USB 3.0 hard drive in usb 3 port only recognized as usb 2 and detected only when connected to usb2

Question

I have a WD MY Passport ultra 4TB usb 3.0 external hard drive.

It does not function when I connect it to an usb 3.0 port, only usb 2.0 recognises the device.

How do I resolve this issue?

Solution 1

Check if other devices are working on this port. If not you may need to install drivers for USB3.0.

If yes then check the drive on all other 3.0 ports. The ports sometimes develop mechanical fault and do not provide sufficient power for the drive to work, but will not have problem with powering a mouse, for example, or work with a printer.

Solution 2

I had the same problem (on a DELL), tried everything- updating drivers and BIOS, different ports, even upgraded from Win7 to 10 - nothing helped. Then I found this solution:

Plugging in the plug FAST made the drive to be recognized as USB3.0. Unbelievable, but this worked for me!

From USB 3.0 Device is Recognized as USB 2.0:

When a USB 3.0 device is plugged in 'slowly' to a USB 3.0 port, it is expected behavior of the hardware to recognize as USB 2.0.

If the above error is seen try the below steps to resolve:

Plug the USB3.0 device again and avoid slowly inserting the device.

Comments

[Techpumpkin_WD]

There are no 4TB WD MY Passport Ultra HDDs. The only 4TB Passport drives are thunderbolt ones. Could you be using some kind of adapter or is the model of the drive different?

[DavidPostill]

This is not an answer to the original question. It should be a comment to the original question.

[AcePL]

I will definitely agree if we go with title. But please see to the content: "It does not function when I connect it to an usb 3.0 port, only usb 2.0 recognises the device". That is quite precise. Unless OP made mistake. External storage devices will not work on USB3.0 without drivers unless whole machine is rather new. And unless DELL machines are unique in that regard. As DELL DSP I often had similar issues with USB3.0

[DavidPostill]

Agreed, but you are asking supplementary questions not proposing an answer.

[AcePL]

Agreed. Will edit accordingly. Thanks for that. But... I could say that they were suggesting questions.

[fixer1234]

The reason it works is because the contacts that are specific to USB 3.0 are behind the the contacts that are shared with USB 2.0. If you plug it in slowly, the USB 2.0 gets recognized before the 3.0 contacts are seen. It's a consequence of trying to make it backward compatible.