After upgrading to Windows 8.1, external USB drive disconnecting and reconnecting intermittently

Question

I upgraded from Windows 8.0 to 8.1 recently and ever since the external USB drive (with power supply) connected via a powered USB hub started disconnecting and then automatically connecting after a few seconds. Here is what I did:

1. Checked event log - nothing is there!
2. Removed the drive from the USB hub and directly connected to the laptop USB port (error still coming)
3. I checked the power option and kept the hard drive to be always on, but did not solve the problem

Any ideas what could be the issue? I have seen a Microsoft KB article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2416007/en-us that discusses the same issue, but it is only for Windows 7.

The pattern is, it happens about 15 minutes after I switch on the laptop and then after that every 15 to 20 minutes.

Solution

Follow the steps that Microsoft explained in the USB Blog:

Help! After installing Windows 8.1, my USB drive disappears or file transfers stop unexpectedly http://blogs.msdn.com/b/usbcoreblog/archive/2013/11/01/help-after-installing-windows-8-1-my-usb-drive-disappears-or-file-transfers-stop-unexpectedly-r-a-post-title.aspx

Comments

[Jan Doggen]

There's plenty of posts on SuperUser about re-connecting USB devices. Google "usb reconnecting site:superuser.com" or saerch "usb reconnecting" on SU.

[user36058]

Thanks, tried quite a few articles that matched my configuration, still not solved!

[user36058]

This seems to have fixed my problem: youtube.com/watch?v=ISR0wGXJb_Q, I got the link at the bottom of your article but it is little different from the article itself. It looked at a different property.