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Keep losing connection to Dell USB Portable HDD
Hello, I have an Inspiron 660s and bought a 1TB Dell USB Portable HDD. In a regular basis I keep losing the connection to the Portable HDD. I followed the recommendation to untick the "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" on Device Manager for USBs. What else can I try other than re-starting my computer? Any input is welcome. Thanks.
osprey4
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May 27th, 2014 17:00
Hi Marvest,
With portable drives, this is generally a power issue. The USB port should supply 5V but if it drops, the system will disconnect the device. The first thing to try is to connect to a USB port on the back of the desktop. If that doesn't help, there are cables that allow the portable drive to connect to two USB ports.
Marvest
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May 28th, 2014 09:00
Thanks for replying. The USB is connected to a USB3 port on the back of the desktop. I'll check on the two USB ports' cable. Never heard of it. By the way, how do I know the voltage of the USB ports?
osprey4
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May 28th, 2014 15:00
They're all supposed to be 5V.
Marvest
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May 28th, 2014 15:00
Good to know. What I did in the meantime was to go to Device Manager/Disk drives/Dell USB Portable HDD/Policies and change from "Quick removal (default)" to "Better Performance". So far so good. If the problem persists I'll look into using the cable option.