[Windows 10] Plugging in an external hard drive disables all other USBs?

[Enthusiast25]

So my mom has an old WD external hard drive lying around, and she needs to access the documents on it. I plugged it in to the computer, and my wireless USB mouse was immediately disconnected. The hard drive itself didn't connect either (didn't appear on windows explorer or disk management). When I unplugged the hard drive, the mouse reconnected. How do I get the hard drive to work properly?

[Bitter]

You may need to shuck it and connect it to an internal SATA port or put it in a different enclosure. Assuming it's shuckable, you'd need to open it up and see or google the model number to find out.

[GoodBytes]

1 hour ago, Enthusiast25 said:

So my mom has an old WD external hard drive lying around, and she needs to access the documents on it. I plugged it in to the computer, and my wireless USB mouse was immediately disconnected. The hard drive itself didn't connect either (didn't appear on windows explorer or disk management). When I unplugged the hard drive, the mouse reconnected. How do I get the hard drive to work properly?

USB ports have a fuse shared between multiple ports. It is a temporary fuse, meaning it can reset itself once current stop trying to pass through it

Your drive is taking too much power and the fuse is engaging. This issue can occur on old or faulty systems, where the fuse is not operating correctly and engaging too early. It can also be simply bad design. Try a different USB port, like the front ones, which tend to be on a different circuit (and different fuse).

 

 

[Enthusiast25]

3 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

USB ports have a fuse shared between multiple ports. It is a temporary fuse, meaning it can reset itself once current stop trying to pass through it

Your drive is taking too much power and the fuse is engaging. This issue can occur on old or faulty systems, where the fuse is not operating correctly and engaging too early. It can also be simply bad design. Try a different USB port, like the front ones, which tend to be on a different circuit (and different fuse).

 

 

I've tried all the USB ports with no luck :(

[Enthusiast25]

4 hours ago, Bitter said:

You may need to shuck it and connect it to an internal SATA port or put it in a different enclosure. Assuming it's shuckable, you'd need to open it up and see or google the model number to find out.

Hmmm interesting. I've been out of the tech loop for quite a while so I had to look up what shucking meant. I forgot to mention that I'm using a laptop and no longer have a a desktop PC. Assuming the drive is shuckable, is there a way to make this work without buying one of those SATA-USB adapters?

[bws2007]

Maybe different usb cable it could be bad if not u would have to remove the casing and try the USB to sata adapter also how old is it just making sure it's not some old USB to ide still external then u would need a USB to ide adapter

[homeap5]

On 3/23/2019 at 9:16 PM, Enthusiast25 said:

Hmmm interesting. I've been out of the tech loop for quite a while so I had to look up what shucking meant. I forgot to mention that I'm using a laptop and no longer have a a desktop PC. Assuming the drive is shuckable, is there a way to make this work without buying one of those SATA-USB adapters?

Try active usb hub.