USB 3.0 - external hard drive limit?

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BenJaD

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Oct 7, 2014
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I have found external hard drives to be an easy solution to ever growing data archives. I have both WD and Seagate drives from 3 to 8 Terrabytes. Recently I have had ocassion to use two of these drives on a single PC. Through a variety of configurations - and other attempts, I have never been able to see more than one of the external drives on the same machine. Tried different USB 3 ports - hubs - holding my mouth different - and have not been able to see more than one drive.
If there is a hardware configuration that is limiting the number of external drives I have not been able to locate it - just seems to me to be the only factor I cannot test. If that is indeed the case, then I will adapt to that constraint. On the other hand if someone has been able to use more than one USB 3.0 external drive - please show me the way!
I am running Windows 10 on somewhat dated motherboards, though they are equipped with USB 3,0 support. I have one machine running a MSI x170 board and Windows 7 that is recalcitrant about recognizing any USB external drives.
 
Solution
RealBeast
The total limit would be the available letters to mount a drive unless you did something to overcome it, so practically 23 drives unless you make A and B available (and C is your OS drive) -- of course this includes internal drives.

Perhaps your external drives either have the same drive letter or need a drive letter assigned in disk management.

You might check for a bios update, perhaps there is some board specific issue that I am not aware of with that board. I've attached 7 or 8 external drives to an ASUS Z170 that had 3 internal drives plus an internal optical drive and one mapped network drive.
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RealBeast

RealBeast

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The total limit would be the available letters to mount a drive unless you did something to overcome it, so practically 23 drives unless you make A and B available (and C is your OS drive) -- of course this includes internal drives.

Perhaps your external drives either have the same drive letter or need a drive letter assigned in disk management.

You might check for a bios update, perhaps there is some board specific issue that I am not aware of with that board. I've attached 7 or 8 external drives to an ASUS Z170 that had 3 internal drives plus an internal optical drive and one mapped network drive.
 
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BenJaD

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Oct 7, 2014
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BenJaD

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Oct 7, 2014
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Thanks for the assurance that it is possible to attach more than one external drive. I do not have enough hard drives to saturate the address pool - yet ;-). I will give MSI tech a shout and see what their response is - the other boards are all Intel labeled boards so you have an inkle of their age. At least now I know that the issue is operator not manufacturer!
 
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mindwave65

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Feb 25, 2019
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IM having a similar issue, but NOT limited to USB3, mine are a mix of 2 and 3 or ALL 2's I cant get more than 5 externals to show at a time (and that's AFTER I disable some of my internals) I have run with Win10 AND Linux, no go.....2 options you m,ight try 1)_ Powere USB3 Hub. as far as I know USB3 draws a TON of power or if you have not bought too many External drives..... 2) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072HW3C4C/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I have 1 of those and am ordering a second, they work well. 4 drives per box 10GB max per box

if you find a solution let me know
 
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