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During file copy tasks from the main hard drive of my computer to an external hard drive, the copy process will suddenly drop to zero and never pick up again. This happens consistently on any largish file transfer process.

As far as I can tell, the external drive is dropping out as if it has been removed, however windows does not register its absence. The only way to reset the drive is to pull the cable from the hub and reconnect it. This is not a problem with the drive, as the issue does not arise when the drive is connected directly to the computer.

I have no way to measure the power output of the USB ports on the hub, however the power supply for the hub is rated at 5 volts, 2.0 amps, which is way above the anemic 0.5 amps of the laptop it is connected to. As a check, I changed the power management on the USB ports to ensure Windows wasn't forcing the drive into low power mode.

System Details:

Any hints what the problem is, or what a solution might be?

codingCat
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  • Possible hard disk failure. Check your hard drives for SMART errors [How can I read my hard drive's SMART status in Windows 7?](http://superuser.com/q/29240), and [What is the easiest method of checking SMART status for your hard drive?](http://superuser.com/q/14803) – DavidPostill Mar 31 '16 at 15:32
  • Nope. As I stated, the drive works perfectly when connected directly to the laptop. – codingCat Mar 31 '16 at 15:38
  • When connected to the laptop, does the drive work as in "accessible", or does it allow you to do the same copy tasks? Could be that it works for a while, then fails. To check if USB hub is at fault, do you have a different drive you could plug instead and try doing the same copy? – Barakando Mar 31 '16 at 16:25
  • The external drives works perfectly without any faults when connected directly to the computer. Since I posted the question, I plugged in a flash drive to the hub and it completed the copy process without any hiccups. It would seem the hub and the drive don't get along. I don't think it is a power issue. Even if the hub distributes the 2 amps from the power supply evenly across its four ports, it would still have the same 0.5 amps the computer supplies. Any guesses at what else it might be? – codingCat Mar 31 '16 at 16:40

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