Read more to see our findings, and the resulting (ongoing) investigation by Toshiba.
We began our tests based on
Drive problems happened immediately, and were relatively isolated to the MacBook Air. Of all the systems we tested on, we were only able to reproduce issues on a Sony VAIO laptop late in our testing, as well as a current-gen MacBook Pro.
Essentially, the drives failed to mount, and in most tests never even spun up on these systems.
The Canvio USB 3.0 hard drives have sat under many people’s Christmas trees, as they were hot sellers during Black Friday. Retailers like Office Depot slashed prices on the slim, 2.5-inch drives down to $79 for a 1TB hard drive. With coupons, Radio Shack was selling the 500GB model for a mere $39.
Canvio USB 3.0 drives tout on the box compatibility with USB 2.0 systems, including both Mac and PC. The advantage of a Canvio USB 3.0 hard drive for a MacBook owner lies in Thunderbolt. Purchasing such a drive today can achieve USB 3.0 speeds with upcoming Thunderbolt-to-USB 3.0 adapters. USB 3.0 mass storage was designed to be fully backwards compatible with USB 2.0.
To get to the bottom of the problem, we probed the five Canvio drives purchased, in an effort to better understand the issue. And, we were able to isolate the problem; the Canvio USB 3.0 drives draw more power than the USB standard permits. The drives were drawing, upon connection, slightly more than the five watts that the spec allows. And, the new MacBooks appear to promptly shut the device down because of this.
Why? Well, Apple can assert that this is to protect the MacBook Air/Pro from a malfunctioning USB device. However, the answer really lies in tablets. Apple allows iPad and MacBook to perform a hardware handshake, which then allows Apple devices to draw 10 watts from the USB port. This is why you can charge an iPad directly on a Mac, but not on a PC.
Apple does not want to allow rival tablet manufacturers (Android) to have the same access to Apple’s USB port. Hence, any device (like a tablet) that wants to draw even slightly more than five watts, is shut off from communicating with the Mac. We affirmed this by testing a powered USB hub. With a powered hub connected to the hard drive, and the hub connected to the MacBook, the drive instantly came to life, and worked without issue.
This creates a bit of an odd situation; Toshiba is technically in the wrong for making drives that technically breach USB specifications… but Apple seems to be the only manufacturer to enforce this aspect (as well as breach it with their own devices).
Toshiba, to its credit, has owned up to our issue, right down to our suggestion to them that a powered hub works around the issue. Quoting an official statement in response to our research:
Toshiba DPD has identified an isolated USB connectivity issue between the Canvio USB 3.0 drive and currently shipping MacBook Pro and MacBook Air laptops. The issue involves the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air being unable to recognize the Canvio USB 3.0 drive when connected directly to the laptop USB 2.0 port. Toshiba is actively working to remedy this USB connectivity issue. In the interim, Toshiba recommends MacBook Pro and MacBook Air users employ a powered USB hub to connect their Canvio USB 3.0 drives.
We have asked Toshiba if they intend to inform retailers to accept returns for affected drives, or if they will offer some form of refund program in the interim. Retailers such as Office Depot do not permit refunds on opened technology items, including Canvio drives. Toshiba has said are looking into that aspect of this problem, and will get back to us shortly.
In all, we spent a few hundred on hard drives, and confirmed the issue. Unfortunately, because it is a power drain concern, Toshiba will likely have to offer an exchange program to fix it. We seriously doubt that this can be fixed at the firmware level. Theoretically, it’s possible a USB cable replacement might be able to mitigate this issue however, so there is hope that Toshiba won’t have to recall a bazillion hard drives.
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Christopher Price is the Founding Editor of PhoneNews.com. He's been campaigning for a more consumer-friendly cell phone since 2003. You can visit his personal blog at
Questions for Chris? You can also reach him
There’s been a lot of discussion on the Apple forums about this and I think it’s pointing to more than a power issue. I got credit for a correct fix, using a micro USB cable (instead of a powered hub). It’s worked every time except when the cable turned out to have no data connection. I can’t really take credit for the fix, there’s some hints earlier in the thread (someone mentions a mini connector, another y-cables) and my job includes sorting out interface issues (from mechanical through software or electrical), so I had some tracks already laid out. I think the power issue may be possible, but it’s a result, not the problem cause. Something is triggering the Toshiba to go to USB 3.0 – it works fine on other USB 2.0 systems. The thread discussion is at:
Here’s the extract of where I feel the problem indicators are (page 4 of the thread)
Based on the discussions above, I think there’s more interplay going on with the cable, Apple’s hardware, and Toshiba’s Canvio circuitry. Regarding power, the Canvio drive should be able to run just with 2.0 power and apparently does on other machines. One blogger, Christopher Price, is posting (
Great research, ArbyNav! You’re quite right, power could be a problem not a cause. However, that starts to get a little intertwined.
We did caution at the end of the report that a different cable could be the solution, and it does appear that different micro-USB cables may be the fix.
To the average reader, I would suggest to everyone that you avoid using the drives without Toshiba’s workaround (which is to use Toshiba’s cable and a powered, USB 2.0 hub) on the affected systems, until Toshiba finally fixes the problem. Toshiba only can assure no data loss that way at the moment.
My GoFlex 1.5 TB USB 3.0 drive worked fine with the Air we bought for the article, for what it’s worth.
If the fix is that simple, I doubt it will take Toshiba very long to offer a replacement program.
Western Digital My Passport Essential SE USB 3.0 drives and Seagate GoFlex Portable USB 3.0 drives do NOT have this problem. I have several and tested them myself, with various USB 3.0 cables. In fact, the Western Digital and Seagate drives work with their own cables, and the cables of other manufacturers, including Toshiba.
There’s nothing to speculate on in this area. This is a Toshiba-specific problem. Period.
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