Windows 8 - Hitachi Touro Pro

Anonymous
2012-10-29T18:44:53+00:00

Can anyone help me out with this.

I have 4 x 2TB Hitachi Touro Pro external hard drives. All work 100% in Windows 7.

However, they do not work under Windows 8. When connected you will hear the sound notifying you a USB device was attached but not drive letter.

After a couple of minute (2-4 minutes) a drive will appear but it you try access the drive the machine will freeze.

I have tried all 4 drives and they all show the same issue, working in Windows 7 not in 8.

This has to be a windows issue.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

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Anonymous
2013-02-23T13:31:13+00:00

Can anyone who has gotten their Hitachi Touro to work with Windows 8 confirm the USB 3.0 host controller?

After first noticing the compatibility issues when I first installed Windows 8, I traded my Hitachi drive for my brother's Seagate Expansion drive. His drive is smaller capacity, but at least I can use it with my computer.

Anyway, my brother's computer is having some issues and I was going to try reinstalling Windows 7. before doing that, I decided to do a test installation of Windows 8. His computer is running on an Intel Series 4 chipset and I have added a USB 3.0 add-on card to connect to his external drive. After installing Windows 8 to his computer, I was able to access the Hitachi Touro Pro hard drive with no issues at all.

I checked in the device manager and his USB 3.0 host controller is listed as Renesas Electronics USB 3.0 Host Controller. My computer that has problems with the Hitachi drive is running on an Intel H77 based motherboard with integrated USB 3.0. The host controller on my computer is listed as Intel USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller - 0100 (Microsoft).

Based on this information, would the issue lie with the drivers for the USB 3.0 controller, and not the operating system? Intel doesn't provide any updated drivers for the USB 3.0 on Windows 8; only previous versions of the OS.

(Update)

I just found a thread at the Intel Support Community that has over 225 comments from users discussing this issue. Apparently the native Windows 8 drivers from Microsoft for the Intel USB 3.0 controller are causing issues with other USB 3.0 devices as well. Someone hacked the lasted Windows 7 driver for the Intel USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller to make it work for Windows 8. It is available for download on page 16 of that thread. You must disable driver signing to be able to install the driver.

  • Hold the Shift key while selecting Restart to enter Advanced Startup Options
  • Click Troubleshoot
  • Click Advanced Options
  • Click Startup Settings
  • Click Restart
  • After the computer reboots, select option 7 to disable driver signature enforcement
  • Go to Device Manager
  • Right-click on your USB 3.0 host controller and select Update Driver
  • Select "Browse my computer for driver software"
  • Choose "Let me pick..."
  • Click the Have Disk button
  • Browse to where you downloaded the modified driver and select it
  • Click Next
  • Select the option to install when warned about digital driver signing
  • If an unknown device appears, you can install by selecting the "Browse..." option and entering the containing folder rather than having to manually pick a specific driver. This will install the Intel USB 3.0 Root Hub

Hopefully, Intel will recognize this issue and release updated drivers. Until then, this will hopefully work with no issues.

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-12-04T20:01:08+00:00

    Some years ago I bought an external usb 3.0 harddisk box, destroyed the Touro box and just plugged the disk, the box cost aprox 20€, I think it's a Sven brand. And it worked and still works perfect. usb3.0 speed and zero problems. I'm using it with windows 8.1 and windows 7.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-12-04T19:31:26+00:00

    Hello, Everyone,

    I haven't found a solution BUT I have a question related to this issue with Hitachi Tuoro Desk Pro.  Please be patient as you read this post, since I, like all of you, don't want to throw away my drive and also, I actually like Windows 8 quite a bit (of course I'm not a computer tech smart person.)

    I've been trying for weeks to resolve this issue.  I have a Hitachi Tuoro Desk Pro 1TB.  I've tried everything in the book (Microsoft book) to make it work with my new Windows 8 desktop:  1. Formatting the drive in another computer with another OS, and then trying to plug it to my Windows 8 - didn't work. 2. Trying to "Initialize" it in my Windows 8 "Disk Manager" option - didn't work "because of an I/O" error.  3. Disabling Startup Programs - didn't work.  4. Uninstalling and then reinstalling the drive- didn't work. 5. All the trial-error answers here on this post AND other posts from Microsoft and other community pages - none have made it work. 6. I've read that some people have solved this issue by installing drivers from other places, or have done changes to the registry, but I am not smart enough to figure out how to follow the steps they've shown.

    I know that most of you have noticed that the drive DOES SHOW in DevicesAND in Disk Management in Windows 8, but it doesn't show in PC (File Explorer), which makes it unable to access the files in the drive (not to mention that it dramatically slows or, sometimes, freezes the computer.)

    Yesterday I contacted a Microsoft chat agent about this issue, and he said - go to your manufacturer to resolve the issue (paraphrasing here.)  I contacted Hitachi and this was their answer: Unfortunately some early models of the usb 3 touro desk drives had a hardware featurebuilt into it that does not behave well with windows 8 and above*. As you see thedrive will work with older operating systems but* there is no way to adjust the drive to work on windows 8... You may need to get an intermediary drive to transfer the data to in order to get the data to windows 8, or you could pick up an empty enclosure that is compatible with windows 8 to transfer the drive into(paraphrasing - we never thought ahead of what might come in the future so we did a por planning on this drive OR - we want you to buy more stuff everytime a new OS comes out so you don't use your old gear anymore and becomes obsolete.)

    OK, ALMOST GETTING TO THE POINT HERE...  I started watching a video today on how to take the drive apart to get to the REAL, bare hard drive inside (to use it as an internal drive in a desktop case without the USB 3 and DC power enclosure, but with a SATA connector.)  AND THAT GOT ME WONDERING:

    • Has anyone of you tried opening this Tuoro external enclosure, and use ONLY the bare drive in Windows 8?
    • Does it work, or does it show the same problem as with the external enclosure?

    - If it does work, do you think the problem is actually the chip in the enclosure that has the power and USB 3.0 connectors, and that means we can get rid of that and use the bare drive with the SATA connectors?  Is this the "hardware feature" that Hitachi told me about?

    • EXTRA - Have you tried it with a SATA to USB adapter?

    Now, please, don't go around breaking your enclosure just to try it - that will void the warranty (and I don't want to be blamed for that!) I was just wondering if anyone has broken it already and has tried this, so I can go ahead and break mine to make it work with my Windows 8.  And anyway, we are a long way from where this post started (today is December 4, 2014.) But if anyone has been curious enough to do this, I'd like to know so I can do it too.

    I would like to know your thoughts and answers on this matter.  Have a great day.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-03-14T15:07:20+00:00

    Thanks..can you recommend what brand and model of docking system you bought....all I found here is for SaTa hard drive only...thanks again

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-03-10T16:40:55+00:00

    I bought a docking system which solve the issue for me. The docking system uses better drivers. Connecting the Hitachi HD directly to the computer USB port with Windows 8 won't work and there is no fix or updated driver.

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