How to prevent USB hard drive from sleeping?

[Silver0066]

Is this a self-powered USB enclosure or does it have a separate power brick?

It is a 2 TB 3.5" external drive plugged into the wall with a separate power brick, which contains all of my programs. I only need it while I am setting up the new Surface. I will use a USB powered 2.5" portable drive when doing normal computing. Then I will surely be happy with the sleep functions of the Surface.

 

[jnjroach]

Hmmmm....when it is plugged in, does it get a Power Management Tab in Device Manager?

 

[ajamils]

Where you able to find a solution for this? I came to the forum to start a similar thread because I'm having a really hard time with this as well. I'm doing a back up of my hard drive using Acronis True Image 2014 and even though there is activity, whenever SP3 goes to sleep (it's on dock) it put the external drive (Samsung 4TB) to sleep as well causing the backup to stop.

I've looked through all the power setting and I have not found a solution for it. Speaking of power solution, why is that I cannot create a power profile other than "Balanced" ?

 

[Silver0066]

Hmmmm....when it is plugged in, does it get a Power Management Tab in Device Manager?

No, not on the disk drive....on USB Controller.

 

[jnjroach]

Without a Registry Hack or enabling the Hyper-v role to disable Connected Standby you are limited to them one Power Scheme, which is by design.

 

[Silver0066]

Where you able to find a solution for this? I came to the forum to start a similar thread because I'm having a really hard time with this as well. I'm doing a back up of my hard drive using Acronis True Image 2014 and even though there is activity, whenever SP3 goes to sleep (it's on dock) it put the external drive (Samsung 4TB) to sleep as well causing the backup to stop.

I've looked through all the power setting and I have not found a solution for it. Speaking of power solution, why is that I cannot create a power profile other than "Balanced" ?

I tried the NoSleep utility mentioned earlier in this thread but it did not work, even if I set it to 1 minute.

 

[nipponham]

Just to recap:

1. You have disabled power management for USB controllers in device manager.
2. External HD goes to sleep (powers down) when SP3 goes to sleep.
3. External HD works as intended when SP3 is awake.
4. External HD has been tested with other pcs but only shows this behaviour with SP3.

Are all of the above correct?

 

[Silver0066]

Just to recap:

1. You have disabled power management for USB controllers in device manager.
2. External HD goes to sleep (powers down) when SP3 goes to sleep.
3. External HD works as intended when SP3 is awake.
4. External HD has been tested with other pcs but only shows this behaviour with SP3.

Are all of the above correct?

No, it is like this:

1. Yes.
2. Yes.
3. No. The external drive goes to sleep every few seconds when SP3 is awake. This happens even when I have disabled sleep in Pwr Mgmt on the USB controllers in Device Manager. The NoSleep utility that I downloaded did not help. It does not go to sleep, however, when I am accessing the drive.
4. Yes.

 

[ajamils]

I have the same issue running Seagate Backup Plus Portable Drive. It constantly goes in and out.

 

[nipponham]

3. No. The external drive goes to sleep every few seconds when SP3 is awake. This happens even when I have disabled sleep in Pwr Mgmt on the USB controllers in Device Manager. The NoSleep utility that I downloaded did not help. It does not go to sleep, however, when I am accessing the drive.

Hmm, you say that it doesn’t go to sleep when you access the drive, but when NoSleep accesses it, it does? I’m not sure what to make of this. It goes to sleep when writing to it but not when reading from it?

By the way, what is the make and model of your HDD? When you tried it with another pc that worked, was it a Win8.1 machine with USB3.0 port? Just making sure that the control is the same.

 

[Silver0066]

Hmm, you say that it doesn’t go to sleep when you access the drive, but when NoSleep accesses it, it does? I’m not sure what to make of this. It goes to sleep when writing to it but not when reading from it?

By the way, what is the make and model of your HDD? When you tried it with another pc that worked, was it a Win8.1 machine with USB3.0 port? Just making sure that the control is the same.

It is a WD Black, 2TB in a USB 3 enclosure. It works with all of my other computers. I don't understand why you don't understand. NoSleep has no effect is what I meant. The drive has the same symptoms, stated above, with NoSleep on or off.

 

[nipponham]

1. This HD works as intended with a different Win8.1 machine with USB3.0 port?
2. If so, does this other machine support Connected Standby?

I still don't understand the part about when you access the HD, it doesn't go to sleep but when NoSleep does, it does. You did mention that it goes to sleep after a few seconds of inactivity, so you can try this: http://keepalivehd.codeplex.com/ It's similar to NoSleep, but it can write files in frequencies of seconds rather than minutes. Try writing blank files every few seconds and see if this keeps it awake.