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
    2015-12-06T07:26:22+00:00

    Problem solved for Windows 10]

    Hey guys!

    Whoever still having the issue with their external hard disk storage won't awake / not detected after PC or laptop go to sleep..

    So I'm a Windows 10 user and I just found out the solution that solve my problem after sometime searching for it.. What you need to is, you need to turn off the sleep mode for the hard disk in Power Plan Setting, here's how:

    1. Search for 'Power Options' from your desktop search bar, click
    2. Click Change Plan Settings -> Change Advanced Power Settings and make sure you change the hard disk setting 'Turn off hard disk after' to 'Never' for all of the power plan setting available. for example: '[Your Computer Brand] Active' & 'High Performance' and click Apply before you close the window.
    3. Restart. Hope it helps.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-12-06T16:51:50+00:00

    Sorry, didn't help...

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-12-06T17:13:43+00:00

    Did this first. It might be the solution for some people on some systems for some external drives, but has no impact for me.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-05-01T23:48:58+00:00

    I'm having the same problem ever since upgrading from w7 to w10 a few days ago. My external HDD in question is a 3TB Samsung D3 station. Been searching for solutions like crazy, to only find the same answers that didn't help. What did W10 change from W7 when it comes to USB devices? It's killing them!

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