Computer randomly disconnecting and reconnecting external hard drive

strachaldrat

Commendable
Nov 15, 2016
2
0
1,510
Hello,

My Toshiba Canivo 1tb hard drive has recently been randomly been disconnecting and reconnecting to my Lenovo Z50-70. I know this isnt and issue with the external hard drive because is connects fine on my other windows laptop, but i need it to connect it to the Lenovo.

I have disabled selective suspending but to no avail. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
 
Solution
Hey there again, @strachaldrat!

I suspect that this could be a driver issue, if the HDD works from the USB 2.0 ports without disconnecting. I'd again recommend to check these drivers from the laptop manufacturer's official website. Even if you do have them up-to-date. I'd still re-install the USB 3.0 Hub controller drivers just to see if the connectivity between that port and the external drive would improve. Either way, backup your data to another storage device as well. Having multiple copies of your files in different locations is the surest way to avoid data loss in the future.

Let me know if you have more questions or concerns. :)
Cheers,
SuperSoph_WD
Welcome to Tom's Hardware, @strachaldrat!

I'd strongly recommend you back up the data from the external from the laptop where it is accessible and make sure you got a copy of the files stored there. Better safe than sorry, right? Afterwards, I'd suggest you try to connect the external HDD to another USB port on the problematic laptop. It sounds like there is something wrong with the connectivity to the drive. If other USB ports don't help, I'd advise you to go to the laptop manufacturer's official website and make sure you got the latest USB Hub Controller drivers installed from there, rather than using Device Manager & Windows Updates. I'd still try using a different USB cable just to see how the laptop would react to it.

Keep me posted with the troubleshooting! :)
SuperSoph_WD
 

strachaldrat

Commendable
Nov 15, 2016
2
0
1,510
Hi SuperSoph_WD,

Thanks for your quick response, I followed your suggestions and found that one of the three USB connector ports so far has not disconnected the external hard drive. It is one of the USB 2.0's, so does this mean that the other USB ports are faulty physically, or could it be some driver issue?. Ill post if there is any update on the disconnection.

Thanks again!

Strachaldrat
 
Hey there again, @strachaldrat!

I suspect that this could be a driver issue, if the HDD works from the USB 2.0 ports without disconnecting. I'd again recommend to check these drivers from the laptop manufacturer's official website. Even if you do have them up-to-date. I'd still re-install the USB 3.0 Hub controller drivers just to see if the connectivity between that port and the external drive would improve. Either way, backup your data to another storage device as well. Having multiple copies of your files in different locations is the surest way to avoid data loss in the future.

Let me know if you have more questions or concerns. :)
Cheers,
SuperSoph_WD
 
Solution