G-drive usb 3.0 constantly disconnects on windows 10, ok on macbook

G-Technology G-DRIVE
1

I bought a G-Technology G-DRIVE USB 3.0 6TB a few months ago, and when it’s plugged into my desktop machine (running windows 10), it will work fine for a few minutes and then suddenly disconnects.
When connected to a macbook it works properly.
The windows event log shows things that appear to be symptoms rather than causes.
“The IO operation at logical block address … for disk … (PDO name: \Device\0000009c) was retried”
“The system failed to flush data to the transaction log. Corruption may occur in VolumeId: P:, DeviceName: \Device\HarddiskVolume11. (A device which does not exist was specified)”.

Once it gets into that state, it stops showing up in storage manager / device manager / explorer / etc. However it stays lit up and vibrates like it’s being used. The only way to fix it is to switch it off, and on again. Then it fails again a few minutes later.

This is making the drive basically unusable.

1 Like
2

Did you format the drive in order to use it on both platforms or did you install Mac drivers on the Windows system in order to read it?

If you formatted the drive exFAT it shouldn’t be running into an issue like this. Also, there could be power related settings on your Desktop that are causing the drive to idle out and disconnect. You’ll want to go into your power settings and make sure you have hard drive sleep set to never as well as any USB power saving options.

3

The drive is formatted in NTFS. The mac is using Paragon NTFS For Mac.
The power settings on the desktop did have the “USB Selective Suspend” setting turned on. Switching that off seems to have fixed it.

It’s odd that something described as

automatically put USB devices in a very low-power state when they’re not actively in use

would cut power to a drive that’s in the middle of a large file transfer, but I suppose that depends on your definition of “actively in use”.

Thanks.

4

I spoke too soon. It shut off about 2 minutes later, also while in the middle of a file transfer.
so… definitely still not working.

1 Like
5

There is something about your Windows system that is conflicting with the device if it works fine on the Mac side.

I assume you’ve tried all your USB ports. You aren’t using a hub or extension cable are you? If you are stop doing so and plug directly into the system. Also if it is a desktop make sure you are plugging into the rear ports not any front/top ports.

6

YES! I just got a replacement 6TB drive and I still have the disconnect issue. I’m guessing that there is something inherent in the controller. Oddly, using the Windows 10 Backup on the drive encounters no problem. But using another application like GoodSync or Todo Home Backup always fails due to a disconnect of the drive from Windows. When I reconnect, I get the message that the drive has an error. I run CHKDSK and all is fine. This is a ROYAL PITA. :frowning:

7

I FINALLY found a solution that I didn’t find anywhere else and it WORKED. I no longer have disconnects on the G-Drive running write intensive applications. Everything is working properly now.

I found this article that talked about “Ghost Driver conflicts.” This occurs when we attach and remove devices from Windows. The definitions hang around. Here’s how to delete all those “ghost” devices and their associated drivers that fixed the issue for me. BTW, once I did this, the event on the G-Drive that stated the drive “could not be migrated” went away too. I think that was the crux of the problem.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-hardware-winpc/windows-10-usb-hard-drive-incorrectly-identified/3573eb53-e1d0-4e1f-9b7e-b6f3a290387b

In a nutshell…

Remove Ghost Devices

Note: Ghost devices are the previously installed devices which are not connected but the drivers for that device is still present in the computer and sometimes shows in the devices list.

To get rid of unwanted drivers, devices, or services, use the following steps:

1. Open the Start menu.
2. Type cmd in search box.

  • Select cmd from the displayed list, right click and *Open as administrator.
  • At the command prompt, type in set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1 and press *Enter.

(Note that nothing seems to happen. This is expected. You are actually setting an environment variable which is going to help you to see hidden devices.)

1. On the next command prompt line, type devmgmt.msc and press Enter. This will launch the Windows Device Manager Console.
2. In the Device Manager Console, from the View menu, select Show Hidden Devices .

As you expand the different drivers and devices in the device manager, you will see not only the items that Windows currently detects as installed on your PC; but you will also see drivers, devices, and services which have been loaded in the past but were not uninstalled or are not currently started. You can find your offending device, right-click, and choose uninstall to remove it from the system completely.

Note that ghost devices, drivers, and services are “grayed” out, but that does not necessarily mean that you should delete all of them. Only remove items you know you do not need. Be careful that you do not change too many devices.

NOTE: I removed every single Ghost Device I found greyed out and rebooted my machine and checked again. All gone. Problem gone. Happy camper. I hope this helps anyone else with the issue. :slight_smile: