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
    2014-03-18T02:41:09+00:00

    Eliyas, we can't get to your blog.  Here is message that comes up.

    Server Error in '/' Application.

    This is a little IQ test :) Remove the extra dot from the end of the URL (after aspx)

    -- pa

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-03-17T16:46:03+00:00

    Eliyas, we can't get to your blog.  Here is message that comes up.

    Server Error in '/' Application.


    The resource cannot be found. Description: HTTP 404. The resource you are looking for (or one of its dependencies) could have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.  Please review the following URL and make sure that it is spelled correctly.

    Requested URL: /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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  3. Anonymous
    2014-03-17T15:10:12+00:00

    We are reverting the sleep behavior of BOT storage (usbmass.sys) devices to Windows 8. April update will have this fix.  Please read my update to this blog 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.

    -Eliyas

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-03-12T17:47:19+00:00

    Can anyone tell whether any remedy is available in the expected "update 1"?

    --pa

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