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I have an old XP laptop with 2 big powered external usb hard drives (1 TB) each. Either one works correctly by itself, but the second one I plug in does not get recognized. I wanted to copy the data from one to the other, but it does not work and I don't understand why.

Any insight appreciated.

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  • Does the external HDD not recognized by a port or all ports have the problem? When you started to get the problem and what error you are getting will be helpful to help you.
    – avirk
    Commented May 16, 2012 at 1:06
  • What is the model of each external hard drive? Are they powered by the USB port alone, or must you also plug them into a power socket?
    – iglvzx
    Commented May 16, 2012 at 2:15
  • they must also be plugged into power sockets
    – glass
    Commented May 16, 2012 at 8:43
  • When you plug the drives in do they grab the same drive letter - in other words - when you plug drive 1 in does it grab E: drive and then when you remove it and plug drive 2 in does it grab E: as well?
    – Blackbeagle
    Commented May 16, 2012 at 21:08
  • yes, one is I and one is H , regardless of usb port
    – glass
    Commented May 17, 2012 at 11:40

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It is probable that the power drawn by running both USB drives together exceeds that available from your USB controller. If you can run each drive by itself, but not both at the same time, then I would try getting a powered USB hub. Older systems may not deliver the amperage necessary - that's why many USB powered drives have split USB cables - they try to take power and data off one USB slot and power-only off another slot.

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  • they both must be plugged into power sockets as well, so i don;t think this could be the problem
    – glass
    Commented May 16, 2012 at 8:44

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