How can I stop Fantom USB drive automatic disconnects?

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I have a Fantom USB drive that contains two partitions. One 150GB partition .VHDX file and a disk2vhd.exe utility. The other is a 315GB data partion containing backup files. It was given to me so that I could provide support to my previous employer if needed. I have discovered that whenever I connect this drive to my computer, it will automatically disconnect after about two minutes. There is not warning, just the disconnect tone then its gone. None of my other USB drives auto-disconnect like this. Does anyone have any advise on how to fix this?

I don’t know, nor do I think I care, what the .vhdx file is.  I just need to be able to research files in the backup.

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Try a different cable.
Run the manufacturer’s diags on it.

cheers, Paul

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Try running chkdsk from a CMD prompt. If finds a lot of errors, run it again with the fix flag: chkdsk /f.

Desktop mobo Asus TUF X299 Mark 1, CPU: Intel Core i7-7820X Skylake-X 8-Core 3.6 GHz, RAM: 32GB, GPU: Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti 4GB. Display: Four 27" 1080p screens 2 over 2 quad.

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I have ordered a new cable.

chkdsk did not fine any errors but revealed NTFS formatting.  I also discovered that standard users did not have modify rights, so I granted those.  The drive still auto-disconnects though, even while navigating through its directory/file structure.

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What you have on the USB appears to be a VM and the conversion utility.
Here’s some information on .VHDX files.

https://www.thewindowsclub.com/how-to-open-vmdk-vhdx-vhd-files-in-windows

https://www.lifewire.com/vhdx-file-2622849

https://extension.nirsoft.net/vhdx

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Peobody

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Might be a candidate for recycling.

cheers, Paul

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I appears that disabling power management solved the problem.  The drive remains connected after 30 minutes, which is a record.  I will leave it connected for a couple of hours just to be sure.

Thank you all!

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Try changing the USB drive’s Power Management setting.

devmgmt.msc > Universal Serial Bus Controllers > USB Mass Storage Device

Right-click > Properties

Power Management tab

Uncheck “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power”

I had to do this to an external WD USB drive I use to keep it from disconnecting every few minutes.

Note: if you have more than one “USB Mass Storage Device” listed, I’d suggest changing the setting for all of them as it’s very complicate to ID exactly which one services which drive.

In fact, on my system, I went thru all my USB devices and disabled that setting for each one that actually had a “Power Management” tab.

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I was able to Robocopy the files to a different USB drive.  Still need to do some verifying.

The problem drive did not auto-disconnect during Robocopy processing but it did shortly after completion.

@alejr, while I had both USB drives connected I checked the power manager setting for the two connected devices and both were set to allow turn off to save power.  Something else must also be at play since one auto-disconnects and one doesn’t.

I am going to restart the PC, do file copy verification, and then test to see if the auto-disconnect issue remains.

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Originally, all of mine were also set that way (it’s the “default” setting in Windows) but only one specific model of WD drive auto-disconnected every few minutes. I have other USB drives, including a “different” model WD, that never did that.

Disabling the Power Management so Windows was not allowed to power it down stopped the auto-disconnects.

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Peobody

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