If your hard drives disconnect on their own, an underpowered USB Hub may be to blame. With these you won’t have that problem

If you usually use a hub to connect hard drives, mice, keyboards and other accessories or peripherals, perhaps at some point it has happened to you that they disconnect randomly. That’s especially worrying with hard drives, because you can lose data. Today we are going to tell you why the problem is not the hard drive, but surely the hub USB you have.

How does a hub

The hubSpeaking of models that do not require external power, they are accessories that generally have fairly low prices, although it depends a lot on the brand. They act like port multipliersince connecting them to a single port on the computer (generally USB-A or USB-C) allows us to connect two or more devices to the hub.

They are usually quite cheap, small and there is a wide variety to choose from, with different formats (elongated, square and even round). To use them you only have to connect them to a USB port on your computer, without the need to also connect them to a power outlet. AND here is its main limitation.

The energy required to use it comes directly from the computer, so the power will be limited to what the port offers. Furthermore, the maximum power is always divided by the hub (so that it can work) and the number of devices that we connect. To give you an idea, a standard USB 3.0 gives 900 mA. A mechanical hard drive can require almost all of that to boot. If you add a keyboard with lights, the system collapses.

How does a hub with external power

The hub with external power they are less frequent, more expensive and often larger. Here we can identify the hub assets, which are usually cheaper, and Docking Stationwhich are larger and come with more ports, including some video ones.

With this type of hub We are not so limited to the power that the computer’s USB port can offer. In practice, this means that in many cases the power does not have to be divided when connecting two or more devices, although there are exceptions: some USB ports of the hub Active devices require so much energy that they prioritize these ports, something that we can see in those USB-C (Power Delivery) that are aimed at charging devices such as mobile phones compatible with fast charging.

It is worth mentioning that the hubs assets come with a USB-C PD (Power Delivery) port. They don’t come with a transformer, but if you connect the laptop charger to them, they become “powered.”

And… what are they for? Both the hub assets like Docking Station They are ideal if you are looking to connect devices that require high power, such as mobile phones, monitors or hard drives and SSD drives.

By way of differentiation:

• It’s a hub passive if: It just has a short cable coming out of it and nothing else.
• It’s a hub active if: It has an extra port that says “DC 5V” or “USB-C Power Delivery (PD).”
• It is a Docking Station if: It is large, heavy, has its own power brick (like that of a laptop) and has video connectors such as DisplayPort or several HDMIs.

The good and the bad of both options, face to face

We do the math to see which one can compensate you more.

Both options have their positive and negative points, so the choice lies in how we are going to use them. If it is still not completely clear to you, let’s see it with an example.

If you want to use a hub sporadically because you are not going to connect many devices at the same time, it may be worth it to buy a hub without external power.

• Actual use: Let’s say you want to connect two low-power devices.
• The accounts: You save between 70 and 80 (or more) euros between the cost of a hub without external power and another with external power. Also, if you chose this second option, you would not be squeezing it, since you are going to connect low-power devices.
• So? If you want to connect a mouse and keyboard (because they are wired or because you want to recharge them) and you still have a free USB port on your computer to connect a hard drive, this type of hub It can serve you very well.

However, if what you want is to connect several devices, low or high power, and you do not have any more free USB ports on the computer or they are in an area that is not easily accessible to use them, it will be more useful for you to go for a hub with external power.

• Actual use: Let’s say you want to connect many devices to the hubsome need more and others less power.
• The accounts: You pay more for this type of hubbut it allows you to connect practically any device.
• So? You can have a greater number of connected devices (depending on the hub), and it will give you “the same” what to connect, whether it is a keyboard or a hard drive because it will offer a stable connection. Also, as a utility, if you have the computer under the desk or in some area that is difficult to access, you will not have to bend down to connect a hard drive, since you can do it from the hub without fearing that it may fail when receiving less electrical power.

In summary:

👉 Choose hub without external power if: You are going to connect low-power devices, such as a keyboard, flash drive or microphone and still have a port left to connect a hard drive.

👉 Choose hub with external power Yeah: Do you want to connect in the hub any device, whether low or high power. In addition, it is interesting if you do not want to use any more ports on your computer, either because they are busy or because you cannot access them comfortably.

Recommended models

hub without external power (the cheap one): Anker 555

Of among the hub Without external power we have the Anker 555, whose format I especially like because it is flat and not thin and elongated, which often causes it to tip over when connecting devices. Includes seven ports to connect up to eight types of devices: one USB-C (fast charging), one USB-C port, two USB-A, one HDMI port, one Ethernet port and one more for SD and microSD cards.

In addition, this model is also interesting because the fast charging USB-C port can be connected to a charger, so that you can charge a laptop without having to use two of its USB-C ports, one of which would be intended for the hub and another for the charger.

hub with external power (the middle one): TP-Link UH9120C

Without getting fully into the Docking station we can find some hub assets for very competitive prices. He TP-Link UH9120Cfor example, usually costs approximately 40 euros, maintains a format similar to that of the hub passive and comes with a good number of ports:

• In this case, it includes three USB-A, one USB-C 3.0, one USB-C Power Delivery, Ethernet, HDMI and input for SD and microSD cards.

hub with external power (the complete one): Ugreen Revodok Pro Docking Station

On the other hand, among the hub with external power we have the Ugreen Revodok Pro Docking Station, and we have chosen it both for its design and its usefulness. The format is verticalso it will take up less space on your desktop. In addition, it comes with an off button in case you don’t want to have it on all the time.

Includes more ports than the hub above, and we find them both on the front and on the back:

• On the front we have Two USB-C ports, one USB-A, 3.5 mm audio jack, SD card reader and microSD card reader (both separate, in case you want to connect two different cards at the same time).
• In the back we have two USB-A ports, two HDMI (2.0), one DisplayPort, one Ethernet, one USB-C fast charging, one USB-C to connect to the computer and the charging port to connect to a power outlet.

Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary.

Images | Anker, TP-Link, Ugreen

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