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
    2015-06-14T13:48:21+00:00

    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?

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-06-15T18:48:41+00:00

    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.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-08-07T13:15:42+00:00

    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.

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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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