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
    2015-10-04T17:10:15+00:00

    What do I have to do in my MS 8.1  to make my external drive uptodate perodical;ly.

    Thanks

    Santosh Mathur

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-09-23T23:06:23+00:00

    As I suggested in a previous reply, if you run a song, or songs, in Windows Media Player in "Repeat" mode, the external HDD's will not turn off (I mute the song in WMP if I do not want to hear the music - other applications can then be audible when it is necessary). Though it is a band aid approach, it works fine and will get you by until someone at MS can figure out a permanent fix. I too, never had the issue in Windows 7, only Windows 8. I understand, though I have not confirmed it, Windows 10 has the same issue. One would think that someone at MS would have figured out a fix by now...hmmmm!!

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-09-23T17:08:18+00:00

    I installed Windows 10 and my external drives shut down just as before.  I am using a hardware encrypted drive, so I have to power down the Surface or unplug the drive in order to re-start the drive. I had been hopeful that Microsoft would fix this bug in Windows 10, but they did not.

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-08-19T23:32:13+00:00

    I've tried all of the above (15 pages worth) and I have only been able to delay my Seagate Backup+ 4GB external USB drive from sleeping and disconnecting from my Dell Inspiron new laptop running Windows 10.  Aside from using the NoSleep program to keep it active it seems like there has to be another solution.  The drive worked fine on my Windows 7 machine, never disconnected or slept. So something was introduced by MS in either 8.1 or 10 that is causing this problem.

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