My Book Home 1TB connected by eSata disappears after going to sleep

[JimmyS]

To TechieInClagary: The thing is on my old machine the drive definitely went to sleep, and wasn't being 'poked' . When I tried to access it, it'd take about 10 or so seconds to wake up again but it worked fine (sometimes freezing my computer for a second). This is all while connected by eSATA.

I really don't know what to think now, but I'm using USB out of desperation. Perhaps I should try using an older JMicron driver?

[TechieInCalgary]

@JimmyS

I discovered that mine wakes up most of the time now, even after a weekend, but from time-to-time it doesn't. I'm still using eSATA on the above configuration. I did apply the latest firmware to the controller card and it is a newer drive - 1.5 TB, my old 1.0 TB drive packed in the ghost physically... platter damage it seemed. I have since moved the drive to the desktop instead of on top of the computer itself.

[trinitonesounds]

This problem is beyond annoying!!

I have a Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD5 motherboard (JMicron JMB362 chip) and the MyBook Home 1Tb drive.  I'm using the 1.17.55 JMicron driver.

The drive drops from the system 5 minutes (exactly!) after plugging it in.  It makes no difference if I'm accessing it or writing to it.  The only way to get it back is to power cycle it with the plugin cord.

Totally useless for a backup system and I must have major filesystem corruption because of all the drops.

Curtis

[TechieInCalgary]

@trinitonesounds

That sounds quite unusual and is definitely not my experience. I use mine every day at work to run things off of, not just as a backup drive. During the day, whether I'm accessing it or not, it seems to work fine. For instance, just now, there were no lights as I hadn't accessed it for a long time, but it woke up as soon as I began accessing the drive to open the properties page and run a check disk.

Have you tried putting the latest firmware on the "controller board" of the MyBook? You hadn't said one way or another in your post.

Edit: I'm beginning to wonder if some of this may be related to the power settings. Are some of these systems set up to power down drives if they are idle, and others are not?  I'm not even sure what my setting is, but it's a thought.

[Sunder]

I have the exact same problem - found this forum when I was searching for solution.

My two 1.5GB WD drives just disappear after a while - and there is no icon to try and bring them back.

I literally have 13 different external hard drives - and the two WD MyBooks are the only ones that exhibit this problem.

I have an Intel XBX2 motherboard, which uses the Marvell Raid for their eSata. WD "dies" until reboot with it.

I also have a Silicon Image RAID card, which the 2 WD drives are conected to. Same problem.

Conclusion: it's not the computer controller, it's the WD drives themselves (or more specifically the WD interface)

It's an insane and frustrating problem for me. I cannot rely on them and have to unplug/plug them in person every time. So much for the benefits of having a network and working remotely...

[TechieInCalgary]

Update: I have the latest firmware and still (randomly) the drive shuts down. I also work remotely and my VM's are on that drive, so suddenly, I'm pretty much unable to do my work.  I don't have any power-down settings or anything. I've followed some "advice" and have a windows scheduler process that over-writes a file on the filesystem with the date and time every 10 minutes in an attempt to keep it awake.  I definitely have write caching turned off at the OS!

If I recall, it went to sleep once even with *that* running!

[unhappycustomer]

Similar problem here! In my system, this drive causes windows 7 to crash when the drive powers down. If I had checked this forum sooner, I would have returned this drive to fry's. How can WD know about this problem (since it is described here) and not fix it? I will likely remove the drives (4 TB) and trash this enclosure. Or, maybe someone would like to use it via USB? Any takers? 4 TB WD 40000h2Q-00

[AskApache]

Something I didn't see above... First things first, make sure you modify your Operating Systems power settings.  Especially disabling anything like hibernation or suspend to disk.

Does the Same but Worse with USB

I went to Fry's electronics and purchased a card specifically for faster access, no matter what I try, from a full zeroed out drive on a MAC, on XP, and Linux, this is the SLOWEST and WORST hard drive I've ever seen.  And I've been around since 4MB was considered to be humongous.  This is the 10th post about this sucky drive I've seen now.. and NO WD response.  If I don't see a WD response to this I'm done with WD forever, and I've been a customer for 20 years.

[Bill_S]

---

AskApache wrote:

Something I didn't see above... First things first, make sure you modify your Operating Systems power settings.  Especially disabling anything like hibernation or suspend to disk.

Does the Same but Worse with USB

I went to Fry's electronics and purchased a card specifically for faster access, no matter what I try, from a full zeroed out drive on a MAC, on XP, and Linux, this is the SLOWEST and WORST hard drive I've ever seen.  And I've been around since 4MB was considered to be humongous.  This is the 10th post about this sucky drive I've seen now.. and NO WD response.  If I don't see a WD response to this I'm done with WD forever, and I've been a customer for 20 years.

---

Sorry, guys, but it's doubtful that you will see a response without me escalating this.  This forum is not a support forum.  I will escalate this thread and see if I can get you some help.

[WDJeremy]

No WD drive with eSATA will sleep on its own and disconnect itself from the computer by design.  If the drive disappears from a computer then there is a hardware connectivity issue.  All WD MyBook drives use the power signal from the data cable to decide whether to stay on to turn off.  Therefore, the drive will turn off or appear to "sleep" if the data connection disappears.

WD has released firmware updates for our eSATA drives so I recommend checking our downloads page first to ensure your drive has the most up to date software.  If the drive's firmware is up to date then any of the following scenarios will cause the same symptom:  

1. The drive is oriented horizontally instead of vertically.  WD designed the MyBook family of drives to passively vent heat through the top and they may overheat when placed horizontally.  See WD KB #1186 for reference.

2. The eSATA cable too long for the eSATA controller.  Many eSATA controllers only support 1 meter (3 feet) cables and will not work consistently when using a longer cable.

3. The eSATA port connected to the drive is not one from a dedicated eSATA controller but instead a bracket that converts an internal SATA header into an eSATA port.  The SATA ports on most motherboards and controller cards are designed only to push data through 18 inches of cable.  Most eSATA brackets use a 12 or 18-inch cable.  If you factor that length together with the eSATA cable itself, the eSATA device will not be seen consistently or at all.

4. WD has a list of known-good eSATA controllers on KB #1524.  Other eSATA controllers may certainly work but are not known to function.  When using an eSATA controller not on our compatibility list, unfortunately your results will be unpredictable.

Please note that the eSATA cable itself must have a firm connection with the drive and controller.  If the connection is loose then the drive will not operate consistently or even at all.