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When I rebooted windows only saw the external IDE drive, after a few seconds windows popped up a message saying that I needed to format F: so I click on F to format it and it says it can’t be formatted.
Neither “My Computer” nor "Disk Management" shows F: drive, However Norton Ghost registers F: Drive as it asks me if I want to create a recovery point for it....
IF I unplug G: from the USB hub, unplug and re-plug in F: it suddenly shows up and does not require formatting and I can open and use it, as soon as I plug G: back into the hub F: vanishes from all aspects of Vista, however if I have one of the external drives running through the USB hub and the other plugged directly into USB port on notebook they can both reside happily (although I am not happy as the reason for the hub is to eliminate wires hanging out from every orifice of the notebook).... GRRRRR
1. I can use a 4GB memory stick and the SATA drive through the USB hub no problems.
2. I can use 2x 2.5" IDE external HHD's at the same time through the Hub.
3. I can use 2x IDE through Hub and 1x SATA attached to other USB port on notebook
4. The only combination it will not accept is the IDE and SATA drive through the Hub....
Configuration of ALL hardware concerned.
100GB SATA Drive in notebook is divided into 3 partitions C: D: E:
80GB SATA = F: (brand new but has been formatted through Vista)
30GB IDE = G:
Powered USB Hub is brand newAll devices are USB2.0, the hub is 2.0 the port I have it plugged into is 2.0 (so this eliminates a possible backwards compatibility problem as there is none lol)
I have tried changing the drive letters to eliminate drive letter conflict (although there never should have been one as they never changed from their assigned letters) Have changed the driver letter to O: still makes no difference, as soon as I plug in the IDE drive the SATA one disappears...
I have also tried this configuration on a different USB hub on a machine running XP Pro instead of Vista, exactly the same thing happens....
Surely it’s possible to run 2 external drives through some sort of USB hub when one is SATA and other IDE (not looking that way presently though)
The only thing I could think of is that maybe the SATA drive draws more power than the IDE and the hub doesn’t like it (but then I would have thought keyboards, pen drives, IDE drives would all draw different power quantities however they all work happily together through the hub). So I went into Device Manager and plugged in hard drives to test what power they were drawing... it is as follows..
Firstly I plugged in ONLY IDE drive - device manager then went into first listing of USB Root Hub which was labelled "Generic USB Hub" then the power tab "USB Mass Storage Device 0mA - second line USB Composite Device 98mA third line in there is 2 Port(s) available 0mA......
Unplugged SATA and plugged in IDE only Plugged in SATA drive only - went into first listing of USB Root Hub which was labelled "Generic USB Hub" then into the power tab "USB Mass Storage Device 0mA - second line USB Composite Device 98mA third line in there is 2 Port(s) available 0mA......
Then I plugged in the SATA along with the IDE Plugged in SATA drive only - went into first listing of USB Root Hub which was labelled "Generic USB Hub" then into the power tab first line is "USB Mass Storage Device 0mA - second line USB Composite Device 98mA third line in there is 2 Port(s) available 0mA......
Back under Device manager under USB Controllers it has only one "USB Mass Storage Device" -
However when I plug 2x IDE external drives it shows 2 listings for USB Mass Storage Device's and when I enter the top listing "Generic USB Hub" then into the power tab first line is "USB Mass Storage Device 100mA - second line "USB Mass Storage Device 96mA" third line in there is "USB Composite Device 98mA" Under that it says 1 Port(s) available 0mA......
So the maths is 500mA in total to use... SATA drive takes 98mA - IDE drives sucks 98mA, states that I have enough ports to support both drives
(as even with 2x IDE drives plugged in and showing, I still have 1 Port left).... , just can’t get SATA & IDE to work together...
As you can see, I have at least tried to figure this one through semi logically before asking for assistance, any and all help would be greatly appreciated!!!!!!
Chocolate fish to the person who can resolve this little situation and get both the IDE and SATA external drives working through the one USB Hub.....
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