USB 3.0 issues

I’m running into a real headache here. I get this "USB Mass Storage Device" error—just a constant little exclamation mark staring back at me—but if I plug in a different USB 2.0 drive, everything works perfectly fine. It’s bizarre. If I use the ports on the back, it won't read the drive at all. The only way I can actually get it to work is by plugging it into those top ports where my mouse and keyboard are hooked up. But even then, there's a catch: if I want to use my USB drive, I basically have to unplug either my mouse or my keyboard just to make room. I feel like I've tried everything under the sun. I’ve scoured every tech forum out there, reinstalled drivers, messed around with registry edits, tweaked settings in the Control Panel... you name it, I've done it. Nothing sticks. The drive itself is definitely fine; it works perfectly on other computers, and honestly, it worked just fine on my old rig when I was running Windows 7. But now that I’ve made the jump to Windows 8.1, everything has gone sideways. My motherboard is an MSI GD-65 Z87.

It’s kind of strange... Windows 8/8.1 should pick up the USB 3.0 interface automatically without any fuss. But back when we were using Windows 7, you actually had to hunt down the specific USB 3.0 driver from the motherboard manufacturer's site—otherwise, the system just wouldn't recognize it at all.

The only thing I can really suggest to help you out is to wipe the hard drive and do a clean install of Windows 8/8.1. Once that's done, go ahead and grab the Intel rapid storage technology, the Intel chipset driver, and whatever other essentials are listed on the motherboard's support page... then let's see if that does the trick.

I already tried a clean install of Windows, but still nothing. It’s just bizarre... only two of my USB ports actually recognize the drive, and those are the ones I've got my mouse and keyboard plugged into. Honestly, I'm at a loss. Thanks for the reply, though—I guess I'll just spend more time digging through Google and seeing what else I can find.

Since your keyboard and mouse are plugged into USB 2.0 ports, 🙂 that’s why it's actually working—those black ones are 2.0, whereas the blue ones are USB 3.0.

By the way, you aren't seeing any yellow exclamation marks over in the Device Manager, are you?

Yeah, I see that yellow "warning" icon popping up. Why don't you give this a shot: right-click on it and select uninstall, then unplug all your USB 3.0 devices from the computer. Give the system a quick restart, and once everything is back up and running, plug your device(s) straight into a USB 3.0 port—then let's see if that clears things up...

p.s. You might also want to check your settings to make sure the system is set to automatically install your devices... kind of like what you see in this picture:

I tried running a scan, but nothing. Absolute zero. So now I'm sitting here digging through some old forums about Windows 8, hoping for a miracle. Apparently, once you get it installed, the OS is supposed to just... find everything? Just magically grab all the drivers it needs to actually function. I even went as far as trying to uninstall the Intel USB 3.0 controller entirely, just to reinstall them straight from the disc, but—surprise, surprise—still nothing. That little light next to the USB mass storage remains dead. Just dark.

Yeah, I actually mentioned that in my first post—Windows 8 should pick up the USB 3.0 drivers automatically.

Where did you grab the Windows installer from, though? Was it a torrent or something? I'm wondering if the OS has been messed with at all... maybe try downloading a different version of Windows and see if that helps.

Honestly, even if you haven't done it yet, you should really go ahead and get that Intel USB 3.0 Driver installed, and while you're at it, make sure you've also grabbed the Intel Chipset Driver just to be safe.

Torrent... first I went through the whole ritual of installing the OS, then I went ahead and loaded up everything from their official disc (MSI). I handled the graphics card drivers manually, and then used Live Update 5 to push every single driver up to the latest version. Now, I’ve gone and wiped it all to install a fresh Windows 8, did the exact same dance with the drivers, ran the official Windows update, and yet... nothing. It still doesn't work. Just great.

If you really feel like messing around, you could always try a clean install of Windows 8.1—but honestly, what would that even change? At the end of the day, you're still going to need to install those USB 3.0 drivers after the setup is finished anyway to get everything recognized.

So, I’m attempting this whole dual-boot setup... everything runs perfectly fine on Windows 7, but the second I try to boot into Windows 8.1, it just completely hits a wall and refuses to work.

So, the issue seems to be everything leading up to Windows 8.1...

Here’s the official Windows 8.1 Pro X64 setup—and no, I didn't grab this from some sketchy torrent site. Just take a look at what starts downloading from the first link or the second one...

http://ia700704.us.archive.org/32/it...VD_2971948.iso
Or maybe this one:
http://wzor.ws/download.php?get=9443