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.
Windows 8.1 causes external hard drives to auto-sleep?
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
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.
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Anonymous
2013-11-01T23:29:26+00:00 Simple question:
Why did MS change this?
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Anonymous
2013-11-01T18:02:48+00:00 -
Anonymous
2013-11-01T12:36:01+00:00 Here is a copy of the etl file
https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=E567BE4D1A72FC3A!122
Tell if it is good or if you need another one
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Anonymous
2013-10-31T23:56:11+00:00 I'm having this same problem on my 8.1 installation as well. WD My Book 2TB shutting down constantly no matter what settings I use. I'm wasting quite a bit of time waiting for start up every time I try to access a file or save anything since all of my non-program files stay on my external drive. Coupled with search indexing options also not seeing my external drive, 8.1 has given me much more trouble than it's worth.