Try to use a hub with own power supply.
I happened to find, that my USB HDD does not work.
As I was using an almost 8 yrs old 2,5" HDD - what was running continouusly during the lat two years I thought It gave up fighting, so I bought a new 250Gb SATA disk with enclosure. Still no luck.
Upon closer checking I have found these in the system log:
Jun 15 22:08:00 kernel: usb.c: USB device not responding, giving up (error=-145)
Jun 15 22:08:01 kernel: hub.c: new USB device 01:03.2-2, assigned address 12
Jun 15 22:08:04 kernel: usb.c: USB device not responding, giving up (error=-71)
Jun 15 22:08:33 kernel: hub.c: new USB device 01:03.2-2, assigned address 13
Jun 15 22:08:38 kernel: usb_control/bulk_msg: timeout
Jun 15 22:08:43 kernel: usb_control/bulk_msg: timeout
Jun 15 22:08:48 kernel: usb_control/bulk_msg: timeout
Jun 15 22:08:53 kernel: usb_control/bulk_msg: timeout
Jun 15 22:08:58 kernel: usb_control/bulk_msg: timeout
It goes and goes. Tries to assign new device address, but dies with a timeout. Any idea?
Try to use a hub with own power supply.