Could Hibernation Have Blocked Access?

Electric utility had a 115KV transmission line fail early today, with over 100K customers without power. My APC UPS put my computer into hibernation before shutting down. When I turned on the computer, it quickly returned me to the status ante quo, and everything seemed fine.

However, I later found that I could not access most of the folders on one of my two USB external hard drives, nor could I even create a new folder as a test. Trying to regain access gave me a series of error messages, a few of which I could not figure out, as they seemed to be telling me to do something for which I had no comprehension. I know that I had looked at at least one of the now-inaccessible folders during the day yesterday.

Wondering what might happen were I to reboot, I did so; to my relief, access was restored to the USB hard disk. Is it possible that the problem was caused by the hibernation and repaired by the restart?

It's entirely possible. Are your USB devices powered from the USB port and does the UPS deliver enough power to keep all the devices functioning? Just speculating!

philc43 said:

It's entirely possible. Are your USB devices powered from the USB port and does the UPS deliver enough power to keep all the devices functioning? Just speculating!

Personally, I don't think that anything is entirely possible, not even the existence of the universe....

Thanks for replying. I agree that it may well be possible: Given the facts as I know them, the only conclusion I could come to is that the sequence I outlined was most likely the cause and the cure, strange thought that be.

As for my UPS, yes, it has more than adequate power: According to its software, it can provide 780 watts, of which it is now providing 62 watts, and that is with my usual programs opened.