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So, I have this Western Digital 5TB portable drive (Specifically "My Passport" branding) that I have some video recordings on of me playing video games. The thing is that the files are huge (20+GB per file due to 4K HDR recording) and I'm trying to copy them to another computer over the network for editing. However, regardless of if I use the built-in 2.0 ports or added 3.0 card on the computer, when the drive is being accessed, either read or write, it randomly disconnects and then reconnects soon after. I even tried this accepted solution on AskUbuntu on two computers (one running Ubuntu 22.04 and the other running Pop! OS 22.04) but the drive continues to disconnect and randomly reconnect. How can I fix this?

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  • Have you confirmed the drive works as it should in another computer and preferably with a different OS (e.g. Windows)? And which file system is in the drive? Feb 13, 2023 at 21:14
  • My "my passport" is older than yours but I too had this problem. Linux and Windows. Also would spin down completely after no use and the whole machine would hang when attempting to spin back up. These problems were related to the internal power management on the drive's board (by design, not an error with my model or hardware). I myself got around it by writing myself a service that pinged the drive every 5 or so seconds but checking the directory at the root of the file system. Just for fun, try writing a cron job that does an ls on it every X seconds and see if it solves it. Feb 13, 2023 at 23:01
  • @ChanganAuto Every computer I tested (even with Windows) has this problem. Feb 14, 2023 at 0:37
  • Then it's likely a problem with the drive itself. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor Feb 14, 2023 at 0:38
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    A few possibilities: 1. If there are many files, with a long pause between each, the disk spins down. 3. If there is one large file, the drive could overheat -- but then would take some time to cool and reconnect. 3. The USB ports tried might be just slightly underpowered -- test by using a powered hub (though a USB 3.0 port should have ample power, some may not be up to specs. Feb 14, 2023 at 1:05

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