Windows 7 USB Hard Drive Problem

[Tigeromega]

I have a Seagate 2T USB 3.0 HD and about once a week after comming out of sleep mode I get a box that asks me to scan drive for errors. The first couple of times I scanned it but never found any errors. It takes a couple of hours to do. It also changes the drive letter from E to F. I go to Disk management and change it back. What a pain in the butt. Could this be a Windows 7 problem or a HD problem? I have the latest 3.0 drivers installed.

 

[Josephur]

My guess is what is happening is when it goes to sleep its not going to sleep "nicely" and Windows thinks it unmounted itself in a dirty state. You could try turning off sleep mode for hard drives in Power Options, as well as right click, properties on the USB root hub its connected to in Device Manager, and un-check the "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" option.

 

[Tigeromega]

Thanks for the quick reply. I set the Power Options for the HD'S never to sleep. I should know in a week or so to see if it solves the problem. Thanks again.

 

[Saltgrass]

In the same place as the Power Options for the drive, but on the Policies tab, there are some more options. Changing those settings might allow the drive to be treated like a permanent drive, but would require a "Safe" disconnect option.

If this is one of those Backup Plus external drives, I have some special problems with it doing things such as not booting correctly during reboots. I have not noticed your particular situation with it, but I do not alter the drive letter Windows assigns. You might even try using a drive letter lower in the alphabet to see if it will not be reset.

 

[Tigeromega]

I tried as suggested but now it does the same thing but now every time it comes out of sleep. Any other suggestions? This is most annoying.

 

[Jimbo22]

Is there any information from Seagate about the do's and don'ts of using sleep mode on their USB HDD's.

 

[Joe S]

Have you tried looking on the Seagate forums and to see if they have any firmware updates?
Joe

 

[Saltgrass]

You never confirmed which drive you are using, but my Seagate Backup + Desk, 2 TB drive, has been put to sleep 3 times with no problems coming out. I did assign a letter to it, P: in my case. The small white LED is a good indication if the drive is connected or not.

The drive did wake up once when the system was still asleep. Possibly because another system woke it up, but I will have to test.

Edit: I am not using the Seagate software that came with the drive....