Help required connecting 2 portable hard drives to a pc

[AndyT]

I'm trying to transfer files from 1 portable hard drive to a 2nd portale hard drive but the PC only sees 1 of the external drives!!! The PC only appears to see whichever hard drive I connect first and I can write files to both without any problems but not together. Both portable hard drives are Western Digital 1TB passport models which may or may not be relevant.

I've never experienced this before so tried it on a new Laptop and again it did not recognise the 2nd portable drive. Any ideas on the issue, am I doing anythin wrong.

Thanks in advance.

regards

Andy

 

[RobertG]

If they are USB powered then possibly not enough bus power for both. Copy to PC hard drive and then back to other portable.

If not, take a look at Disk management and see if there are conflicts with drive letters. Left click start button, right click Computer, left click Manage, then look for disk management in menu.

 

[AndyT]

If they are USB powered then possibly not enough bus power for both. Copy to PC hard drive and then back to other portable.

If not, take a look at Disk management and see if there are conflicts with drive letters. Left click start button, right click Computer, left click Manage, then look for disk management in menu.

I was thinking about the power issue but have done this several times before with different portable drives. We tried it before with 2 western digital drives with slightly different model numbers and it worked okay. When I look at the disk management menu there is no conflict of letters as itdoesn't see the 2nd drive!! Very odd

Andy

 

[Blackal]

Are both the disks named the same?


Al

 

[Deleted account 190920001]

I have seen exactly the same model USB drives have different power requirements so the not enough power could still be a valid point. Try and borrow a powered USB hub and see if it works. The same name on each could be a point as well. You don't say what operating system your using but go to control panel admin tools and computer manager (computer manager might just be in the control panel depending on OS) then disk management. Do you see both disks in there?

 

[AndyT]

I have seen exactly the same model USB drives have different power requirements so the not enough power could still be a valid point. Try and borrow a powered USB hub and see if it works. The same name on each could be a point as well. You don't say what operating system your using but go to control panel admin tools and computer manager (computer manager might just be in the control panel depending on OS) then disk management. Do you see both disks in there?

I seem to recall I could see them both in device mamager but not in file manager. This ship has been rolling around in the weather all day so I havn't had chance to try it again yet but will have a nother look tomorrow. I don't think anyone has a powered hub out here but will have a look this evening. I don't think its that as we've connected up 2 other drives before but of course it may well be.

Are both the disks named the same?


Al

Each disc has its own name which I can see when I connect them separately...




Thanks everyone for the feedback, I'll let you know how I get on.

AndyT