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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.
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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.
I'm on Win8.1 and I've tried all those suggestions - except for the one about not letting the computer turn off the USB hub.
My Transcend Solid State external drive disappears often.
I have to unplug its usb3 cable and plug it back in, to make the drive reappear.
None of the suggested solutions changes this.
Extremely annoying. The drive never disappeared under Windows7.
Can i use these steps also to disable auto-sleep on other non disk usb devices like my wifi usb dongle?
Because i have a new high speed dongle that also loses power now and then, just like the HDD.
Looked at power option and this set at never plugged in.
This is the first Hub. I have several. Do you want them all?
Generic Usb Hub
USB\VID_058F&PID_6254&REV_0100
USB\VID_058F&PID_6254
USB Hard Drives
USBSTOR\DiskFUJITSU_HandyDrive300___0103
USBSTOR\DiskFUJITSU_HandyDrive300___
USBSTOR\DiskFUJITSU_
USBSTOR\FUJITSU_HandyDrive300___0
FUJITSU_HandyDrive300___0
USBSTOR\GenDisk
GenDisk
Disk 2 This is a LACie 1 terra Bite
USBSTOR\DiskST31000520AS________________
USBSTOR\DiskST31000520AS____________
USBSTOR\DiskST310005
USBSTOR\ST31000520AS_____________
ST31000520AS_____________
USBSTOR\GenDisk
GenDisk
Is this what you want?
Can you try changing the power option for hard disk from 10 minutes to "Never" and see if that fixes your issue. To get there, search for "0Power Options" by using charms search, click on "Change plan settings", then go to "Change advanced power settings".
Please note that Windows 8.1 system suspends idle USB devices more aggressively than it used to do on Windows 8. As a result, you could run into device issues or a combination of device/hub/controller issues.
If this address you problem, please post make, model, VID/PID information of the storage device and the USB controller that the device is plugged into by using the device manager.
Most of the options in the above screenshot do not even show up on my Surface Pro 3, including "Hard disk". I have the Seagate Expansion 5TB drive. Leave it for a few minutes and Windows puts it to sleep whether I like it or not. This is no good at all. Needs to be fixed. I can't have my drives just going to sleep for nothing.
