Last month I was pretty hard on Belkin when I found that USB 3 drives connected to the new Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock constantly unmounted. I laid the fault at Belkin’s door and am in the process of returning the device.
But could the problem lie with Apple itself instead of with individual manufacturers of peripherals? This Apple Discussion seems to prove that many people are having similar problems with a whole raft of USB hubs, all of which are connected directly to the USB 3.0 port and not (as with the Belkin dock) the Thunderbolt port.
While Apple will not comment, true to form, many Apple fans, me included, hope that a firmware update could help solve the problem. On a more positive note, after disconnecting the unworkable Express Dock, I plugged a simple Belkin four-port USB 3.0 hub into one of the USB 3.0 ports on my MacBook Pro Retina. The hub has been up and running for three weeks and, so far, I have had none of those broken connections that plagued the Thunderbolt-powered dock. I continue to keep my fingers crossed.