external HD not showing up in my computer.

[badboyzz77]

Hi everyone,
I have an external hard drive using eSata in windows vista. Whenever I don't use the hard drive for while it go idle and it it just disappear in my computer therefore I can't access it. Whenever the external hard drive goes idle and disappear in my computer through eSata, the only way to get it to show up again is restarting the computer.
so is there any way to let the external HD stays on 24/7?
BTW this doesn't happens when I used windows XP.

 

[Lexluethar]

Probably a power setting issue. Go into your power settings in Vista, go into the advanced screen and see if there is a setting to fix the issue.

Sometimes external hard drives also come with software that allows for power saving features, like going into hibernation after inactivity.

 

[badboyzz77]

Power settings in vista only let you change the duration before turning off all hard disks. When windows vista does this my internal HDs still there in my computer inactive until I click on it, but with the eSata external HD it just disappear.
My external HD doesn't have any software installed, I deleted them all from the beginning.

 

[KSoD]

The issue is that the power setting for the hard drive if you leave it alone is to turn it off after a set amount of time. So once your system goes into standby mode and then kicks off the screen saver and that it will go into low power standby which in turn shuts down the hard drives.

Including the External. Now you power up the system but it doesnt wake the external. So yo uhave to either adjust the power settings to leave the hard drives on or dont have your system get that far into the low power standby. Meaning just have the system shut down the monitors after a set amount of time and leave everythign else on so that the hard drive will stay active.

But i can tell you from experience, leaving a external on 24/7 with your PC is not a good idea. It will start to overheat and when you do go to access it you will get all sorts of errors and problems. Shutting it down when not in use and not going to be used for a couple of days is the best thing you can do to prolong the life of your external.