I bought an external powered usb hub thinking that it may be useful as I could not connect 2 external usb hard drives on my computer at the same time?
But now when I plug it in I still see the same issue. What is the problem.
What are external powered Usb hubs used for then?
Devices:
My host machine is Windows 7, running Intel i7 processor.
If one of the drives isn't appearing on your computer when plugged in directly, it's possible that the drive itself has died. In that case, plugging it in through a hub will have no additional effect.
If the hard drives are of the smaller 2.5" variety and are powered via USB (with no power adapter), it's also possible that there's only enough power for one drive. Do both drives work when plugged in one at a time?
If you did have multiple working drives, but not enough USB ports to attach them all, you could use a USB hub. However, that assumes that you have enough power in the first place to run the drives.
They are especially useful on laptops, as laptops have a limited amount of power they can output USB ports. If you try to connect a lot of devices which are 'power-hungry', like external hard drives, external monitors, DJ controllers, etc. they might not work.
For example, my laptop has 3 inbuilt USB ports. If I connect a USB hub to one of them, and then connect say 4 external hard disks in all, 1 or 2 of them do not work. If I connect an external powered hub, they work because the hub provides the power from the wall outlet, not from the laptop.
