Windows 10: External USB drive pauses regularly: for 1 minutes about every 17 minutes.

My setup is a Dell desk-side PC running whatever the latest version of Windows 10 happens to be today. It does the monthly Microsoft updates with annoying regularity. I have had this problem for several months, through many First Tuesday updates.


The external drive is a Drobo 5, containing five 2 and 4 TB hard drives, in a double-redundancy configuration, with a capacity of about 8 TB. It is connected by USB 3, plugged into the back of the Dell computer with a 1 meter USB-A to USB-C cable.


The symptom is that the system pauses with astonishing regularity. Let's say I am watching a movie from a file on the Drobo. Approximately every 17 minutes, the movie pauses for almost exactly 60 seconds. The work-around is to copy the MP4 video file to the C drive an SSD or the D drive a regular 2TB hard drive; both are connected via SATA internally.


This also happens, with what I presume to be the same regularity, when I am processing RAW and JPEG images from the Drobo.


I submitted this to Drobo. I had a long phone chat with the technical rep and they say it is not a Drobo issue.

What else do you y'all need to help me diagnose this?

:)

 

USB 3.0 external hard drive disconnects after a few minutes


USB Selective suspend setting under the USB tab is off.

Edit: I found this program however I don't like there solution, they suggest that external hard drives go to sleep after 10 minutes. maybe there is not way to control the sleep timer on an external drive
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/preven...-sleep-windows

 

USB 3.0 external hard drive disconnects after a few minutes


I connect my USB 3.0 external hard drive to my laptop and it works but after a few minutes of not using it the disk stops spinning and when I to use it again my computer locks up and after 30-60 seconds it disconnects and reconnects some times. Else I have to pull it out. If I use the drive without a to long pause in between it work perfectly fine but as soon as the drive stop spinning and has to spin up that is where it happened. that feature in the power options turn on where the power to usb does not turn off. Any suggestions?

EDIT: I have an Idea I will look to see it I can change the hard drive shutdown time in properties. I not home yet I will let you know if that work

 

External hard drive not recognised

Thanks for this. I've done what you suggested and been through all the steps mentioned in the article. The hard drive works fine on a Mac computer, and I've managed to copy the information on it. It must be a Surface issue so I'll try to get a chat line tomorrow.