Help! Problem with new external HDD

Steffano2002

Hello everyone,

I purchased an internal 3.5" HDD (MAXTOR DiamondMax 10 - 250GB - IDE ATA/133 - 16MB Cache - 7200RPM) and an "eMagic HD Enclosure for 3.5" IDE - USB 2.0" for it.

I plugged it into my PC and formatted it as required. My PC then recognised it as an External Mass Storage Device. My problem now is that even though my Mother Board has the latest USB 2.0 Drivers and that this new external HDD is also a USB 2.0 device, it only functions at USB 1.1 speed (aslo know as "my God I'm falling asleep this is going so slow...").

I double checked the Drivers, which are provided by Microsoft and included in the latest SP2 and reinstalled them, but this didn't do anything to resolve the issue and improve transfer speeds.
By the way, my Mother Board is a (crappy) MSI 645 Combo which has 6 USB 2.0 ports (SIS® 962L MuTIOL® Media I/O Chipset).

Now, with the "eMagic HD Enclosure for 3.5" IDE - USB 2.0" I got a mini-CD which includes the USB Driver for Windows 98 and on the documentation it says (in perfect English!) "Windows ME / 2000 / XP no need any driver to install. Because Windows ME / 2000 / XP build in driver".

So everything should work, right? Yet it isn't...

Now one more interesting thing I found: on the mini-CD that came with the HDD case, I found the Windows 98 driver(s) but also a folder called "Link480" (which includes a programme called "USB Super Link and USB Virtual Network"), and a folder called "SATA-PCI" (which includes a programme called "SATARaid").
Does anybody know what these things are? Is it definitely only for Windows 98? After installing these components, I rebooted and switched the External HDD back on and got a Windows message saying:

"HI-SPEED USB Device Attached To non-HI-SPEED Hub

The USB Mass Storage Device is a HI-SPEED USB device and will function at reduced speed when plugged into a non-HI-SPEED port.

The hubs shown in bold type have free ports that can support the HI-SPEED USB device" and then it lists all of my 6 USB ports!

Anyway, after getting this message, I disconnected the External HDD and changed USB port and for a short while it worked at USB 2.0 speed! But only for a short while... After that, I started getting errors and the External HDD would disappear from my list of drives...

Now if anybody has any idea what is wrong with my setup please feel free to reply!!! :mad:

Thanks a million!

Steffano2002

Hi everyone!

Anybody got any idea? Please help if you can!

SwampThing

Are you 100% sure ALL the USB ports are USB 2.0?

From the messages, it looks highly likely you've got a couple of 1.1ports on the board.

mutabi

First up, I probably have the same EMagic Drive enclosure as you, and have had no problems with it.

Have you actually checked to see what kind of speeds you are getting? Transfer a big file, and time it, and see what transfer rate you are getting.

RicardoSmith

Its likely a problem with the the chipset drivers for your motherboard. You best look around for others with similar issues with that motherboard. Just to double check can you test the HD on another PC that has USB2?

Steffano2002

Hello everyone and thank you for your replies!

I think the problems comes from my crappy mother board. I updated all the drivers (I actually reinstalled all the USB ports/root hubs) but the transfer is still very slow (i.e. USB 1.1 speed).

I think my only solution at this stage is to purchase a USB 2.0 PCI Card...

My problem now is, which one to get? My mother board is a MSI 645 Combo. Do I have to buy a special one? Will having one of these definitely resolve my problem?

Thanks a million!

RicardoSmith

Drapper on the boards was having a problem with USB 2 on his board. He bought a new USB2 card. Dunno which one he got. I doubt it makes much of a difference which one you get. Some will be slightly quicker tha others. You can get combo cards that give you Firewire, USB2 and SATA all on the one card. Bit pricey though.

Drapper

RicardoSmith wrote:

Drapper on the boards was having a problem with USB 2 on his board. He bought a new USB2 card. Dunno which one he got. I doubt it makes much of a difference which one you get. Some will be slightly quicker tha others. You can get combo cards that give you Firewire, USB2 and SATA all on the one card. Bit pricey though.

any will do I used a belkin one from PC world with 5 slots !! :-) but if you can wait get one on Komplett.ie

BTW I never fixed my USB issue !!

RicardoSmith

Drapper wrote:

any will do I used a belkin one from PC world with 5 slots !! :-) but if you can wait get one on Komplett.ie

BTW I never fixed my USB issue !!

Do you have the issue with the card aswell or just the motherboard?

Steffano2002

Right then, I'll get a USB 2.0 PCI Card and I'm gonna hope it solves all my problems!

I'll keep you guys updated!

Thanks again!

RicardoSmith

If you buy it in a shop, you can always return it if it doesn't work.

SwampThing

I have a 4-port USB 2.0 card you can have to test this, if you like. If you want to keep it, then we'll come to some arrangement.

Steffano2002

Good point Ricardo... I think I'll got to Peats or Maplin or perhaps even PC World... I really hope it's going solves my slow transfer problem! Transferring DVDs from my C:\ drive takes for ever!

Steffano2002

SwampThing wrote:

I have a 4-port USB 2.0 card you can have to test this, if you like. If you want to keep it, then we'll come to some arrangement.

I'm interested. You in Dublin? Is the USB 2.0 PCI card as new? How much are you looking for? PM me if you want

MunkyHed

Steffano, I've had a similar problem with my work PC (Dell dimension) copying large files to my external drive.
See the thread
I've come to the conclusion that it was my motherboard as well that is playing up. Would like to know if the PCI card idea works as i might try it myself. The external drive case i bought is the Zynet HD enclosure for 22 euro fr4om komplett with a fujitsu laptop drive.

Steffano2002

MunkyHed,

I'll let you know as soon as I've tried with a USB 2.0 PCI Card (should be at some stage this week).

Steffano2002

Well, for those of you who are interested, I bought a "4 + 1 USB 2.0 PCI Card" (4 external + 1 internal ports) and my External HDD is now operating at USB 2.0 High-Speed!

Problem solved!

Dempsey

I had to do the same thing for my fathers pc. With the ex. HDD and USB 1.1 i got a Transfer rate of 1.0MB/s!!, my PC with USB 2.0 got 20MB/s with the same ex. HDD. He got a USB2.0 PCI card and he's getting 13MB/s now, a vaste improvement.

Im unsure with which usb your board has but usually windows gets it right, check the offical website for details

Dr_MalPractice

@Ricardo
Compustore in tralee (now trading as office 1) told me i wouldnt be able to return a belkin USB->IrDA if it was incompatible with my phone, and point blank refused to try it in the shop, claiming that because it was in a sealed plastic package, he wouldn't be able to sell it if it turned out to be incompatible. i refused to buy anything there from that point on, on principle. i might be willing to pay a little over the odds for goods, but not a hope with service like that.

Steffano2002

Well I'm pretty sure the law states all purchased goods have a 30-day money back guarantee... What they're doing seems illegal to me... And stupid. What's their motto? "How to lose customers, FAST!"

RicardoSmith

Dr_MalPractice wrote:

@Ricardo
Compustore in tralee (now trading as office 1) told me i wouldnt be able to return a belkin USB->IrDA if it was incompatible with my phone, and point blank refused to try it in the shop, claiming that because it was in a sealed plastic package, he wouldn't be able to sell it if it turned out to be incompatible. i refused to buy anything there from that point on, on principle. i might be willing to pay a little over the odds for goods, but not a hope with service like that.

In a store like that they are not really interested in sales or customers. best to avoid at all times.

SwampThing

Just my 2c on this.

I was re-installing XP from scratch over the weekend and came across something I had forgotten from my last install. To get USB 2.0 working, you have to install at least SP1, right-click on each USB port in device manager and choose 'Update Driver'. This installs the USB 2.0 driver for each port.

Before doing this, plugging in a 80GB ext. Iomega HDD caused Windows to report '... a high-speed usb device has been connected to a non high-speed port ....'

Might be of interest to someone.

RicardoSmith

...never had to do that myself...