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My 2 external hard drives are always active as I have disabled auto sleep. I didn't have this problem way since Windows 7, but after upgrading to Windows 8.1 from Windows 8, my 2 external hard drives will automatically went to sleep around 10 minutes of inactivity. I have tried the power options, device manager options, but to no avail. Any help? Thanks.
I'm using NoSleepHD as a temporary fix but I hope there's a permanent fix for this.
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Thanks for the trace. We will analyze and get back to you. We published a blog on this yesterday to bring awareness and get help from the community to root-cause the issue. We think this is all due to suspending the device when idle which we never used to do in previous OSes. We will find out if this turns out to be something else.
Seems like it's not only affecting hard drives, but to all USB devices plugged in, or maybe just affecting a certain brand/model's devices. And Windows 8.1 definitely did something to the USB sleep/power options. Either way the only last resort I hope I wouldn't do is to downgrade back to Windows 8.0 or even Windows 7.
I own a SanDisk Cruzer Micro (2.0 GB) flash drive (Model SDCZ6-2048-A11). Microsoft indicates that the flash drive is compatible with Windows 8.1. The computer does recognize the flash drive. After 10 - 15 minutes, the flash drive goes to sleep. It looks like the computer is shutting down power to the USB port. Once asleep, I click on the drive icon to wake it. It takes as much as a full minute to wake the flash drive. After waking, and if no activity, the flash drive goes back to sleep. I also tried other USB ports (both 2.0 and 3.0) and experience the same problem. This problem does not seem to be affecting other brands of USB flash drives that I own. I have tried other brands of flash drives and they have not gone to sleep. This problem didn't occur in Windows 8. I too have tried to modify the power settings in the Root Hubs but haven't had any luck. Thanks.
Thanks for the response but this has no effect.
Unchecking this box on all root hubs has no effect.
The better question is: What did Microsoft do to the USB driver in Windows 8.1 that's different and causing this to happen?
I think this is a valid question since users did not see this behavior in Windows 8.0. If I knew this was a possibility, I would have NEVER updated Windows.
This problem is REALLY REALLY annoying. Basically, my drives spin down every 5 minutes and if I access the drive, it pauses/freezes and I hear the unmount/mount chimes. EVERY TIME.
This makes my UNC shares time out because the drive isn't spinning at full speed fast enough to enumerate.
Searching around, no one has seemed to be able to find a solution or a setting that the user can change to remedy this.
This means Microsoft is the BEST chance of finding a solution.
I cannot understate how incredibly annoying this is and it doesn't help that suggested solution has absolutely no effect on the problem. The "uncheck the box" suggestion is about as helpful as "did you restart your computer?".
I appreciate your response, but PLEASE PLEASE give us an update that fixes this problem.
Thank you!
Hi,
What is the make and model of the external hard drive?
You may try these steps if not yet tried:
a. Go to Device Manager, under Universal Serial Bus Controllers, double-click on the 1st Root Hub. b. go to the Power tab to see if the drive is connected to it. If not, try the next Root Hub. If so, click the Power Management tab. Uncheck the box that says: "allow computer to turn off this device to save power".
Check if that helps.
It's a 1TB Freecom XS and SeaGate Expansion 2TB hard drive. Yes, I have tried that but it didn't work, as my hard drives are at USB Mass Storage Devices and not the Root Hubs. which doesn't have that option to uncheck at all.
Although Seagate has the Drive Settings Tool program that are able to adjust the sleep time of that drive, that program isn't compatible with Windows 8 onwards as it doesn't detect my Seagate drive. It does detect my drive when I'm still at Windows 7. Out of options here.
