I have a bad hard drive which could not be recognized by windows. If windows can recognize it, it could just be pure luck. There are better chance of it being recognize by plugging it at the usb back of the machine, rather than the front one. More interestingly, I have a usb cable which fork itself at one side ( i.e it has 2 heads at one side ). I can plug both heads to the machine and connect the portable hard drive on the other end of the usb cable? Can I get more voltage by doing this?

I am guessing the front usb port doesn't have enough power. I am wondering if I buy a new portable usb hard drive, would it have easy read by plugging at the front usb port?

I am not sure if I screw up the jumper connecting the front usb ports, but it is okay for other device such as usb stick and mouse.