Flaky USB 3.0 / SuperSpeed USB cables
Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 2:35 am
Today I'm stuck doing a very long (ie 20 hrs) data-recovery scan of a 2TB external drive that I discovered today had a blown-up partition table.
The first run, after 3-4 hours I needed to move the drive slightly and after moving it gently and literally an inch (with plenty of cable slack) it momentarily disconnected from the system. Groan, all that effort lost, I'll start it again later.
That was in a Vantec USB 3.0/eSATA 3.5" enclosure that's been generally reliable in the past.
The 2nd time around I decided to move the drive to another enclosure that had also worked fine for me in the past (a Kingwin, USB 3.0 only), and I switched my previous USB controller (flush-mounted dual USB 3.0 ExpressCard) with a more 'traditional' express card with the protruding dongle (A Siig product), thinking the jacks might be more stable than the 'inside hide' ones.
This time, after something like 8 hours, I had no choice but to move it slightly again. (space is at a premium around here at the moment)
BOOM, disconnected again. ARGGGGH!
Is this an achilles-heel with these 'full size" USB 3.0/Superspeed USB cables? I don't recall ever having this kind of problem with USB 2.0 cables in the past.
The first run, after 3-4 hours I needed to move the drive slightly and after moving it gently and literally an inch (with plenty of cable slack) it momentarily disconnected from the system. Groan, all that effort lost, I'll start it again later.
That was in a Vantec USB 3.0/eSATA 3.5" enclosure that's been generally reliable in the past.
The 2nd time around I decided to move the drive to another enclosure that had also worked fine for me in the past (a Kingwin, USB 3.0 only), and I switched my previous USB controller (flush-mounted dual USB 3.0 ExpressCard) with a more 'traditional' express card with the protruding dongle (A Siig product), thinking the jacks might be more stable than the 'inside hide' ones.
This time, after something like 8 hours, I had no choice but to move it slightly again. (space is at a premium around here at the moment)
BOOM, disconnected again. ARGGGGH!
Is this an achilles-heel with these 'full size" USB 3.0/Superspeed USB cables? I don't recall ever having this kind of problem with USB 2.0 cables in the past.