Windows 8.1 causes external hard drives to auto-sleep?

Anonymous
2013-10-27T07:38:58+00:00

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.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

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Anonymous
2013-11-01T15:32:42+00:00

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.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/usbcoreblog/archive/2013/11/01/help-after-installing-windows-8-1-my-usb-drive-disappears-or-file-transfers-stop-unexpectedly-r-a-post-title.aspx

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-10-18T17:32:10+00:00

    Yes that's April update. Check the timestamp of  %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\usbstor.sys file. The file date should be 2/22/2014 or later.

    -Eliyas

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-10-18T07:46:37+00:00

    I have automatic updates switched on? I don't know if april update was installed. Is that the april link below?

    Another strange thing was my wireless internet device was going to sleep as well, but I fixed that in device manager.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-10-18T06:08:37+00:00

    That's weird. You are right. If it works on Win7, it should work on 8.1. Are you sure you have the April update installed?

    https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2934016?wa=wsignin1.0

    -Eliyas

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-10-17T05:27:32+00:00

    So how come I didn't have this issue with Windows 7, Vista and XP

    only with Windows 8.1

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