My external hard drive went to sleep

ssal

ssal

Active Member
I have my 5 TB external drive plugged to the USB of my laptop. I have the power setting that it would not turn off the computer and USB as long as the AC is plugged in. The ext. HDD has its own power supply plugged in to an outlet on the power stripe.

I noticed that the ext HDD would go to sleep. I have File History daily automatic backup scheduled. Would the computer wake up the HDD to do the backup? (PS: I actually checked that it hasn't been backup up the past 3 days!)
 
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External hard drives go to sleep when they have been inactive, but as soon as you try to perform activity on the drive it will wake back up. The only noticeable issue is it takes a few seconds to spin back up.
 
Go into the properties of the HDD and you will be able to manage the power and sleep settings there. Also do the same for USB.
 
On all three of the Generic USB Hub, the power management tab had the "Allow the computer to turn off" was UNchecked.
On the ext HDD (Seagate Expansion Disk), there is not power management tab.
 
You really don't want it to be awake 24/7 anyways, it's going to overheat and lose it's longevity. Even internal hard drives will spin down and go in a sleep state when not in use.
 
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