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Question

How to use a Belkin 4-hub USB to give more power to a Maxtor

Feb 26, 2015 3:01PM PST

I have a Lenovo laptop with several USB - A ports.
The external drive gives me some trouble starting and I was advised that the power in the USB ports might be insufficient to run the drive.
So I bought the Belkin hub.

The Maxtor Blackarmor external drive has only one port:
a USB mini-B, for both power and data.
The Belkin hub has 4 data USB - A ports, a power USB - mini-B port, and the power cable.

How do I connect the external drive to get more power to it and the USB port on the laptop?
Seems to be only 3 options:
1. external HD to laptop, and the cable from the hub power USB - mini-B port to another USB on the laptop.
2. external HD to the hub, and the cable from the hub power USB - mini-B port to a USB on the laptop.
3. external HD to the hub, and USB - A from the hub to the laptop.

Which is going to work? Or is there another way?

Discussion is locked

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Answer
You didn't tell us what model of the Belkin hub
Feb 26, 2015 8:51PM PST

you purchased and I couldn't find one that fitted your description exactly.

That said, if the hub that you purchased has its own power supply, then the way to connect your Maxtor is to plug the hub into the computer and the maxtor into the hub.

Theoretically, the Maxtor will now be drawing the power it requires from the USB port on the hub which in turn is getting its power from the power adapter.

P

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Model # F4U027
Feb 27, 2015 2:26PM PST

OK thanks. But I mentioned above the "The Belkin hub has 4 data USB - A ports, a power USB - mini-B port, and the power cable."
Your suggestion was like my #3.
When I do this I get a windows message popup "device not recognized... One of the usb devices attached to this computer has malfunctioned..." and clicking on it leads to the list of USB devices "Generic hub 4 ports" and the bold one is "unknown device".
This suggests the maxtor is still not getting enough power. Or something else? How can I check if it is getting enough power? And what is enough power, exactly?
I can feel the drive running in the maxtor. With one light on. Two should be on.

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Still can't find which Belkin hub.
Feb 28, 2015 1:42AM PST

One of my older USB 1.1 hubs is Belkin. Unsuitable for USB HDD use.

Fix? Use another newer 2.0 or 3.0 powered hub.
Bob

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Here's a webpage for my Belkin USB hub
Feb 28, 2015 6:01AM PST
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How I test for power issues.
Feb 28, 2015 6:13AM PST
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I wonder if there is a reason for it not being available
Feb 28, 2015 10:01PM PST
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The HUB is only a year old
Mar 1, 2015 7:05AM PST

and I have hardly used it. And there are good reviews of it on that website.
More likely to go bad is the Maxtor Blackarmor device I am connecting it to, as it's about 5 years old.

Maybe I should take the Maxtor to another computer and see what it can do.

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Worth a try.
Mar 1, 2015 8:37PM PST

External HD's are relatively cheap, should you need to replace it.

Then just restore the contents from your backups


P

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But an important backup of my old PC is on the Maxtor
Mar 2, 2015 1:25PM PST

and I need to get that back.
Both lights are on the Maxtor Blackarmor but I cannot get the Seagate software to recognize and open the Maxtor Manager. I asked Maxtor/Seagate about this and they said it's probably an issue with the laptop USB ports not getting enough power. That's why I bought the powered hub.

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Where is your backup?
Mar 2, 2015 8:52PM PST

I still say try another hub but I suspect that the problem is with the drive.

Drivesavers.com is the last resort.

P

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Again, try the usual USB Y power cable.
Mar 3, 2015 7:02AM PST

Also try it on other PCs. As alluded by others, one backup copy is no backup. If we don't keep more than one copy, it's possible to lose it. Again, original and one copy is not full backup.

Unsure how you lost the original and backup in one go.
Bob

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I don't have a USB Y on any of my cables,
Mar 5, 2015 2:32PM PST

just the USB A and mini B. None of the ports are Y.

I backed up the current PC to the Blackarmor once, as well as several times with the now-dead PC. It's the latter that I want most of all, even though I also backed it up on Mozy.

I tried the Blackarmor on another PC, with and without the hub, with the same result: drive not recognized, malfunctioning, were the two messages from Windows. The drive did not appear in My Computer.

Reading up on problems on the Blackarmor I found:
- that the drive is no longer supported by Seagate, so I cannot get free help there. They have also deleted some support articles for it. But they did say that beeping noises like i have heard are a sign of malfunction.
- that one light is supposed to be on when connecting the device to the PC and the other when I login. But I cannot login, so it's a mystery that both lights come on when I connect the drive.
These may also be signs of malfunction in the drive.
- I came across a forum discussion about malfunctioning drives like this that can be read using a Linux boot CD.
http://www.edugeek.net/forums/hardware/37536-maxtor-onetouch-4-not-being-recognised.html
Can anyone give me some help with doing this? It seems like my last chance to get the data off the Blackarmor. ... sigh ...

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Re: Linux boot cd/dvd
Mar 5, 2015 4:21PM PST

That's simple:
1. Download the iso-file for the Linux system of your choice (I'd recomming Mint).
2. Burn the image to a disk using a program like IMGBURN
3. Set the BIOS so that the PC boots from it.
4. Boot from it.
5. Wait till it's up and running
6. Connect the external and see what happens.

Kees

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No luck with linux
Mar 8, 2015 3:00PM PDT

I followed your directions and when I connected the Maxtor Blackarmor . . . nothing.

To check, I connected another external drive and it displayed almost immediately.

Any other suggestions?

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Why we get the cable.
Mar 5, 2015 11:20PM PST

It doubles up the power from 2 USB ports. You think it's power so this cable can confirm it.

If you continue as you have so far, you may get very frustrated without it.
Bob