EXT HDD cuts out during burns ?

[BlizzardUK]

I am recording DL-BD-Rs which take a good while to record, and sometimes I will come back to my PC during burning and find words to the effect of "failed to read from file : xxxxxxx.iso", giving me the option to retry. If I click retry nothing happens as the file still isn't there, but if I navigate to my external HDD in Windows Explorer, then wait 5 to 10 seconds for it to come alive again, then it is fine. I am taking a shot in the dark that Windows is putting it in power down or idle mode. I have told the power settings to to never turn off hard disks. So what is going on ? Also why isn't Windows 7 smart enough to know the drive is being used by IMG Burn so to keep the drive alive ? Surely reading from the drive is using it ? But maybe I am wrong in presuming it is down to power down, but the fact I can carry on burning when I click on the drive in Windows Explorer must mean it is being re-powered up or something.

 

Any ideas how to keep the external HDD alive without being at the PC myself ? 

 

 

[Peru]

It may be the external drive's own software that is powering it down.  Is there any utilities installed on the external drive?  What is the model of the drive?

[ianymaty]

Is it USB connected? Try disable the "USB selective suspend" power option.

[BlizzardUK]

Thanks. I will try the USB selective suspend option. Yes, it is connected via USB to a docking station style dock. 

 

Thanks for advice. Still can't understand though why Windows can't recognise the drive is being used as it is being read from. 

[ianymaty]

As you say it is connected through docking station, it may be that it's controller has the problem that interfere with Windows and timig out.

 

Is there any software/driver needed for the docking station to work with Windows. Try update it.