3 Identical Externals - Only can use 1 at a time

Do all the drives connect through USB.? If yes then running all three drives together may be causing a power draw issue wherein insufficient power is causing the drives to be non-operational..

Yes, they do all run thru USB, however i have an 850 watt Silverstone PSU as well as a new Gigabyte UD3R board (known for having high USB power). I've tried USB 3.0 ports and Esata/USB ports.

Hi there,


What are the model numbers of these drives, and are they 3 1/2" drives or 2 1/2" drives? Also what kind of external exclosures do you have them in?
The USB ports supply 500ma of current at 5V, so it's not a lot of power turn the disc spindles and run the electronics of external drives. The USB 3.0 ports supply 800 ma.

While one ext HDD is running, plug a USB flash drive into one of the other ports you are using, to see if the OS recognizes it, which takes essentially min power to run. If so, it's probably a power issue. The size of PSU has no bearing on the current supplied by each USB port.

The other thing you might do is go to the Device Manager, and double click on each of the USB hubs separately to bring up the USB hub properties. Click on the Power tab and it will tell you the current used by any devices connected to that hub.

could it be a USB Raid Setting in the bios?

2.5" MDL: wd5000me-01
all 3 are the same


I pluged a 2gb Thumb drive in and it showed up as well, but its under devices with removable storage... not hard disk drives

The advice you've been given is that its likely a power issue, since any of the drives will work alone, and a flash drive is recognized correctly as a removable storage device while running one of your disks (assuming you tested as John advised).

An add-on, wall-powered USB hub may solve the problem.

Hello, I have the same issue!

Its 100% not a power issue, I have powered USB external 1tb and have the same issue ? any answers yet ?

I have 2 of the same, and only one shows up in my computer at a time ??? but both can be seen in disk management, i tired to rename one of the drives to G (F was default) now both are F ? and if i plug one drive in and change to E they both come E ??? lol any one know how to fix this ?

I'd advise you to start a different thread, and post your full configuration. You don't have the same problem unless you have 3 unpowered USB drives.

Do the three drives have their own power bricks that plug into the wall, or is their sole connection the USB cable to the computer?

Are the drives plugged directly into ports on the computer, or are they plugged in via a USB hub?

If you're using a hub, does it have a power brick that plugs into the wall?