External HDD not working after 2 hrs

[evildoctordrew]

My WD Elements external HDD works great, but after being idle in windows 10 for x amount of time it becomes unreadable. The folders are all visible in explorer and able to be navigated but contain none of the files that are ACTUALLY present. When I unplug and replug it in, however, it all gets back to normal. Any idea why this is happening?

I have it setup as my default drive for downloads, and when it isn't 'working' my downloads wont actually download, just stay at 0%, because it can't write to the disk as it isn't technically present.

 

[D_Know_WD]

Hi there evildoctordrew,

Sorry that you are facing some issues with your WD drive.

My advice would be to back up the important data stored on it until you sort this out.

After that, you can run both short and extended DLG tests on it: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=pWZnMM
In case the drive turns out to be in a healthy state, you can attach it with a different cable to another USB port. If you are using a desktop machine, you can attach the HDD to the ports on the back, as they are directly attached to the MOBO. If you attach the drive to another system, you will rule out a possible drivers/settings related issue.

Another thing you can do is to is to disable any power saving options and update your USB 3.0 drivers from your MOBO's website.

Let me know how this goes,
D_Know_WD