Issue with external USB hard drives...

[skull_leader7]

Hi all...

I have several USB hard drives attached to my system (XP SP2, ASUS A8N
Motherboard, Athlon 4400), and I am experiencing the following issues
intermitently on several of the drives:

a) drive works, but is very slow
b) drive still shows up under My Computer, but directory listings are
wrong (only shows some of the top level folders, sub folders show as
empty, files cannot be accessed)
c) drive does not show up at all under My Computer following reboot

I can usually clear up any of these, temporarily, by unplugging the
drive and plugging it back in (using the Safely Remove Hardware tool
whenever possible, though this usually refuses to allow me to
disconnect the device) but it usually doesn't help for very long.

I have a total of 12 USB ports on the computer itself (8 on the front/
rear panels from the motherboard itself, and 4 more from a PCI card -
this behavior was occuring before the PCI card, but I thought if I
could put some devices on a seperate root hub it would help?), and
admitedly a lot of USB devices but not too many (I thought) to work:
the devices are:

4 hubs (2 Four Port USB 2.0 Hubs, 1 4 Port USB 1.1 Hub, 1 Hub built
into NEC LCD Monitor)
Keyboard
Mouse
iPod
Gamepad
Wireless Network Adaptor
6 External Hard Drives


I've tried various combinations of cables and ports and hubs to no
avail. I've also tried deleting all of the root hubs in the device
manager, restarting the computer and letting XP go through its "find
new hardware" routine, but the problems persist.

What is going on here? Is there any way to clear this up? BIOS
update? Do I simply have too much plugged in?

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

 Do I simply have too much plugged in?

You can easily test that. I'm surprised that you haven't.

 

[skull_leader7]

You can easily test that. I'm surprised that you haven't.

Unfortunately, its not so easy to test that. I need the data on these
drives to do my day to day work (so I'm really hoping that the problem
is not that I have too many devices, as remedying that will be very
painful) and since the problems are only intermittent its not simply a
matter of unplugging a few devices, rebooting the computer, and seeing
what's what. I have to wait for the problem to occur and its not
entirely clear to me how long I need things to work (all the while not
being able to access some of my data) before I can assume that
whatever config I'm testing. So its a bit daunting to start down that
path without any inkling at all that that's the correct path to
explore. On the other hand, if someone told me "hey, that's way too
many devices" and explained why, then that's certainly the path I'd
take.

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

So its a bit daunting to start down that
path without any inkling at all that that's the correct path to
explore.  On the other hand, if someone told me "hey, that's way too
many devices" and explained why, then that's certainly the path I'd
take.

Your request for help sat here unanswered for two days before I
finally jumped in. I'd bet that no one here has EVER had that many
devices... especially that many external hard drives - attached to a
computer.

I'm afraid you've no choice BUT to experiment with disconnecting items
and seeing if it makes a difference.

How large are the external drives? Given the size of drives available
today, if they're all small drives, they can easily be replaced by
fewer large drives.

 

[Unknown]

The USB ports have a very limited amount of power available. You can get
that figure from your
system specs. Each device you plug into a USB port may or may not require
some of the +5v power.
You can get that info from each drivers specs. Total it up and you may need
a new supply.
Do your homework or unplug devices to use as a diagnostic technique.