Hi guys I'm having an issue with my external hard drives disconnecting from my PC. I have 2 1TB externals with all my kontakt libraries on them and when they disconnect it crashes ableton. This usually only happens when it's accessing the samples from the drive. The odd thing is they disconnect for really no rhyme or reason this has been happening on and off since I got them. It won't do this for an entire month then all of a sudden it starts doing it and I cant use kontakt for a week until it decides to stop doing it again. Xidax built my PC and I have done numerous remote sessions with them and they are about to have me send in my PC which I am really trying to avoid. They said it has nothing to do with the power supply being inefficient and I know its definitely not the drives themselves as this has been happening randomly since I bought them and they are both doing it. I have unchecked USB selective suspend and related power options any suggestions? Thanks.

 

im lost

 

Don’t plug the usb cord to end of the computer usb port . Pull it out a little that it still connects and see if it works

 

The problem is with USB 3 or over
You have to connect to a USB 2.0 slot yes you will loose speed but it will never disconnect

The problem with USB 3 connection is your motherboard cuts the connection (puts it to sleep mode) and you have no control over it.
I had the same problem so annoying
You have to connect to USB 2.0 (if you have a modern motherboard it should be a black USB port)
Blue USB ports are 3.0 or 3.1 high speed USB ports do not connect there I don't know if windows or the motherboard itself is forcing it to sleep mode I had the same issue.

 

I had the same problem recently and the only thing that worked (after altering various different settings) was powering off and moving the drive to a different USB port.

The problem for me started after I moved the drive for a day or so to a different machine and then put it back into the same port.

This is good to know.

 

It would be if there was some correct underlying technical explanation for it.

Connect the same drive to a Mac and tell me the problem is caused by USB 3.0 protocol or wiring.

It won't do the same thing. Maybe it will solve your issue, but it is not indicative of some underlying problem with using USB 3.0 to connect external HDs. It is being caused by something else or everyone using similar externals would see this same issue. And they do not.

 

Last edited: Mar 22, 2022

For clarity... you disabled ALL power saving options in your windows power scheme (under "advanced power settings")?

 

...btw are both external drives the same manufacturer & model? Assuming they are, perhaps they have an internal firmware (or USB3 driver) setting that's causing them to suspend? Certainly imho it'd be worth your while to check the web to see if any other users have had similar issues with these external drives, 'cos currently you're placing all the emphasis on the computer itself having the problem, whereas actually it's both external drives that are misbehaving...

 

Last edited: Mar 22, 2022

USB 3 and up is more sensitive, There is another sometimes overlooked section you can check before you decide to move down to USB 2.
It worked for me but I acknowledge that it is unlikely any of us have the identical system, though the principles are similar.
The M/B powerdown is also controlled from the Device manager. Certain facets of the USB in the device manager have power settings that are on by default and you'll need to turn them off. These are completely separate from the power management in control panel or settings (Win 10 + 11) and they generally do not affect USB 2 the same way they do USB 3 I have been told.

Check these before you revert to USB 2 and if they work, great. They did for me but I am assuming nothing.


P.S EDIT- The added bonus even if this does not fix your immediate issue is the read/write caching is more consistent, your USB Audio interface works better as does anything involving caching and buffers at a more consistent level (copy/paste etc..).

 

Last edited by a moderator: Mar 22, 2022

As summed here :
Disable EACH port power saving AND Root Hubs.
Disable ALL Power Management on Windows, including "stop hard drives"

You can try an USB hub, too

 

The sleep mode trick could resolve issue, another option is use a powered hub (it worked for me)

 

Have you gone into your BIOS and made sure there is not some type of Power Management going on at lower level than Windows?

 

Some possible issues causing problems:

• Shared internal USB Hub.
• USB ports not capable of powering external HD or SSD. This is sometimes limited to one specific port designated in the motherboard manual.
• Power savings/sleep mode is active in BIOS or Windows OS settings.
• External drive controller not true USB3
• USB3 Cable not capable of delivering enough to power external HD (amperage & wattage).
• USB3 A-Type connector that works perfectly on Apple system may require that you insert & pull back slightly to make correct contact in x86/x64 PC based system.

 

yep did this

 

Do you have any other USB devices connected to the USB bus? at all. Name them if you can, and how you have the devices connected. Is there a hub in the configuration? Obviously, you will want to start disconnecting anything that could be pulling power.

 

These drives were plugged directly into my motherboard 3.0 ports. Thank you for all of your advice going to try a few things and get back. Thanks guys (I plugged the 2 ssds into 2.0 ports and so far they havent disconnected)

 

Last edited: Mar 23, 2022

Do you have ErP on in your BIOS or ErP ready turned on? Usually it does not affect anything except PME Event Wake Up, Power On By Mouse, Power On By Keyboard, and Wake On LAN - or as someone suggested, get a powered hub because most of the usual suspects seem to have been covered.

 

There are 1 more things to do, if you are using windows 10 to prevent external hard dives to go to sleep mode and disconnect.

You can use a command

- First open command prompt as admin, to do so, write cmd in the start menu search bar. Right click on it, select "run as admin".

- Then write or copy/paste this:
powercfg /SETACVALUEINDEX SCHEME_CURRENT 2a737441-1930-4402-8d77-b2bebba308a3 48e6b7a6-50f5-4782-a5d4-53bb8f07e226 0

- Press "enter"

It worked perfectly for me, while all other methods failed.

You can see this method explained in details in this webpage:
https://helpdeskgeek.com/windows-10...-suspend-on-windows-10-and-how-to-disable-it/

Search for Disable USB Selective Suspend Using Command Prompt

 

Last edited: Apr 19, 2022