I'm having an issue with my external hard drive with my laptop. The laptop is new Averatec and the external drive is a new Lacie 2.5" rugged drive that runs off usb power.

The first problem is it only works on 1 or 2 usb ports on the laptop, the others ones I'm pretty sure are not supplying enough power to operate the drive. So is this normal problem that laptops have?

The second issue I'm thinking could also be power related or just a slow usp laptop bus. Its very slow, starts out 30-16mbs then can go as low as 6mbs. Note I'm copying a few large video files not a million little ones.

This is the first time I've used a usb powered drive and a pc laptop for video work so I want to know is what I'm experiencing normal if not what should I do.

If my laptop did anything like that, I'd take it back. I've had numerous PC based laptops and none have ever done anything like you describe.

Looks like I'll be calling tech support

I always carry a usb power booster cable just for what you are experiencing... this cable will work with any external USB drive.

you can get one at

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