External USB disk drive cannot be remounted in Windows XP

Question

I have Maxtor Basics Desktop 1TB external USB drive connected to Windows XP. The dirve's firmware puts it to sleep after 10-20 min of inactivity and then the drive cannot be mounted unless I reset it via power connector. While in sleep mode I can see the device in the Device Manager under both Disk drives and USB sections. Is there a way to get the drive out of sleep mode without hard reset?

Thanks

Answer 1

From Windows XP USB Guide :

USB Device Stops Working or Won't Resume

• WinXP by Default turns off USB Root Hubs to Conserve Power causing some
  devices not to resume correctly after Windows resumes from sleep,
  hibernation or computer inactivity
• In the Device Manager -> Universal Serial Bus Controllers -> USB Root Hub -> Power Management, Uncheck the box per the illustration below. Uncheck
  all boxes on all root hubs.

EDIT

From this thread :
Sleep (aka Power management) problem with external USB (Maxtor Basics)harddisk

I downloaded from Seagate the Maxtor OneTouch Lite software (and inside is a program named "Maxtor Manager"), which was NOT recommended for my Maxtor Basics Desktop drive. If installed, I can select my external drive and I can set the sleep intervall. That solved my problem.