Does any know fix/cause of USB drives that lose connection

I have been having significant problems trying to copy files to a USB drive (G0-Flex 1.5 tb) No matter what I use to try to copy the files (python code, Windows copy and paste or Drobo Copy utility) I ultimately get a failure. The failure is always some indication that the device is not ready or able to be written to. I am pretty sure the problem is that the drive is losing its connection. I have done everything I can find so far including setting the USB Root hub to never turn off the power, I updated some usb drivers etc. I have found references to this problem primarily with Win7-64 bit.

I have also had USB connection problems with other devices- we kept losing a connection to our Bravo Disc Publisher when we went to Win7 and finally bought a newer model and have not had problems since.

Any pointers about diagnosing and or understanding the problem would be appreciated.

Solution 1:

Firstly, make sure the drive is in operational condition on some other computer, if it isn't then there's probably an internal problem in the USB drive.

Losing the connection with different types of devices when plugged into the same computer would suggest that there is an issue with the Root USB hub itself. It's not completely unheard of to have USB Root hubs that become tangled up or crash completely if they are stressed by file transfers or similiar intensive activity, but I do not know if this is a purely driver related fault or a problem with the hardware design.

I have had a computer with similiar issues when specificly writing on external drives, as the USB Root would appear to not be able to keep up with the transfer to the drives. Assuming this is a similiar problem then you might have to power down both your computer and the USB drive and disconnect them, and restart. Then just try to keep the transfer speed down, it might help, but by how much or will it help at all is a question more PC specific, sadly.

Solution 2:

Things to Thin' aboud'.

Devices Mess - One of the causes is the mess people make, in devices plugging stuff in willy nilly (instead of assigning specific ports to specific hardware) and it forming a mess in the registry, and enumerations in waiting. Cleanups have been fixing USB problems more than they should. Either people are using many more usb items, or the OS is getting even worse about it. (probably both :-) I rarely have this problem, because My system is manuel, but a normal system doesnt care, plug it in here there and everywhere :-) and it will just plop more stuff in , when it finds it leaving what is a horrible (looking) mess that takes some time to clean-up.

Do the "hidden devices" tweak on your machine, and get rid of all the ghosted/unused and repeated junk , even if that means you have to reinstall a few things after reboot. Go terminator :-) on the junk devices in there most of it will reinstall on reboot. Having an Image backup would be usefull, you can get more vicious.

Another Cheap Fix - Top that off by trying to install various "fixes" from various locations that do not help because the people supplying the fix dont know any more about YOUR problem than you do. MS has come out with ONE proper USB fix since windows 7 came out, that and the ONE Proper chipset drivers for your m-board should be enough. I cannot recall any other real drivers or software that would help anything. I do not know of any driver items that exist for this type of thing other than that. I have not seen (on web) people fix this problem with more install attempts :-)

The MS fix/update that came out recognised that USB drivers were (indeed) not being updated properly, but even before messing with the usbstor drivers, a person would prefer to see the driver version in the device manager, compare it with the MS hotfix data or something. That would be a one time occurance to get the driver correct.

Power - Now that we have a Octopus of connections, and are trying to charge everything via the computer , we should be more aware that the ports might have .5A available but the stuff is still made in china :-) A USB charger costs some $10 , why am I charging my gadgets with a $2000 computer :-) Be aware of the power consumption, devices can push the need to exact specs, use powered hubs to see if that helps some. Be more carefull with devices that require the full spec power. for simple low and self power items not a problem.

Software messes - I have NOT seen this become a problem, but take for example putting the full software package for a NoKia phone on the computer , 2 gigs of interconnecting piles of software, that can connect the phone 6 different ways. Hey, call me skeptical but Winders and the software people were doing good to get 1 working right. Add to that more of these gadgets with beloted cheap tricks software. Makes me wonder why a Restore and Re-Install fixes everything, because its a Re-Move :-) At the least give some time after a package install before installing the other 2 Christmas gifts you get, so you know if a change your making is effecting it.

And viruses of course, the more stuff we stick in, the more likely we get a STV (standard terrible virus) , make sure your AutoPlay is turned on so the viruses can run easily and do thier job quickly, it saves having to push one button, and makes things easy for viruses. Speaking of devices and viruses, some cheap gadgets are comming with the Bejing special right there on the driver disk :-) Weird I didnt even need the driver, but the virus it came with was special :-) The more devices, the more install disk, 99.9% are clean and virus free. But if you dont Need the junk, dont install it.

For junkware, viruses and software blobism. Working methods for uninstalling can be: making an Image of the system the way it is, Install the beloted pigpiles, and testjunk, sort out what you actually needed of it, and then Bring the good image back, and install only what is needed of those packages.

USB3 problems as the list goes on, some of the newer "USB3" was "not ready for prime time" , We are all so happy to Beta test this implementation for them. It had a lot of issues that they didnt think about. If you overclock your busses or even processor only, some USB3 items just fail miserably. Living on the edge already they couldnt cope with being pushed over the cliff :-) There is no reason to put a USB2.0 device into a USB3.0 Port to attempt to speed it up. If your having USB3.0 issues set the computer to standard or even underclocked :-( and test it like that. Make sure you have the right motherboard Bios, and are using the correct Drivers for the motherboard, even then its the new stuff :-) its gonna work better when it grows up .

Solution 3:

I had this usb problem after windows 7 update. I think it was some kind of driver conflict with graphic card drivers, i removed my radeon drivers and installed newest ones. No connection lost for since.