I had USB devices which prevented a boot if left plugged in. Can't remember what but I def did, I think maybe thumb drives.
After carrying out Zero's suggestion I'd try to make sure the unpowered drives were on the USB3 ports, as USB3 delivers more power IIRC. Chances are you've already done this though, deliberately or otherwise. But try to pin down whether it is just the unpowered which have the problem.
I suppose if you plug them in 1) too quickly after the machine is up and/or 2) in quick succession after one another the machine might be too busy with other stuff and fail to recognise them.
Another thought - they are either not being seen by the system or are being seen and mounted without a driver letter.
If you watch Device Manager when you plug them in you should see the list of devices refresh (possibly at least twice) while it registers then configures the device. (From Explorer right click of This PC, Manage, then Device Manager). They will appear under Disk Drives. I think if they are there they will generally get a drive letter, but if you can't see them when they are there run diskmgmt.msc from the Run window (right click on windows button) and see if the appear in disk management but without a drive letter. if they do, you can probably right click on the drive in the lower pane to allocate a letter, but we'd need to work out why they weren't getting one automatically.
If that isn't happening it sounds like your machine simply isn't seeing the drives for some reason. (If you have an activity light on your PC you'll generally see it flickering a bit when you mount a drive anyway)
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Powered USB hub new
Powered USB hub new