Issues with USB3 SSD

[koberulz]

Using it to capture HD video on a Win10 laptop and then transfer to a desktop running Win7, where I edit it.

I've been doing this for years, without issue. So EOL is not exactly relevant here. I did it last week without issue, even.

It connects fine to the laptop, where I'm using a USB3 cable, but kept dropping frames during the capture for some reason. Eventually got it to work though.

Plugged it into the desktop, with a USB3-to-USB2 cable, and nothing happened. Unplugged it, plugged it back in, rinse and repeat. Sometimes the light on the SSD enclosure came on, sometimes it didn't, but the OS never recognised that anything had been plugged in.

Then, eventually, it did...and insisted I had to format the drive before I could use it. Not happening; I'd just spent hours capturing video. Unplugged it again, plugged it into the laptop, everything was still there. Plugged it back into the desktop, and it worked.

But it was suuuuper slow. Normally I can scrub HD video in Premiere CS6 with no issues, but now I can't even play it back at full frame rate. Which I guess was also why I couldn't capture without dropping frames. Which means the issue crosses OS versions, again, definitely not an EOL thing.

When I did finally get it plugged in, I also got a message saying the device could perform faster if I plugged it into a USB3 thing, a message I've never seen before despite always plugging the drive into the same USB port.

For clarity, it's a WD Blue 2.5" SSD in an AKI 2.5" enclosure, because that was about $1000 cheaper than buying an external SSD.

And it keeps happening. I keep plugging and unplugging the drive and the desktop recognises it only a tiny fraction of the time. Sometimes the enclosure light comes on, sometimes it doesn't. And when it does work, on either machine, it's slower than it should be.

As of today, I can no longer get any response at all - not even a light - on the desktop using the rear USB ports - which work fine with the same cable if I plug my Google Pixel in. But if I plug it into the front ports, it works. But I'm not sure if those are even USB2...

But even the front port can't hang onto it for more than ten minutes, which is useless. I have no idea what to think. The drive gets picked up fine on the laptop, so it can't be the drive or enclosure, but other things work fine on the desktop, so it can't be my PC, and it was all working just fine two or three days ago so none of it makes any sense.

 

[SIW2]

I had issues with an external disk recently. Took it out of the case/enclosure and now it runs fine in a proper caddy.

ORICO Trayless Mobile Rack for 3.5" SATA III HDD into 5.25 Inch PC Bay - Hot Swap for SATA 6 Gbps: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

You can't use a proper caddy in a laptop, so maybe get a different case.

 

[koberulz]

If it was the enclosure, you'd assume it would fail everywhere equally.

But it doesn't. It's always recognised on the laptop, and always recognised on my front USB ports before dropping out, and never recognised on my rear USB ports at all.

Makes no sense.

 

[koberulz]

Well, I just tried it on two other laptops. One Win7, and one Win10.

The Win10 works fine. The Win7 gives a light on the enclosure, but nothing else. Plugging and unplugging it does refresh the Device Manager, although nothing changes.

Plugged it into my desktop again to see what happened in Device Manger there...and now it works perfectly, even running at a higher speed than before. Which...doesn't really solve anything, given how unexplained this all is.

 

[Megahertz07]

Try to run chkdsk x: /f (repace X with the proper drive letter)

 

[koberulz]

Clean.

 

[koberulz]

...and now it's working on my Win7 desktop quite reliably, and not being recognised at all (no enclosure light) on the Win10 laptop.

 

[Megahertz07]

Is there any yellow alerts on device manager (laptop and / or desktop)?

 

[koberulz]

Aaaand it's gone back to working on the laptop and failing on the desktop. This is...very weird.

Only one yellow alert on the desktop's Device Manager, the Teredo Tunnelling Pseudo Interface under Network Adapters, which I can't see being relevant.

 

[koberulz]

Hmm. I may have found a solution, although it's not one that really explains anything.

It seems to work on the desktop when face down, but not when face up.

It seems to work on the laptop when face up, but not when face down.

 

[Megahertz07]

Hmm. I may have found a solution, although it's not one that really explains anything.

It seems to work on the desktop when face down, but not when face up.

It seems to work on the laptop when face up, but not when face down.

You're joking, aren't you?


Check the USB contacts. Twist the cable while connected.

 

[koberulz]

I am, in fact, not joking.

Disconnecting the SSD from the USB cable, flipping it over, and plugging it back in - without removing the USB cable from the computer - has now successfully fixed the problem three times running, across both machines, using different USB cables (USB3-USB3 on the laptop, USB3-USB2 on the desktop).

 

[koberulz]

Well here we are a week later, and since figuring out that it had to be face-up on the laptop and face-down on the desktop I have had zero issues.