Why does the external hard drive not stop spinning when I put the computer to sleep

external hard drivepower-managementsleep

I have an external Western Digital My Passport hard drive (model WDBYFT0040BBK-WESN), which generally only spins up when it's actively in use, and otherwise stops spinning when it's inactive. When the computer is powered up, this works normally.

However, when I put my computer to sleep, the drive keeps spinning constantly, without ever going to sleep.

Why does the hard drive spin constantly when my computer is asleep, and only when it is awake? I've tested the drive on a number of devices other than computers, and it appears to go to sleep normally, so it's unlikely that the computer itself is controlling its sleep state. Is there any other way to make it stop when I put my computer to sleep than configuring it to not output power over the USB ports when it's sleeping?

Best Answer

Install the WD Drive Utilities app from Western Digital.

You can then adjust the spin-down time for your USB drive and even turn off the LED if you want:

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