[SOLVED] External HDD power down

[Skywatch]

Try another USB hub.

I had problems with random disconnects and slow network speed. Both were fixed by using a different USB hub (less than £5 delivered off the ebay).

It could also be that the PSU is heating up and dropping the voltage. If you can, test the pi's voltage across TP1 and TP2 on the pi itself. If it slowly drops over a few hours of normal use then you need a better power supply (try and get a quality 2A one, but shop carefully as there is a lot of junk PSU's out there). It should be 5V DC. Anything below 4.8V would be entering the problem zone. The usb power should also be 5V, but might be trickier to test under load (use an old cable and look on the net for diagrams of where/how to do this).

And FWIW my old usb drive never powered down, it was too old and did not support this function (didn't have SMART either!).

skywatch