Anyone using a portable hard drive?

[brahan_7]

Hello,

I have a portable hard drive, which is actually a laptop hard drive that I put into a usb hard drive case. When I plug it into my belkin usb hub suse has trouble recognizing the drive. However, when I plug directly into the back of my machine everything works fine.

Is anyone else having a similar problem with portable hard drives and usb hubs?

Some possible solutions may be:
The Master/Slave setting needs to be adjusted...but I don't think this is the case because the drive works fine when plugged in directly.

It is just not working because it is going through a usb hub, but who wants to pull there machine out to get to the back everytime?

Could this be a bug in the suse usb deamon?

Maybe the hub is causing the file mounting algorithm to go out of range, because I have gotten strange clicking sounds from the drive when plugged into the belkin?

That last one is probably a stretch...

Thanks

[spangler]

It might be the wrong USB speed or it might not have enough power through the Belkin hub.

[bigtomrodney]

Spangler guessed it in one...Those drives are powered from the USB connection and the hub won't be able to supply the power unless it is specifically designed to do so (most aren't). You will also notice those harddrive enclosures often come with a USB cable that has two ends on one side, only one of which appears to work. This is for when you are running a 7200rpm drive which requires more power and as such needs to be plugged into two ports to provide the power.

[redbook]

I agree with spangler, the clicking noise suggests a shortage of power from the hub.