 1/3rd! As a quick test, I tried the 4-port hub, and the performance went back to the high rate. That's when I concluded that my 10-port hub was the issue, so I decided to order and try a third brand. It will arrive Monday and I have high confidence in the brand, because I have ordered several products from them in the past.

My impression right now is that the large-port USB 3 hubs (those > 4) requiring an AC adapter are unreliable, whereas those 4 or less which are self-/USB-powered and do not require an AC adapter work just fine. If you are using yours as directed (i.e., making sure it is plugged in to the AC adapter if it comes with one), then you might want to try another hub.
 
My fault. the one im talking about is an Anker 4 port usb 3.0 hub. I have a targus one also but usb 2.0. the one im talking about in my original post is ANKER one. it has no ac power. only powered by the port on surface itself.

I cant say its the hub because it does the same thing with targus usb 2.0 one also. everything else works fine with the3 anker hub.

I wish there was some kind of program or something to make sure it stays connected/mounted every single time.
 
Last edited:
there is no program for that because none exist, it seems like hardware problem. Maybe it's not fitting properly or snug enough so maybe try playing with the usb housing to give it a more snug fit
 
I think it could be more of a fitting issue. it works majority of the time. but just gets annoying at times. thanks for the insight.
 
I have several USB3 hubs and several USB3 hard drives at my disposal, including a 2TB and 3TB Canvio. There are some USB3 hubs that plain don't work (in USB 3 mode), others, as you've mentioned are kinda finicky. I have yet to find a single USB 3 hub that would work 100% (or at least near 100%) reliably with the Surface Pro and external hard drives.

If I just transfer a little data, I don't care if it's USB 2 or 3, but for significant transfers, I just plug them directly into the USB 3 port. I believe the USB 3 specs was just pushed a little too far and the physical layer is kinda borderline at that speed, so sometimes the host and the device can negotiate a USB3 rate, other times don't.
 
I have had problems with various USB 3.0 hubs, powered and non-powered.

Currently using Anker 9 port (plus 1 charging port) that has worked fine with all ports in use for some time.

Toy Man
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

W
Usb 3.0
Replies
5
Views
4K
WMS Kronus
W
S
Need powered USB 3.0 hub for continuous use
Replies
5
Views
4K
bluegrass
B
aer0
Recommendable small USB 3.0 Hubs?
Replies
5
Views
4K
leeshor
leeshor
HD_Dude
Question: Is it REALLY USB 3.0?
Replies
7
Views
4K
HD_Dude
HD_Dude
D
Mobile USB Drives
Replies
6
Views
3K
malberttoo
malberttoo

Latest posts

Back
Top