Whenever I don't access the hard drive for 45 minutes or so it goes off-line?

[phototec]

I have a Western Digital My Book Duo 4TB hard drive set up as RAID 1 (dual 2TB drives), use it for back up. It's been working great for several years.


I needed more capacity so I purchased a Western Digital My Book Duo 8TB hard drive set up as RAID 1 (dual 4TB drives), and whenever I don't use the drive for 45 minutes or so it goes off-line, can't access the files, get an error message saying I/O error. The drive came with a utility application and I have used it to turn OFF the sleep mode, so the drive should stay on like all my other hard drives, I have never had any issues like this before, with any other drive.


I have to unplug the USB cable and wait 10 seconds, plug it back in and then the drive is initiated and I can access the files.


I have contacted Western Digital several times, we have downloaded the latest driver, swapped USB cables, they even sent me a NEW Western Digital My Book Duo 8TB hard, and I still have the same issue.


Have you ever heard of hard drives doing this?


Any thoughts on what could cause the drive to go off-line and not be recognized?


I'm using a Dell XPS8300 running Windows 7, I have not upgraded the BIOS ever, could an older BIOS have something to do with the large 8TB hard drive?


If I upgrade my BOIS, will that effect my Geoforce GTX550Ti graphics card and dual monitor settings etc?


Thanks for any help (suggestions),

 

[eahicks]

Probably in the Power Management settings, where you can tell your computer to put monitors, hard drives, etc. to sleep, or hibernate or never do any of the above.

 

[Andriy]

Hi,

Have you tried adjusting the Turn off hard disk after setting in the Advanced Power Options?
I'm not positive if it affects every hard drive on the system but it's worth a shot.

 

[phototec]

Thanks guys, the hard drive was set to SLEEP after 20 minutes, so I changed it to never.

However, the C drive and two other USB external hard drives NEVER loose access, so not sure this will fix the issue, but I will give it a try and see what happens.

 

[x2chris7x]

We used to have problems with our Seagate hard drive... I would suggest BACKING UP your data! It wasn't very long after we had these problems when our hd went out... and none of the data was recoverable.

 

[player]

Might be time to get a copy of Acronus and do a complete mirror. Check online because some of the hd mfgrs offer a free version if you use at least 1 of their disks.

Would also be a good time to check out an NAS backup unit.. QNAP makes a good one.

 

[mark-s]

Just went through this, uplug the cable and plug into a different slot....worked for me.
Been fighting this since I got the new Dell Win7 64 bit.
Damn I don`t like Win7

mark-s

 

[phototec]

Hi,

Have you tried adjusting the Turn off hard disk after setting in the Advanced Power Options?
I'm not positive if it affects every hard drive on the system but it's worth a shot.

Ok, an UPDATE:

Followed the instructions above and turned OFF the hard drive power saver setting yesterday, I thought everything was fine, now all of the sudden I can't access the WD My Book Duo 8TB hard drive, get a message that says: The request could not be performed because of an I/O error.

So I had to unplug the USB cable, wait 10 seconds, plug it back in and then I can access the hard drive.

Mind you that this happened with the BRAND NEW WD My Book Duo 8TB hard drive right out of the box, and then it continues with a BRAND NEW replacement from Western Digital. So, I don't think it is the drive it's self.

Maybe something to do with Win 7 or the older BIOS on my computer from 2011?

I would like to update the BIOS, however not sure how that will effect all my dual monitor setting and my graphics card?

What is weird is, I also have the WD My Book Duo 4TB drive and a few other My Books (1TB, 1.5TB), and they NEVER have this going off line problem.

 

[CanuckSigns]

Can i ask why you are using this setup and not putting the HDD directly in a computer? We had a NAS at one point for our server, we found it to be incredibly slow! even a cheap computer with 3-4 HDD's inside will work 1000x better than a NAS as a file server.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

The request could not be performed because of an I/O error.

I would suspect that one or more of your usb drives is taking a dump on you.

I personally would highly suggest going the route of a NAS (we use a Qnap TS 869L).

Can i ask why you are using this setup and not putting the HDD directly in a computer? We had a NAS at one point for our server, we found it to be incredibly slow! even a cheap computer with 3-4 HDD's inside will work 1000x better than a NAS as a file server.

I would question your NAS. I wouldn't trade ours in for anything. Very very fast. That's with 5 computers accessing it at one time for various tasks.

 

[Andriy]

If you are by any chance plugging it into one of the face USBs then that could be an issue.

If it is indeed one of the back pieces then maybe try a different row, could just be a faulty USB.

Also see your BIOS settings within USB section, you might have an option there as well depending on the motherboard.

 

[phototec]

If you are by any chance plugging it into one of the face USBs then that could be an issue.

If it is indeed one of the back pieces then maybe try a different row, could just be a faulty USB.

Also see your BIOS settings within USB section, you might have an option there as well depending on the motherboard.

This Dell computer has two main USB ports on the rear, two on the top and two on the front, the drive in question is plugged into one of the two on the rear, however I will do as you suggest and swap it to the second port.

Western Digital did send me a shorter USB cable that did NOT fix the issue.

How do I check BIOS settings (Win 7)?

for all your help....

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Since you are getting this:

The request could not be performed because of an I/O error.

I would start here:

[h=3]Common IO Error Messages[/h] The most common IO error messages and codes are:

• “The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error.”
• “Only part of a readprocessmemory or writeprocessmemory request was completed.”
• I/O Error codes: error 6, error 21, error 103, error 105, error 131

[h=3]Causes of an IO Device Error[/h] I/O error issues might occur for any of the following reasons:

• Windows is trying to use a transfer mode that the hardware device cannot use.
• The hardware device that you are trying to access is damaged or defective.
• The hardware drivers are damaged or incompatible.
• There is a connection problem, such as a bad cable.
• The CD or DVD disk that you are trying to access is dirty or damaged.

[h=3]First Steps to Resolve I/O Device Error Problems[/h] Before you continu you should first perform the following steps:

1. Restart your computer, and then try to access the drive or disk again.
2. Use a cleaner disc to clean the disk.
3. If you have another computer available, try to access the data on the drive or disk with the other PC to confirm that the drive or disk is not damaged.
4. If you do not have another computer available, try a different disk to make sure that the problem is with the computer and not with the original disk.

 

[phototec]

First Steps to Resolve I/O Device Error Problems

All four other hard drives connected to my computer work fine, they NEVER go offline (or in a sleep mode), only this NEW WD My Book Duo 8TB (RAID1) has the intermittent problem.

The older WD My Book Duo 4TB (RAID1) works just fine and never has any problems.

I have restarted the computer many, many times, and yes the drive shows up after re-starting (every time).

Again, whenever the drive has a I/O error, I unplug the USB cable and wait 10 seconds and the re-attach and the drive is recognized, so the drive is working. This has been happening to two BRAND new drives, the first one was sent back to Western Digital.

I will connect it to another computer and see if it goes into a sleep mode after a period of none use.

 

[nate]

Can i ask why you are using this setup and not putting the HDD directly in a computer? We had a NAS at one point for our server, we found it to be incredibly slow! even a cheap computer with 3-4 HDD's inside will work 1000x better than a NAS as a file server.

Really depends on the NAS-- A cheap $100 unit would probably fit this description. A highend $4K Synology unit, for instance, would be fantastic. It's all in the you-get-what-you-pay-for mentality--

 

[phototec]

I found another tip: Disable the (Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power) in the Power Management setting for the USB ROOT HUB, my system had two, so I turned them both OFF.

I will see if this makes a difference......

 

[jfiscus]

X2 on being sure you have a quality NAS system and also an offsite backup running.
We had a cheaper setup similar to your before and had drive failure issues and almost lost all of our data due to the local supposedly backup drive not really replicating the data.
We upgraded to a multi-drive local NAS and offsite backup and 1 month later got hit with a nasty virus (unrecoverable on ALL local data) and the offsite backup was the only thing that saved the company.

 

[Pippin Decals]

Probably in the Power Management settings, where you can tell your computer to put monitors, hard drives, etc. to sleep, or hibernate or never do any of the above.

you are correct on this . I had the same issue and i dont remember the steps to fix it right now. but you need to keep it active so it doesnt sleep.It could pop up and say it cant access the drive either and need to format but ignore that, just have to unplug and plug back in till its gets resynced.