Usb external hard drive disk with extension cable

[jerry222]

Hi guys, how is it going?

I hope you have time to take a look at my problem, please

I own an usb external hard drive disk, which supports usb 3.0, from toshiba. The original cable is very short so I bought an usb extension cable. I connected it to the external hdd but it doesnt work, i can only hear a sound similar to "tik tik" or "click click" coming from the hdd and nothing shows on my computer. I tried the cable with an usb pen drive (usb 2.0) and it works, so i dont think the problem is the extension cable. both hdd and the extension cable support usb 3.0 . I use windows 8.1 OS.
do you know how I can solve this problem?

Thanks

Regards

Jerry

 

[cb600fshornet]

An external hard drive draws significantly more power than a usb pen drive, so the extension cable may have enough resistance to have reduced the power delivery enough to stop the drive functioning correctly.

Firstly, make sure you're actually plugging the cable into a USB 3.0 port on the laptop. These deliver more power typically than their USB 2.0 counterparts. (ports are generally blue or yellow internally)

It might be worth buying a complete new cable, can you show us an image of each side of the cable? There are 4+ different standards which I can thik of so it's worth knowing what we're dealing with.

 

[kevindark]

The short cable is working fine? Then absolutely the problem came from the new & long cable you recently purchased. Most external HDD requires more power and that said, it will take power via USB cable. If the cable doesn't provide enough power to run this external HDD, it won't work.

 

[pete.i]

You don't say whether the drive is a 2.5 or a 3.5 inch HDD. I have had this problem myself and, as has been said, it is because the cable is too resistive and it isn't getting enough power to the other end. You will need to get a 5volt power supply to power the drive. Unfortunately most 2.5 inch drives do not have the facility to plug in a PSU these days. They rely on the abysmal power supplied by the USB ports. If it is a 3.5 inch drive then it should already have a power supply. You could try something like this but there are no guarantees.

10m LONG USB ACTIVE REPEATER Extension Cable BOOSTER Lead A Male To A Female | eBay