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I have an Asus G750JW running Windows 8.1. One of my external hard drives—a 4TB Seagate Backup Plus Desktop Drive (Model: SRD0SD0, PN: 1DXAD8-500, USB 3.0)—suddenly stopped working with it. It still works with my other computer (older MacBook Pro running both Mac OS X and Windows 7) and I can open the files and so on on that machine. I checked the drive on the MacBook with Windows 7 (Properties -> Tools -> Check for errors.) and it appears as healthy.

I found a very similar sounding problem discussed at Microsoft forums but—as far as I can see—there is no real solution offered.

The way it happened, I connected it, the computer opened the window with the disk contents then the window suddenly froze (saying “not responding”) then the message appeared:

The last USB device you connected has malfunctioned and cannot be recognized.

When I plug it in while having the device manager open, it momentarily appears under disk drives as Seagate Backup Plus; double click on it - properties window says “device working properly.” Then the file manager opens the window which appears empty, the blue wheel rotates for a few seconds, and then the drive disappears from the device manager, and the device status changes to

Currently, this hardware device is not connected to the computer. (Code 45) To fix this problem, reconnect this hardware device to the computer.

I have tried all 3 USB ports on the computer with the same result. My two other Seagate drives—an older USB 2.0 and a newer USB 3.0—both seem to work fine with this computer. Anything else I could try? I tried to Google, found all kinds of advice like reset the BIOS, but that seems a bit scary, I am not so confident about what that will do.

Would be grateful for any suggestions. The drive is not vitally important since most of the data on it is backed up somewhere else; still, to re-create another back up of nearly 2.5TB data with slower USB 2.0 MacBook seems like quite some pain.

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    I'm not sure this will help, but maybe try uninstalling all USB root hub devices from the device manager and reconnect the HDD. The hubs will be detected and reinstalled automatically.
    – Vinayak
    Commented Mar 19, 2015 at 4:03
  • This article (it's riddled with ads, so be careful) explains how to do what I mentioned in my earlier comment. Make sure you create a new system restore point before you proceed just in case something goes wrong so you can revert back to the last working state.
    – Vinayak
    Commented Mar 19, 2015 at 4:20
  • thanks for your suggestion. i have tried it earlier, the evening it happened, and unfortunately it did not help. currently talking to microsoft to see if they have any suggestions as it seems to be some kind of 8.1 mis-interacting with usb3.
    – tanya p
    Commented Mar 19, 2015 at 23:16
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    Boot from a Linux CD or USB and see if the drive is detected properly on the same hardware, but different OS. This will narrow the problem down to either hardware or software. Any Linux distribution works, as long as it supports external USB drives. If you don't have a CD-Writer, a bootable USB works too, even if the linux image is a CD one. You just have to research how to make USB bootable.
    – Valentin
    Commented Apr 7, 2015 at 19:21
  • Valentin - super, thanks so much for the advice. Computer booted from a Linux dvd can see the drive, and write to it with USB3 speed. Question of whether the glitch is with windows or with asus drivers aside, the problem solved in practical terms - i can use the drive again. Thanks!
    – tanya p
    Commented Apr 8, 2015 at 20:49

2 Answers 2

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Quite likely the drive is not getting enough power from the USB port. Get a USB Y cable so that the drive can take power from 2 USB ports, preferably both USB3. They are available inexpensively from eBay and Amazon, for instance.

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    Thanks for your insight. i should have mentioned that the drive is 3.5 desktop model with its own power supply, so power should not be an issue. or could it still be? besides, it has been working with this very computer in over a year. hmmm. how puzzling.
    – tanya p
    Commented Mar 18, 2015 at 8:34
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    @tanya p: doesn't sound good I must say. I would try it with another computer (or two), if that fails then maybe you can open it up and try attaching the internal disk drive to machine directly by SATA connection, this would be the last chance.
    – gogoud
    Commented Mar 18, 2015 at 8:43
  • it does work with at least one other computer running windows 7. i have a spare enclosure, might try to disassemble it and try placing into the other box. also, have found a thread with exactly the same problem, but as far as i can see, no real solution offered: answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1-hardware/…
    – tanya p
    Commented Mar 18, 2015 at 8:51
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Depending on the system you are running the seagate 4TB backup plus will not run in windows 8.1 on USB 2.0 I had the same issue with 8.1 on a new Dell XPS desktop. so I noticed a USB update and after running it I checked the system which had USB 2.0 and 3.0 USB and I had it plugged into the 2.0 and got the same message but plugging it in the 3.0 it worked without issue so check your ports and USB updates

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  • Thanks for your comment. Was it windows update for USB you have run? or some kind of hard drive firmware update? i am running windows updates on a regular basis, and i haven't seen any usb related ones recently. and this very drive used to work with this very computer, and then suddenly stopped. all three usb ports on the computer are usb3. i don't know if i can force them to work as usb2. will try to find out.
    – tanya p
    Commented Mar 26, 2015 at 19:45

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