USB Connection Interrupted and lost

Thread split from http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?p=212066#post212066 by PeteC


I have the exact problem with my newly purchased USB2 external 80GB Maxtor harddrive on XP home on a Toshiba laptop. It seemed to be stable when I first connected it and I moved data back and forth to test. Then copied about 7 GB from my work PC to bring home and connected. I am using it to create a dvd and probably should have gone for the firewire external HD, but thought the 80GB USB2 would be sufficient since my work pc hasn`t got Firewire anyway. What then happened was that I connected fine and started using the data from the external harddrive for my DVD. Then suddenly I lost the USB connection. I unplugged it safely and restarted windows. Then connected again and got the buslink up again. Then could copy and move stuff between the internal and external harddrive and boom it lost connection again. Removed the drive and reinstalled, tried to update the driver with same result as Alan. Repeating the process I am able to copy about a couple of hundred MBs and then loose connection again. What I thought I would do is to format the Fat32 after the painful job of moving data is finished or just try to format it and copy everything from my work pc again afterwards. I am also upgrading to XP Pro soon and am not sure if that in itself could solve the problem? I am not sure PeteC whether I have tried your advice, but will certainly do that later today. Just to make sure I understand you right; remove all USB controllers I assume since just removing the buslink one did not work? I have had a few late nigfts because of this so many thanks Alan for posting and Pete for answering.

 

Hello sagtor,

You're not going thru the "remove devices safely" procedure every time you un-plug the drive are you? If you are, don't.

Regards - Charles

 

Pete, have you tried not doing that?

I have my old C drive in an external cage plugged in thru USB and it's shut off most of the time and not showing up in My Computer or in DM. Push the on button, it's all there with the correct drive letter that was assigned when the System installed it the first time.

I took the first option, "quick removal ", just so that I can turn it on/off, this is especially true of the flash drive. If you're not using it as a backup, but as a "working" drive or synchronizing backups , then that is a different matter.

BTW, the flash drive behaves the same way.

Regards - Charles

 

I've thought about this a little more.

If sagtor is constantly unplugging this drive and having to go thru re-installing, I don't exactly know what that does, but Windows is flaky enough with out having this heaped upon it - poor Windows

Regards - Charles

 

Thanks guys,
I have tried both policies, but are now using quick removal. I have followed all the advice here and still the same situation. The driver is called Maxtor 6Y080L0 Usb device, details usbstor.sys. I think driver is ok but how can I be sure? There must be some sort of instability between XP and the Buslink USB 2.0 Hard drive. I have after a lot of safe removals, a couple of unsafe ones and now quick removal, restarts, making sure I have all the latest driver updates from windows update, latest Bios from Toshiba still got the same problem. Have been able to copy the 7GB of data to the internal HD after getting abbrupted with: Error copying file or folder. Cannot copy xxxfile: cannot find the specified file. Make sure you specify the correct path and file name. Which as far as I can understand means the link has been disturbed somehow. And now whilst posting this I have received the other error message I subsequently get: Windows-Delayed write failed. Windows was unable to save all the data for the file E:\. The data has been lost. This error may be caused by a failure of your computer hardware or network connection. Please try to save this file elsewhere. E is usb mass storage device. I would have hoped the BUSlink usb 2.0 Hi-speed was compatible with XP so I am still a big? PS My main need for the x hard drive is to dump stuff from Adobe Premiere pro 1.5 as I go along creating my home DVD as this is very demanding on Space and ram. I have a 2.8 GHz Celeron and 704MB Ram. SP2. I realize I have to Optimize in policyrather than quick removal when using the Hard Drive for this.

 

No problem Petec, many thanks.

Now, sorry about the confusion about the Maxtor, it seems to be using a Maxtor usb driver, in the BUSlink documentation; "If you are using Windows 2000 or XP, we recommend you use Microsoft USB 2.0 driver." When I check out what I can update to in Windows update there is no better driver than the one I use to be found. The Hard Drive is a: BUSlink USB 2.0 Hard Drive. High speed 7200 rpm, 480Mbits/sec, 80GB. And I am using service pack 2. I can still bring the BUSlink back to where I bought it and if you guys have not experienced any similar problems with the Maxtor brand, maybe that is what I want?

 

I have got three USB ports that all comply with USB 2.0 standards on my Toshiba A60. I am tempted to give the I.Link a go even though it is slightly slower to eliminate any driver issues. My digital camera has no issues with the USB 2.0 and I have downloaded almost a full 2GB from the 2.2GB CF+ card with no issues.

 

PeteC: I have e-mailed support@buslink.com and am also having a look at: http://www.usbman.com/forum/UltraBoard.cgi?action=Result&tmp=1105572187 for possible remedy. I will post as soon as I know more.

 

The USBman forum suggested this:" Sure we've heard of this.
Sometimes, it's caused by an overzealous antivirus program. Try disabling yours for a few minutes. Sometimes it's caused by drive overheating. It can also be caused by an overworked PC. Have you scanned for spyware and viruses?

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1 "

And my reply: I have actually used it with all antivirus functions disabled as this is also required to run Adobe Premiere Pro or any other DVD making software. Lately I have run it with all antivirus actions enabled for troubleshooting on the internet. I have also scanned for Viruses and spyware. But to be honest I did not think that could be the problem until you mention it now so will test again tonight. I am using the latest version from McAffee(privacy, virus and spyware). I hope it is not drive overheating ... All the Hardware and software I currently use is less than one month old ...

Odd twist or what?

 

40GB internal memory. Hmm, yes I have tested now. I will turn off all virus programmes next.

 

704MB RAM and correct.