Thursday, November 14, 2013

Seagate Backup Plus Drive USB 3.0 Disconnects and Reconnects on Windows 8.1 upgrade - Not a Workaround

This did not work. The drive still disconnect periodically when a Western Digital USB 3.0 drive connected to the same hub does not. I'm going to try removing all data and reformatting. I had to give up on this and re-purpose the drive on a pogoplug. Nothing written below worked. I am leaving this here so you can see my steps.

I have a Seagate Backup Plus Drive 2.0TB attached to a USB 3.0 port that started disconnecting and reconnecting on it's own when connected to USB 3.0. This started after I upgraded to windows 8.1 from 8.0. If the drive is moved to a USB 2.0 port there are no issues. I suspected a power savings issue since this would happen on an interval when the drive was not in use such as video streaming or surfing photos. The drive is a full size 3.5 inch drive in a portable USB 3.0 case with it's own external AC power adapter. Power to the drive should not be an issue.



I bought a SIIG USB hub and the problem persisted when the hub was connected to the USB 3.0 port without the 4 amp power adapter that came with the SIIG hub. Once the power adapter was added the drive no longer had issues.

Hub Info:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AAHLWA0/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This is 3 USB3.0 ports and 4 USB 2.0 ports. I paid $28. There is a $20 coupon code that you can apply under the price. I am guessing that any externally powered USB 3.0 hub would work. This was my only windows 8 issue after upgrades to 6 machines.




Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Hidden Treasure or Fools Gold?


I recently ran into a little treasure when trying to completely remove Google from my machine and running into a hidden database that was locked and can't be removed without reformatting the hard drive. IObit offers free software to unlock files or directories that simply made my machine un-bootable which led to the previous article. It was locked in the same way the Windows OS locks the previous installation. I decided to use Opera browser
instead since it is almost identical under the hood to Chrome. So I started using the IOBit start menu 8. It work as expected but if you are an experienced user I caution you. You will realize you miss key features in Windows 8. Most settings are configurable and you can get back to the paneled start screen easy enough. Switching between apps from the Tiles can be a pain. The nice feature is you can turn this on and off in settings so you don't have to uninstall it if you ever want to go back. If you use Windows 8 there is no going back. There are some easy ways to enhance Windows 8 to get the best of both worlds but I will say that for the afterlife.



http://www.iobit.com/iobitstartmenu8.php


What does
Start Menu 8 do?
Start Menu 8 is specially designed for Windows 8. It offers a perfect solution for users who work with Windows Start Menu all the time and are not accustomed to the new Metro start screen in Windows 8. This smart tool brings back both the Windows 8 start button and Windows 8 Start Menu, and offers the option to skip Metro start page, allowing users who only work on desktop to boot to Windows 8 desktop directly. It's the best Windows 8 start menu replacement.