External USB 3.0 HDD enclosure keeps restarting after laptop standby

[Dr_M0rph3us]

Introduction: after my 6-month old WD Elements 1TB HDD died for no apparent reason, I decided to try a different approach, using an USB 3.0 enclosure. But this setup has it's own problems, apparently.

The setup (the relevant stuff):
Lenovo ThinkPad T420 (Lenovo 4180AG8 motherboard, Intel Core i5 2520M CPU, 8 GB RAM, 180 GB Intel 520 series SSD) with Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 64-bit
Sharkoon QuickStore Portable Pro USB 3.0 external storage enclosure with Western Digital Scorpio Blue 2.5 1TB (SATA II, 5400 RPM, 8MB Buffer memory)

The problem:
The drives works normally when the laptop is turned on - the performance is good, no problems so far. But when putting the laptop to sleep (stand-by / suspend), the drive shuts down, makes a single click sound, then spins up again, and repeats this process continuously.
I have to unplug the drive from the USB port to avoid this, but sometimes I'm in a hurry and forget. I'm afraid that this problem might shorten the life of the drive and/or damage the HDD R/W head assembly.

What I suspect:
My suspicion is that the USB 3.0 port is powered during standby. When the system goes into sleep mode, it sends a certain signal to the peripherals to notify the new state, so the the HDD spins down. The enclosure detects that it's powered, and spins-up the HDD again, and so on.

How can I prevent this from happening? Is there a solution to fix this in Windows or BIOS, or do I need to buy a different enclosure?

Thanks!

 

[Dr_M0rph3us]

...and my HDD died .

I left the office in a hurry last night, forgetting to unplug the external USB enclosure after putting the laptop in standby, and when I returned today morning and switched back on, it didn't detect the HDD.

It tries to spin up 5 times, then nothing. Not detected in partition management, not even as RAW.

I tried plugging the HDD in a different enclosure using eSATA (should see it as local HDD), and the same sequence occurs - 5 attempts to spin & seek, abort.

If no one could answer my first question, at least regard this as a warning to change the enclosure if HDD keeps restarting when in standby. Otherwise you risk burning your drive, just like I did.

My suspicion lies on badly-written firmware for the enclosure.

HDD Model: Western Digital WD10JPVT-00A1YTO (1TB, SATA II, 5400 RPM, 8MB Buffer)
Enclosure Model: Sharkoon QuickStore Portable USB3.0 BLACK