usb external hard drive doesnt work in rear usb's

Samfau2 · 9 Nov 2008 at 22:24

I've just got my new pc up and running with vista ultimate x64 installed. My external hard drive works fine in the two front usb's i have on my case and shows up instantly, but when i plug it into the rear i get nothing, it doesn't even show up in device manager. Im pretty sure all the usbs are working as my usb wireless mouse works fine in each and everyone of them. Anyone got any ideas?

beefybarn · 9 Nov 2008 at 22:56

Has the drive got its own power source?

Samfau2 · 9 Nov 2008 at 23:02

i dont think so, it has two usb plugs and when i plug it in the light comes on but it doesn't show up at all.

binaryknight · 10 Nov 2008 at 02:18

sounds like the rear usb sockets arnt putting out enough juice to power the drive, are you plugging both of the usb cables in? if its like my drive its a single cable with 2 plugs on one end?

Samfau2 · 10 Nov 2008 at 13:32

yeah thats right, the cable splits into two usb's.

and another thing, since i set up my new machine ive been getting quite frequent blue screens, ive just found that its because of the external hdd. The pc was running fine without any problems for ages and then as soon as i plugged it in and tried to copy something i got my bsod.

So now i have to figure a way of getting my stuff of it and onto my pc or some way to fix these blue screens. Anyone?

binaryknight · 10 Nov 2008 at 18:18

could try a powered usb hub, what size / speed is the drive, never had any issues with mine like that it even runs fine using just one usb connection.

are the rear sockets comming off the motherboard via a cable plugged into a header on the board with the sockets bolted into a backing plate or are they the ones directly soldered into the mobo near the ps2 / keyboard sockets etc