Solved External HDD not recognized in USB 3.0 [Windows 8]

Hi , few days ago I bought a new Lenovo Thinkpad Edge E540. It has two USB3.0 ports and one USB2.0.
I bought the machine without OS and installed Windows 8.1 Pro(x64) myself. Everything seems to be working fine except when I want to use My WD Elements 1TB external HDD in USB 3.0 port. It just doesn't get recognized. In USB 2.0 port it works fine.

What I've gathered and tried so far :
- Device manager does not show anything not even Unknown Device , yet my USB 3.0 Kingston pendrive works fine out of the box in the same slot
- I'm pretty sure the USB power is not the issue because the WD HDD , when plugged, starts blinking for a while , then lights up fulltime and i can feel and hear the drive spinning
- I've disabled USB selective suspend in my Power plan
- I've disabled Fast Startup
- In msconfig , im stuck at "Selective startup" (if changed it doesnt even let me APPLY and switches back to Selective right after I close/change tab in msconfig, I tried doing it in safe mode , same thing)


That's pretty much it , i'll edit if I remember/try something new.
Would appreciate every piece of help regarding this issue as using my harddrive in USB3.0 speed is essential for me and I'm running out of ideas (and google is starting to do so as well).

Thanks, Chastter.

I would try the external drive in another USB 3.0 port on another machine. If you purchased it at a nearby store I;d bring it there and ask them to try it if you don't have access to another machine with USB 3.0.

MilesAhead said:

I would try the external drive in another USB 3.0 port on another machine. If you purchased it at a nearby store I;d bring it there and ask them to try it if you don't have access to another machine with USB 3.0.

Click to expand...

Ok so , I don't have another usb3.0 pc at home nor have I bought the drive at a nearby store and the closest I could get to trying this was trying the HDD in Ubuntu (live usb). The behavior was identical , not recognized in usb 3.0 , working fine in 2.0.

So this probably means the HDD is faulty , right ? Is it possible its just the cable ?

I suspect the cable or the connections leading from it. Somebody with a multimeter can probably check the cable, at least for continuity.

MilesAhead said:

I suspect the cable or the connections leading from it. Somebody with a multimeter can probably check the cable, at least for continuity.

Click to expand...

Ok I've tried the HDD with my cable earlier today in my GF's Macbook it didn't work , but it worked with her own usb3.0 cable so you were right. Thank you very much for fast help mate , have a nice day

You're welcome. Glad your issue is resolved. Please mark it solved if you would. The green check just saves others from reading problems already fixed.