Toshiba Canvio 2TB external HD 3.0 transfering at 2.0 speed

It used to be very fast, 100 Mbps and more.

Suddenly it goes only around 30 Mbps and the led light is white instead of blue (white means 2.0, blue means 3.0).

I tried a different cable from another unit (I got two identical ones) and different laptops and different ports and also formatted the disk completely.

The connector seems to be fine as I took many photographs in huge size and all seems fine inside, no missing or defective pins or anything inside.

It reads and writes at 2.0 speed (30 Mbps).

Any suggestion?

Compumind said:

@kmint -

How does the (2nd) other unit work on the system in question?

If it works properly, you should see around 105 Mbps, under USB 3.0

Check that both drives have the latest firmware.
I believe that Toshiba has a utility.

The other one is also failing a bit, but not as much as this one. It is even not being recognized by the laptops, I have to unplug and plug and repeat until it's ok. It can show up and go show up and go. Every kind of problem in both laptops, one is very new.

It seems to be right and clean the connector, I'll try the compressed air anyway just in case.

Thanks again

OK so the problem persists, I changed my computer and now it's new and still the same, but without any failure of being detected by the computer as it was a problem with the old one.

So it works fine, no errors of any kind are found on all tests I passed like with Hard Disk Sentinel, the connector seems fine, it just goes at 2.0 speed with white led as for 2.0 instead of the normal blue led for 3.0 when it worked fine.

Any idea??

kmint said:

...it works fine, no errors of any kind are found on all tests I passed like with Hard Disk Sentinel, the connector seems fine, it just goes at 2.0 speed with white led as for 2.0 instead of the normal blue led for 3.0 when it worked fine.

I have several Toshiba Canvio drives, I generally find them to be very reliable. The connector that plugs into the drive is a USB 3.0 Micro-B plug.

The USB 3.0 Micro-B plug effectively consists of a standard USB 2.0 Micro-B cable plug, with an additional 5 pins plug "stacked" to the side of it.

USB hardware - Wikipedia


In an emergency (ever misplaced the cable? I know I have) the external drive will happily work with the smaller USB 2.0 Micro--B plug, but obviously only at USB 2.0 speeds. And that seems to be what your drive is doing, not seeing the extra pins that make USB 3.0 speeds possible.

You say you've already tried other cables and inspected the socket on the drive, so that probably eliminates the cable or socket being at fault. But that still leaves one more possibility - that the connection of the socket to the circuit board inside the drive housing has become damaged or disconnected. If so it should continue to work reliably at 2.0 speeds, but repair may be difficult/impossible.


How long have you had it? The Canvio Basic is covered by a 2 year warranty. The Canvio Premium is 3 years.

If you qualify you can make a claim online: StorRepair GmbH Service Portal

If it is outside the warranty, then you may feel like opening it up to have a look. Depending on how old it is you may find a conventional drive plugged into a usb adapter board, but the newer ones may have the Micro-B socket build directly into the drive's circuit board, as this one is:

Bree said:

I have several Toshiba Canvio drives, I generally find them to be very reliable. The connector that plugs into the drive is a USB 3.0 Micro-B plug.

USB hardware - Wikipedia


In an emergency (ever misplaced the cable? I know I have) the external drive will happily work with the smaller USB 2.0 Micro--B plug, but obviously only at USB 2.0 speeds. And that seems to be what your drive is doing, not seeing the extra pins that make USB 3.0 speeds possible.

You say you've already tried other cables and inspected the socket on the drive, so that probably eliminates the cable or socket being at fault. But that still leaves one more possibility - that the connection of the socket to the circuit board inside the drive housing has become damaged or disconnected. If so it should continue to work reliably at 2.0 speeds, but repair may be difficult/impossible.


How long have you had it? The Canvio Basic is covered by a 2 year warranty. The Canvio Premium is 3 years.

If you qualify you can make a claim online: StorRepair GmbH Service Portal

If it is outside the warranty, then you may feel like opening it up to have a look. Depending on how old it is you may find a conventional drive plugged into a usb adapter board, but the newer ones may have the Micro-B plug build directly into the drive's circuit board, as this one is:

Older than 2 years but not much use.

How could I check the connector in deep? WIth my own eyes I see nothing it's too small, I took photos with a good phone and enlarging them I dont see much either... ¿Any idea?

kmint said:

Older than 2 years but not much use.

How could I check the connector in deep? WIth my own eyes I see nothing it's too small, I took photos with a good phone and enlarging them I dont see much either... ¿Any idea?

I'd suspect a dry joint where the socket is soldered onto the circuit board. You won't be able see that without opening it up, I'm afraid. (at your own risk, of course)

Bree said:

I'd suspect a dry joint where the socket is soldered onto the circuit board. You won't be able see that without opening it up, I'm afraid. (at your own risk, of course)

And if I open it it will be visible and fixable being totally unexperienced?