External Hard Drive that Keeps Disconnecting: 6 Ways to Fix

Today, we’ll show you how to fix the issue of your external hard drive frequently disconnecting.

The reason why your external hard drive keeps disconnecting can be caused by several factors, such as outdated operating systems, faulty or outdated drivers, bad USB ports, or even power issues.

Let’s go through the possible causes and fixes to get your external hard drive running smoothly again.

How do I fix my external hard drive connection?

1. Connect your hard drive to a different USB port

Many users have fixed external hard drive disconnections on Windows 10 by simply switching to a different USB port.

If your PC has both USB 3.0 and 2.0 ports, try using a USB 2.0 port. While transfer speeds may be slower, this should prevent disconnections.

2. Turn off the USB selective suspend

The solution below describes you the method that will help you fix the disconnecting external hard drive. Follow the next steps to change your power-saving settings and disable the USB selective suspend feature.

1. 1. Press Windows Key + S, type control panel and select Control Panel from the results list.

   

2. 2. When Control Panel opens, go to Power Options.

   

3. 3. The power Options window will now open.

4. 4. Locate your power plan and click on Change plan settings.

   

5. 5. Click on Change advanced power settings.

6. 6. Navigate to USB settings / USB selective suspend setting and set it to Disabled, then click on Apply and OK to save changes.

   

If your external hard drive keeps disconnecting, the problem might be the power-saving feature. For example, your PC might be configured to turn off USB devices after a while to save power.

After that, your PC won’t turn off your USB devices to save power, and problems with your external hard drive will be resolved. Many users reported that this solution worked for them, so we suggest you try it out.

3. Install USB 3.0 controller drivers

You can fix this problem simply by installing new drivers for your USB 3.0 controller.

1. Open Device Manager: Press Windows + X, then select Device Manager.
2. Expand Universal Serial Bus Controllers: Locate the “USB 3.0” or “USB 3.1” controllers (e.g., “Intel(R) USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller”).
3. Right-click on the controller: Select Update driver.
4. Search automatically for updates: Windows will search for and install the latest driver if available.

You can also visit your motherboard manufacturer’s website and download the latest chipset drivers for your motherboard. Alternatively, you can update this driver manually.

We also strongly recommend using third-party software to download all the outdated drivers on your PC automatically. This tool will keep your system safe as you can manually download and install the wrong driver version.

4. Stop your PC from turning off Mass Storage Device

1. Connect your external hard drive to your PC.
2. Press Windows Key + X and choose Device Manager from the list.
   
3. Navigate to Universal Serial Bus Controller section and double-click on USB Mass Storage Device (Remember that your external hard drive might have a different name on your PC).
4. Navigate to the Power Management tab and uncheck Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power checkbox, then finally, click the OK button to save changes.
   

If your hard drive keeps disconnecting, you can fix the problem simply by preventing the PC from turning off Mass Storage Device. Instead, your PC will automatically turn off various devices to save power, and sometimes it can turn off your external hard drive.

To prevent this, you must change a few Device Manager settings. After that, your PC won’t turn off your external hard drive, and the problem won’t appear anymore.

5. Disable USB legacy support in BIOS

1. Press Windows Key + X and choose Device Manager from the list.
   
2. Navigate to Universal Serial Bus Controller section and double-click on your USB Mass Storage Device
3. Navigate to the Policies tab and check Better performance and Enable write caching on this device options, then click OK to save changes.
   
4. Lastly, locate Intel USB 3.0 extension driver in Device Manager and uninstall it.

If you have USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports on your PC, you might be able to fix this problem by disabling USB legacy support in BIOS. To see how to do that, we strongly advise you to check your motherboard manual for detailed instructions.

Several users claim that you must perform a few extra steps to fix this problem. To fix the issue, you need to make several changes in Device Manager. After that, restart your PC, and the situation should be resolved entirely.

6. Use KeepAliveHD

Several users reported that their external hard drive keeps disconnecting due to inactivity. This is normal behavior for external hard drives, but if you want to stop this from happening, you might want to try using this tool.

KeepAliveHD is a small and freeware application that will write a small file to your external hard drive and prevent it from going to sleep. In addition, the application allows you to set a timer so it will write a small file to your hard drive periodically.

This is a simple solution, and if you don’t want to change your system’s configuration, be sure to try this tool.

That’s about it from us. So if your External hard drive keeps disconnecting, we hope you have been able to resolve this problem by now.

These solutions are not in any particular order, so you can pick and choose what works best for you. For more troubleshooting steps, check out what to do if Windows 10 external hard drive keeps disconnecting.

For more detailed steps on resolving these issues, check out how to fix a second hard drive that stops booting and solutions when Windows 10 doesn’t recognize a portable hard drive.

If you have any other questions, feel free to drop them in the comments section below, and we’ll be sure to check them out.