Acer Aspire V3 not reading external portable hard drive

Amethyst2004

I have been using a WD Portable Passport as a back up drive, it holds 1 T.. Has been working no problem, overtime I notice it was getting slower but assumed that as the drive filled it would take longer.  It has just over 600G on it right now, has a 3.0 USB port on it.  Suddenly I can no longer see the drive, then I left it there and after an hour was able to see the Drive with correct name and file structure but when I tried to open a large file it took over 45 minutes to open it, a music file with 300G in it and multiple files and sub files.I am running windows 8.1, and when in Explorer it eventually comes up that there was an error on F: Drive and to click to scan and repair.  It has scanned and repair, but still couldn't quickly open it. Tried deleting the device, would put it back on but still same problem accessing the files.  Another time I opened Explorer and it only came up with Drive letter no name of the drive.  Have gone into Device Manager and one of the ports was highlighted but the driver says it is working properly.  I turned on my computer 8 hours ago and a message came up that there was an error on the drive and needed to be scanned and repaired.  8 hours later it is still scanning, according to the scan it is almost done, but not sure.  When I go into properties it doesn't show any information on space used, but I can go in through a defrag program and see the drive and the proper amount of data storage.  I tried a new cord but no improvement.  I've been to their site, but it seems a lot of people have had this issue and there is no resolution. I'm not sure if it's a problem with my USB, a driver issue or software.  I don't know which port is for 3.0 either so not sure if this is part of the problem too.  Any suggestions would be helpful.

 

I have a acer aspire v3-571-6847.  The hard drive is 500G and only 30% used.  It came with windows 8 but have updated to 8.1.

 

Thank you

finlux

Hi Amethyst2004

 

It sounds as if the external hard drive itself is at fault.

 

You could try connecting it to a different port (even if it is a USB 2.0) to see if this makes any difference. Also try it on another PC.

 

If the problems persist, then try to backup all the data on the external drive, and buy a replacement.

 

USB 3.0 ports are usually coloured blue, and will have five additional contacts recessed into the plastic insert, a little to the front of the usual 4 contacts of USB 2.0.