External HDD keeps recycling

Hello rap33042!
If it's not the USB option in your power plan, as you say...I seem to remember, that some drives have an internal "clock" that powers down the drive after a certain phase of inactivity. In that case the on/off switch would have a 3rd setting: "auto".
Set that to "on" and see if that changes anything. how big are the intervals BTW?

-DG

yes, I meant a physical switch on the back of the drive...well it was worth a shot.
I only have external WD drives and they too power down after 10 minutes (factory setting)
But they come with some software that lets you (among other things) change the timing or switch off this feature.
They're called WD Smartware on one drive and WD windows Tools on another.
But I doubt they'd work on a Seagate...so your best bet would be to check with seagate's service if they have anything comparable.

Others than that you probably need some application that frequently accesses that drive to reset the internal timer. (perhaps some kind of active folder watch will do)

-DG

rap33042 said:

Hello all!

I have 400GB external Seagate.

I've checked the USB power options to see if this was an issue- no.
They are disabled.

I wonder if it isn't a time-out inherent in the drive itself?

I don't want it to power down until I shut it off manually.
As is, it keeps shutting down, then spinning back up again.
Most annoying, not to mention that it might be wearing down the drive.

How do I keep this from happening?

Hi,

you could try installing the Seagate manager that you can get from here:

FreeAgent | Go, FreeAgent | Desk, FreeAgent | XTreme | Seagate
Then adjust the power setting by using the Manager to "Never". Didn't help me, but who knows, might do the trick in your case.

BR,
Ex