My new 10-Port Hub didn't install successfully and won't recognize my external hard drives.

1

I just purchased the Plugable USB 2.0 10 Port Hub (with Power Adapter) and just tried to use it. My computer will recognize my printer and phone through the hub, but it won’t recognize hard drives plugged into it. Do I need a driver? I got an error message when I first plugged it in saying that installation wasn’t successful. Please advise.

2

Thanks for posting! We’ll be able to help.

USB hubs always use the operating system’s built-in USB hub driver (on Windows - usbhub.sys). To the user, it effectively is driverless.

That’s why the printer and phone worked, and that’s great because it confirms the hub hardware is fine – we just need to figure out what is causing the external hard drives to not appear.

The error message you were seeing is for a different device, perhaps related to that. When a device (without a serial number) is switched ports, Windows will reinstall it, so the message about “installation not successful” was probably concerning one of the devices attached to the hub.

Quick questions to figure out next steps:

  1. How many and what makes/models of external hard drives are you using?
  2. Do you have the AC adapter for the 10 port hub attached? (you can make sure by disconnecting the USB cable between hub and PC – the hub’s blue LED should still be on, confirming that it’s getting power from the AC adapter)
  3. If you connect just a single one of your external hard drives, does that work?

Thanks again, we’ll be able to get you up and running,
Bernie

3

I didn’t have anything plugged into the hub when I first plugged it into the computer, with the power attached, and I got the error message. Therefore, it couldn’t have been for something else it didn’t recognize, since it was the only thing plugged into my computer.

I plugged the two hard drives into the hub, and got no reaction.
I plugged the printer in and was able to print.
I plugged my phone in and the Sync program came up.
It doesn’t recognize my hard drive one at a time

4

Hi Jennifer,

Can you say what made and model the two hard drives are?

Thanks,
Bernie

5

The WD is model number: WDBABV5000ABK-00
The My Passport is model number: WDBAAA3200ADP-00

6

Thanks! It looks like both the WD 320GB and 500GB drives are USB bus powered (that is, they don’t have their own AC adapter, and rely on being powered via USB) – is that right?

Thanks for letting us know - we’ll figure out next steps.