My 2TB My Book Essential USB 3.0 has been working perfectly on my system for over 1.5 years now. It’s on nearly 24/7 as my system makes a backup to it nightly. Normally the drive is asleep and then it spins up for the backup or when I decide to use it during the day. I started using it with Windows 7, then Windows 8.0, now 8.1. It has been working fine with all 3 OSes for a long time. And I have had 8.1 since it was released.
As of a week ago. The drive will go to sleep, then the white LED will blink with the drive not spinning. And it won’t wake up again for the backups or My Computer. I have to pull the power cord and USB 3.0 cable from the back of the drive. And plug both back in for the drive to spin up and work again. But then when it goes to sleep later, the same thing happens. Which means my nightly backups are no longer happening at night and I have to run them manually during the day after I unplug/replug both cables.
Once the white LED is blinking and the drive is not spinning, it will not work again if I unplug/replug just the power. Or just the USB 3.0 cable. I have to unplug/replug BOTH cables.
Since it has been working fine for 1.5+ years, I think the unit needs repair/replacement. But maybe someone else had this issue and there is something else going on? Maybe a firmware update will help? This is not the standard “my drive doesn’t show up” problem that I see listed all over the place.
