External USB Hard Drive keeps disconnecting - Why ?!?

My external HDD every couple of days or so gets kicked off my computer. The way I find this out is I attempt to open a recent file (either from an app like Word or from Windows 11's stupidly titled "Quick Access" section) and my computer declares that this file does not exist. At this point I have to go into Disk Management and re-assign drive letter "Z" to the drive, at which point the drive is back up and running.

I've already checked Power Options --> Advanced Settings to mess with the USB settings, but I don't have any USB settings (see attached). I also don't want my HDD to continue spinning 24/7, so if I change the Hard Disk --> Turn off hard disk after _______ minutes to Never, it will never spin down, correct?

I was having this same issue with a drive I keep permanently attached and fought the problem for months, trying different ports along the way. For me,all I had to do was just open disk management and the drive would be detected using the letter I had permanently assigned it. I did not have to do anything in disk management. By the same token, the drive would be detected as soon as I opened any partitioning software. I moved the drive to a externally powered usb hub and haven't had any problems since with the drive being recognized as it should. The only drawback is the hub is 2.0 and the drive is 3.1. It'll work until I can buy a powered 3.1 hub. It made no sense to me because my external hard drive is also externally powered. All my other devices work fine on any of my usb ports. It's just this one drive which Seatools tests OK but Windows doesn't like.....or my PC doesn't like.

ditto. But It was a fault at the usb port and with me. My 4TB drive is connected via a multi port usb (with buttons) and it seems a container perched on top of the drive was sometimes nudging the connector. I move it forward a bit and the problem stopped. I have winodws sounds on and I could hear when it became unusable.

Fun Guy said:

My external HDD every couple of days or so gets kicked off my computer. The way I find this out is I attempt to open a recent file (either from an app like Word or from Windows 11's stupidly titled "Quick Access" section) and my computer declares that this file does not exist. At this point I have to go into Disk Management and re-assign drive letter "Z" to the drive, at which point the drive is back up and running.

I've already checked Power Options --> Advanced Settings to mess with the USB settings, but I don't have any USB settings (see attached). I also don't want my HDD to continue spinning 24/7, so if I change the Hard Disk --> Turn off hard disk after _______ minutes to Never, it will never spin down, correct?

Click to expand...

The setting you've enabled seems to pertain to internal drives only. Since you're connecting an external drive, it probably has to do with the port itself being turned off to save power.

Open Device manager, go to Universal Serial Bus controllers, find the port / hub that your drive is connected to, open the properties page, select the Power Management tab, and uncheck Allow the computer to turn this device off to save power.

As an example:



See if that helps keep the drive connected. However, you may also have to check to see if that drive has any proprietary that may also enforce power savings.

HTH