Windows 8 External USB Drive Folders

[bob550]

I am running Windows 8 Pro, with two USB external drives attached. One drive is "dormant", and the other is used for file backups. I have noticed that when the computer exits from sleep mode, either one or both external USB drive folders will open on the desktop. I can only guess this signifies that these drives may have been accessed while the computer was in sleep mode. Can anyone offer an explanation of this behavior?

 

[Mitchell_A]

It may be a driver issue, if the computer puts suspends the USB ports when it goes to sleep, it may very well open them through autoplay when the computer is awoken, as the mobo may see the drives as being reconnected.

See if USB selective suspend is enable in your advanced power options, and check for the latest drivers for your USB controller/chipset. I can help you find them if you need the help.

 

[bob550]

So, I'm guessing that this behavior is not native to Windows 8? This issue has occurred ever since upgrading from Vista in late January. Anyway, USB Selective Suspend is enabled in Advanced Power Settings. Via Device Mangler, I determined there were no better drivers available for the USB Host Controllers listed. On a hunch, I also unchecked "allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" for all USB Root Hubs. We'll see what, if anything, that does.

 

[Mitchell_A]

Sorry I forgot to mention, disable selective suspend if enabled.
Device Manager will only ever find an update for a driver if it happens to be on Windows Update (so basically, DM will never find an update for a driver). If you can post the hardware ID and current driver version (which you can find in the properties dialog) I'll verify if you have the latest driver.

 

[bob550]

Sorry for the delayed response. I took your advice and disabled USB selective suspend and I no longer have the issue I originally cited. But, in the past week, I also replaced the two small external drives with a new external 1 TB portable drive. Maybe that had an impact as well. I'll leave well enough alone for now since it's all working fine.

 

[Mitchell_A]

Glad to hear all went well. Don't hesitate to post again if you do encounter more issues.

 

[bob550]

Thanks for your help!