USB 3 hard drives sleep

Naif1992

New Member
Messages
5
Hello guys,

I hope everyone is doing well.

I have a Sony Vaio that I use to share my hard drives' contents over my home network. I used to run Windows 7 on it with no problems. However, ever since I installed Windows 8.1, I've been having troubles with the external hard drives that are connected via the USB 3 port. After leaving my laptop idle for about 15-20 minutes, the hard drives disconnect. Whenever I want to access them, there is 5-10 seconds delay for the HDD's to fire up. I feel like there is a setting in Windows 8.1 that lets external devices sleep after a while if they're not used to save power.

I have USB Selective Suspend disabled.

Any suggestion will do.

Thank you
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Apple Macbook Air
Are there any options under device manager for that USB drive?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Memory
    6 GB
    Screen Resolution
    1280 x 1024
    Hard Drives
    12 TB in 6 disks
    PSU
    TX650
    Keyboard
    G15
    Mouse
    Intellimouse 3.0
    Internet Speed
    100 Mbits
    Browser
    Chrome
    Antivirus
    Trend Micro
I suggest:
Change power plan to High Performance. In addition to USB Selective Suspend disabled
Set Hard Disk->Turn off Hard Disk After to Never
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1x64PWMC Ubuntu14.04x64 MintMate17x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Brewed
    CPU
    I7 4970K OC'ed @4.7 GHz
    Motherboard
    MSI-Z97
    Memory
    16 GB G-Skill Trident X @2400MHZ
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450
    Sound Card
    X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual HP-W2408
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1200
    Hard Drives
    256 GB M2 sm951, (2) 500GB 850EVO, 5TB, 2 TB Seagate
    PSU
    Antec 850W
    Case
    Antec 1200
    Cooling
    Danger Den H20
    Keyboard
    Logitech
    Mouse
    Logitech Performance Mouse MX
    Internet Speed
    35/12mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
Yes, there is an option that says "allow computer to turn off device" or something like that. I untucked it.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Apple Macbook Air
I am experiencing the same issue as the OP with windows 8.1. I disabled all power management and sleep settings on the usb hubs, still no luck.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
Maybe they'll fix it when they officially release Windows 8.1
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Apple Macbook Air
Hi, I am having this same issue, it is driving me nuts as I use my USB 3 array to host media for the house and its constantly powering down and losing it since going to 8.1
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
I'm having the same issue. Already tried messing around with the Power Management settings for the USB device like everyone above.

I never had this problem with normal Windows 8 :(

Any other ideas?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
I'm having the same issue. Already tried messing around with the Power Management settings for the USB device like everyone above.

I never had this problem with normal Windows 8 :(

Any other ideas?

I have the EXACT same issue. I have 2 external drives. My toshiba 1 TB usb 3.0 drive is fine. My 2 TB external hitachi drive exhibits same disconnect/reconnect. This NEVER happened until i updated to windows 8.1 OFFICIALLY a few days ago.

I tried all the settings (my harddrive never sleeps, i tried disabling selective suspend, i went into the device manager -> usb controllers -> power mgmt for each, and turned off the ability for the computer to make the attached devices sleep.) Nothing works. I have tried all the different usb ports (some 3.0 and some 2.0) and same thing happens - only the hitachi drive. It seems to be every 20-30 minutes as well, but i haven't timed it. I also have seen the case where it's in Explorer, but when I click into it, it immediately disconnects then reconnects after a 5-10 second pause. And i have seen the case where I'm not seemingly using hte hard drive at all and i hear the disconnect/reconnect noise.

When i transferred files to this drive (which took about 2.5 hours), the drive NEVER disconnected, so it is definitely linked to it being idle.

Online everyone suggests the same thing, and for those of us who are posting on forums, nothing works. Plugged into any other computer, the hitachi drive works perfectly. Im hoping an incremental update from Microsoft will fix this but it since it's not affecting all users it might be awhile for it to be fixed
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
As a temporary solution, I'm using this: KeepAliveHD - Home

Writes an small txt every few minutes (I set it to 5 min.) preventing the drive from sleeping.

I hate to have more programs running on the background, but at least it's doing the job for now. Hopefully Microsoft or my manufacturer fixes this (I also have a Vaio) soon.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
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