How to Fix an External Hard Drive that Keeps Disconnecting

All of these options can offer a good backup solution, so we’d recommend determining which method best suits your data storage needs.

By far the easiest of all fixes, your first step could be to simply try connecting your external hard drive to your computer or laptop using a different USB port. If this works — problem solved! If you’ve only got one USB port, we’d recommend a similar first step, but instead of changing ports, remove your hard drive and ensure the USB port is free of any dust or debris. Then, reconnect your drive and see if the issue has resolved itself before trying out any subsequent steps.

There are two different types of USB ports on many devices, both with different capabilities and speeds. The first and oldest version is USB 2.0. This port, first introduced in 2000, offers a maximum data transfer rate of 480 megabits per second and has become the standard port for connecting various devices to computers and laptops. In contrast, USB 3.0 — also known as a SuperSpeed USB — debuted in 2008 and is significantly faster than its predecessor. The USB 3.0 port can achieve a data transfer rate of 5 gigabits per second, approximately ten times faster than USB 2.0. 

But why is this important? Well, some devices with USB 3.0 can be adversely affected by Windows 10 and 11. So, if your hard drive keeps disconnecting from Windows 10 or 11, you may be experiencing this issue. If your computer or laptop has both types of USB ports, it’s therefore advisable to try plugging your drive into each of the different ports to see if it fixes the disconnecting issue. 

To see which ports are present on your computer or laptop, simply check their colour; USB 2.0 ports are black, while a blue port signifies a USB 3.0 connection. If you do find that you’re experiencing Windows 10 or 11 and USB 3.0 issues, we recommend updating your 3.0 drivers and testing the port again.

1. Go to the Control Panel, navigate to “System and Security,” and then “Power Options.”
2. Click “Change Plan Settings.”
3. Click “Change Advanced Power Settings.”
4. Scroll to “USB Settings” and click the plus symbol to expand the drop-down menu. Then, click on “USB Selective Suspend Setting” and change it from “Enabled” to “Disabled.” Lastly, click “Apply” to ensure your changes are implemented.

1. In macOS, you can adjust power settings for USB devices by first navigating to “System Preferences.”
2. Then, click on “Energy Saver.”
3. From this menu, you can control settings that can affect how USB devices consume power, although these features are much less customizable than their Windows equivalents.

1. Open “Device Manager” and double-click on the affected external hard drive.
2. Navigate to the “Policies” tab and ensure “Better” performance is ticked. Then, set write caching on the device to “enable.”
3. Click “OK” to make sure the changes are implemented.
4. Lastly, head back to “Device Manager” and right-click on the Intel 3.0 extension driver. Select “Uninstall.”

1. Open “This PC” using the search bar in your start menu, and then right-click on the drive you want to check and click “Properties.”
2. Select the “Tools” tab and click “Check.”
3. A “Disk Options” window will pop up. Check “Automatically fix file system errors” and then “scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors.”
4. Click “Start” to begin the repair process.