WD Elements 2TB powers up spontaneously after spin down

WD External Drives External Drives for PC
1

My 2TB WD Elements 2.5" USB harddisk spins down correctly after a period of inactivity. However, after a while (I haven’t timed it but it’s about 15-30 minutes after spinning down) it spontaneously powers back up again and then won’t spin down any more. This also occurs when the disk is connected ONLY to a powered USB hub (i.e. there is NO host computer connected to the disk or the USB hub at all; the disk is just powered by the hub but there’s nothing to access the disk) which proves that the problem lies with the disk and not the host computer.

Since this disk is intended for a HTPC it is important that the disk spins down after a period of inactivity and stays that way until accessed.

I have two similar 2TB 2.5" USB drives made by Toshiba who don’t exhibit this behavior and spin down and back up correctly.

So how do I make this WD Elements behave like it should? Ideas, anyone?

Tnx!

2

Hi, does this happens when the drive is connected directly to the computer?

3

Hi, Lluna,

It happens when the drive is directly connected to ANY host system. So far I’ve tried desktop computers, laptop computers, a Raspberry Pi, and any OS from Windows XP and Windows 7 to Ubuntu Linux and OpenElec. It also happens when the disk is connected only to a USB hub and there’s no host system in the mix at all. In all cases the disk (mis)behaves in exactly the same way: it spins down after a period of inactivity, only to spin back up again spontaneously after a while and then refusing to ever spin down again.

Currently I’m working around the problem by replacing this WD disk with a Toshiba one, but this is a less than satisfactory solution.