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
    2013-11-01T23:29:26+00:00

    Simple question:

    Why did MS change this?

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-11-01T18:02:48+00:00

    Hi,

    Here:

    https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=EB14038FFA1CA72F!2142

    You can find my trace

    Thanks.

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  3. 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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  4. 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.

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