External HDD (ST3100024AS) connected via USB3 constantly turns on and off, powers off, powers on.
How to prevent this needless wear-and-tear?
Power settings in Windows including power settings in the USB device manager seem to be ignored have no effect.
This does not happen if that hard disk is connected via SATA cable to the motherboard.
Now this is gonna be weird, but....
I have a USB joystick that used to do that.
The solution was to clean the apparently clean... USB connector with Isopropyl alcohol.
Get 90% or higher at any drug store.
That may not be the problem ofc... but it's an easy thing to test.
What's really weird is that I googled that model number, and got all Russian and one French results.
Last edited by Ghot; 20 Aug 2023 at 19:07.
We need to know more about the ST3100024AS drive. I can find nothing about it on the Internet. Is it an external hard drive made by Seagate. How old is it
What you may be seeing is the hard drive going to sleep and then waking up. If that is what it is doing then ignore that since that is what it is designed to do. If that bothers you then just unplug it and only plug it back in when you need it.
BTW, I have 3-4 external hard drives that are always plugged in. They are constantly going to sleep and waking up as needed. Note none of them have power switches so I have no control of when that happens. The only way to stop this would be to unplug them.
St31000524as
ST31000524AS 3.5 inch Barracuda 1TB GB 7200rpm SATA Drive with 32MB Buffer
works fine in one of these
ORICO-5-25-Inch-Trayless
or even better something like this
https://www.aliexpress.com/i/4000010495164.html
That's probably because of your covert Russian and French spy operations...Now this is gonna be weird, but....
I have a USB joystick that used to do that.
The solution was to clean the apparently clean... USB connector with Isopropyl alcohol.
Get 90% or higher at any drug store.
That may not be the problem ofc... but it's an easy thing to test.
What's really weird is that I googled that model number, and got all Russian and one French results.
Had a typo, it's an ST31000524AS, a Seagate Barracuda 1 TB. 10 years old, rarely used, 100% mint condition.
It's not the peripheral new cabling as it's the drive that is doing this. Other devices used with the same cables have no issue. the power-down occurs after a few minutes of inactivity and then suddenly it powers up again. All the cabling, plugs, connectors and jib jab jazz is all new. and it must be something in the drive, built in, hardcoded the firmware.
Oh well, thanks for your reply anyway!
- - - Updated - - -
Had a typo, it's an ST31000524AS, a Seagate Barracuda 1 TB. 10 years old, rarely used, 100% mint condition.
All the cabling, plugs, connectors and jib jab jazz is all new. It must be something in the drive, built in, hardcoded the firmware.
- - - Updated - - -
Had a typo, it's an ST31000524AS, a Seagate Barracuda 1 TB. All the cabling, plugs, connectors and jib jab jazz is all new. and it must be something in the drive, built in, hardcoded the firmware.
The ST31000524AS is a SATA hard drive. What you haven't said what external enclosure you have it mounted in.
Is the drive going to sleep or is it powering off? Are you sure the enclosure is not causing the problem?
You said the drive worked fine when hooked up internally, via SATA cable.
IF... the drive works internally...
Then it pretty much has to be the enclosure, the cable, the USB port itself.
Could also be the USB or Hard Disk settings in Advanced Power Management.
Also may want to check Device Manager... see if there's any USB issues?
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