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USB 3.0 External HD not working

F

fleawannabe

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 16, 2011
163
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I have an external Toshiba USB 3.0 HD and my 2012 MBP 13 will not recognize it. My PC laptop has a SATA input that will recognize it up but the USB ports on PC will not. My 2007 iMac recognized it and so does my PS3. I have been doing some reading and it seems like there is not enough power coming from the USB ports on my 2012 MBP to run it. Any ideas on how to fix this? Will ML fix it. Is there a different 3.0 external HD that takes less power and that will work.
Please help me. Thanks.
 
Don't know how to increase the power available to the USB ports but the WD my passport essential works with the 2012 macbook pro 13
 
fleawannabe said:
I have an external Toshiba USB 3.0 HD and my 2012 MBP 13 will not recognize it. My PC laptop has a SATA input that will recognize it up but the USB ports on PC will not. My 2007 iMac recognized it and so does my PS3. I have been doing some reading and it seems like there is not enough power coming from the USB ports on my 2012 MBP to run it. Any ideas on how to fix this? Will ML fix it. Is there a different 3.0 external HD that takes less power and that will work.
Please help me. Thanks.
Click to expand...

I'm in the same boat as you.

Bought a cheap Toshiba 1TB USB3 drive to work with my old MBP17'', when I upgraded to the rMBP I was happy I could be finally using it as USB3 instead of USB2, and then I found out that doesn't work with my new rMBP because of the voltage issue.

I ended up giving my 1TB Toshiba drive to my wife, and buying a cheapo Seagate GoFlex FreeAgent 1TB USB2.0 for my rMBP.

In the future I plan to buy a Thunderbolt based 2 drives Raid-1 disk for Timemachine backups, and keeping this cheap one for backups while I'm on the move, keeping it always with me.
 
Last edited:
Macman45 said:
A simple but not too elegant solution if you want these drives to work is to buy a powered USB hub, then plug the drive into it:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb...as=computers&field-keywords=USB+3+Hub&x=0&y=0
Take your pick, but make sure it's USB3
Click to expand...

Thats an option but I bought a laptop to be portably, the hub kind of ruins that.

KMC1993 said:
Don't know how to increase the power available to the USB ports but the WD my passport essential works with the 2012 macbook pro 13
Click to expand...

Is your WD 3.0? If so could you post a link of it so I can go get one.

And any thoughts one ML, is it possible for that to fix these issues?
 
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I have two 2.5" USB 3.0 drives and a 3TB 3.5" drive that all work on the Retina. The 2.5" drives I bought as USB 3.0 enclosures and added drives. I've used SSDs and rotating drives with these 2.5" enclosures. I've used a notoriously power hungry WD 7200 Scorpio black 2.5" and it works. This drive has had problems in a few USB 2 enclosures, so I don't know what's going on. Maybe i've been lucky and they will stop working, now that I know they shouldn't work. :eek:
 
The USB 3.0 is reading at 68.5 and writing at 45. The USB 2.0 is reading at 37.5 and writing at 33.2,not that much faster. Any ideas? And yes my System Information says up to 5gb/s
 
There are two things going on. First is the transport speed of the protocol. USB 3 is much faster that USB 2. But no matter how fast the USB pipe...it will not help if the drive is a slow SATA 3GB running at 5400. So if you use USB 3 and want the max...make sure the drives are SATA 6GB running at 7200.
 
MCAsan said:
There are two things going on. First is the transport speed of the protocol. USB 3 is much faster that USB 2. But no matter how fast the USB pipe...it will not help if the drive is a slow SATA 3GB running at 5400. So if you use USB 3 and want the max...make sure the drives are SATA 6GB running at 7200.
Click to expand...

Or ssd ;)
 
Picked up one from Other World Computing that works real nice with my rMBP -

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/EliteALmini/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB

They come in USB 3.0 7200 with 6Gbps. Also they have a "power" plug usb to boost the power to make sure they run properly at full speed. I plug the main usb connector in on one side and the longer "power" usb plug into usb port on other side and it works perfect.
 
Have you installed the most recent update? It was supposed to help with USB compatibility.
 
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