This WD unit is used for auto backup (Windows) on a W10 Pro - Build 14393 PC. The Elements drive appears to be working fine. I recently reinstalled the OS and formatted the WD for a new start on the new OS. Also just began leaving the USB plugged in all the time after reading that it was OK to do so. Then I noticed the LED light behavior seems to indicate a problem somewhere or at least a strange action when the PC is put on Standby (Sleep).
1-When the WD is in use, the LED stays on as expected. When it is not being used, it soon goes into its own standby and blinks very slowly, as expected. 2-When the PC goes into Sleep, the WD blinks very fast, continuously, maybe 10-20 times/second. Does this sound like normal behavior for the WD drive? That is my question.
3-When the PC is shut down, then the WD light goes out as expected.
It might be that the drive is trying to mount to the pc. You can try messing with the power settings to see if it fix it. Or, maybe put all the drives to sleep when the pc goes to sleep.
Not sure what you mean by "drive trying to mount to the PC’. The WD goes to sleep by itself after a set time has passed and has no way to do it manually. It works fine. But, I question the light. Power settings do not come into play since I manually put the PC to sleep when I leave it. It is never shut down under normal conditions. But the power settings will shut it all down after 2 hrs. of no activity (in case I croak while seated here). Has not happened yet!
Hopefully, somebody who has one of there WD drives will come by and tell me whether or not theirs does the same thing. Very rapid blinking when PC is in Standby. Thank you, Bill.
What I mean by “mounting to the pc” is that when you put the pc to sleep, the drive becomes disconnected and will start trying to reconnect to the pc. I’m not real familiar with Windows 10, but you should see if, in the settings, you can put the drive to sleep when you put the pc to sleep.
Thanks, hookalaya, Well, just thinking… since the WD has no other power supply except the USB port which powers it, the port must be leaking the voltage to light the WD’s LED. Will try another cable and different port to see if there is any change, will report back shortly.
Edit:
Well that was interesting. This PC is 6 yrs. old (Dell XPS 9100, W10 64 bit, i7 930, 9 G RAM running tri-channel memory) and I had it built with one (then optional) USB 3 port, which was pretty new at the time. All other USB ports are standard USB 2. The WD unit is USB 3.
When WD is plugged into the USB3 port, it blinks very rapidly when the PC is in Sleep. It also shuts down and does not spin. Same results with 2 different cables.
When WD is plugged into a USB2 port, it blinks slowly, like the PC LED, when the PC is in Sleep. BUT, the WD never shuts down from spinning! (?)
So, the new choice is… use USB3 and have the WD drive stop spinning and blink very rapidly when the PC is in Sleep, OR use USB2 and have the WD LED slowly blinking, as the PC does when in Sleep, but never stop spinning even when the PC is Sleeping. What a weird mess! For now, I will use the USB3 port so the WD will not spin all the time, when in PC Stanby, and tolerate the WD LED blinking very rapidly.
Anybody with info please take a moment to enlighten me. Thanks in advance.
