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No USB ports detected when trying to restore image
I have a custom built laptop running Windows 7 Professional x64 with 2x USB2 and 2x USB3 ports. The USB3 ports have always been temperamental - working for a short while then seemingly disconnecting - so I rarely use them. The USB2 ports have always worked fine.
My problem is this - I have used backup software for a long time on a previous Win7 laptop with no issues (that was USB2 only). But this newish one is a nightmare. It will create a system image to external HDD easily enough. However, when I use the software image Live CD, (on either USB or CD), the USB2/3 works to start the backup software but then no USB devices are detected when it's running: including the mouse, external HDD or even the flash drive I used to start the software to begin with. It also makes no difference which Image Backup software I use.
I read up on what the problem might be and it seemed that maybe it was that USB3 doesn't play nicely with Win7. I followed the advice other people got to create a Live CD with USB3 drivers on and if necessary manually install from within the Image software - I got a message that the drivers had installed correctly but still none of the USB ports worked. I also tried removing and putting back in the plugged in devices to 'wake up' the USB ports but that also didn't work.
I looked in the BIOS and there is no option to disable or downgrade USB3.
In a last ditch attempt I installed Win 8.1, as I had read that that has native support for USB3, it made no difference - still no USB devices detected when Live CD running. Since I prefer Win 7 I have now reinstalled it, but ideally I would like to install the image that I had made about a week ago.
I have fairly basic computer knowledge but any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Last edited by Sharkiefan; 03 Nov 2016 at 19:04. Reason: Adding HTML formatting