Hi John,

I would agree that cables are a part of the potential problem but the strange thing here is that I also changed cables with no result and the sent cables now work with my method as well

I also agree that many users I see pull the USB connections out and replace willy nilly without using the "safely remove hardware" feature which could also be a factor

Contrary to the instructions I can now plug external drives into any USB port including the two at the front of the box using my method

The U in USB is not so universal

I also have sent back external hard drives back before I found this way to make them work - they could have been perfectly ok
jazzman