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
    2013-12-11T03:41:22+00:00

    I too having the annoying problem of USB HDD spin down after 5 minutes, I found a solutions to this problem,  as reported in Gizmodo:

    http://gizmodo.com/5163869/stop-external-drives-from-spinning-down-with-nosleephd

    Here is the direct link to the file:

    http://nosleephd.codeplex.com/releases/view/24052

    so far it work for me no more sleep mode on my USB HD, I recommend this until Microsoft fix this stupid problem they've created.

    What say you Microsoft?

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-11-26T11:57:15+00:00

    OK, so this issue has now been known for about a month and yet still no fix. This is a bug and nothing less. And not having a fix for this in a month is a joke. Paying good money for an OS and getting something half-baked is an insult. Yes I'm giving you heat because no one seems to point out that this behaviour is not normal. Shutting off external drives without so much as a notice or an option to turn if off is a bit over the top. And then providing a registry hack as a solution is just slap to the consumer. Yes, I hacked my registry, but what will Joe Regular do? FFS.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-11-19T17:50:34+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

    I have the same problem, but not only with external HDD. It happens to my 2nd internal HDD too. It is the same issue? When will we get a oficial fix for this? I think it is unacepptable that the user is the one who must fix it editing the registry.

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-11-05T21:51:24+00:00

    I have now got the reghack to work, I took the drive out and put another drive in, renamed the Lacie drive tried the reghack and this time it has worked. This was the 4th time I did it. I have no explanation why it has worked this time

    You might have done the first 3 times something wrong and now you did it right :)

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