USB drive not showing up.

[Wackyhomer]

Hi I have Windows Server 2012 Essentials, (I didn't see a place in the forum for 2012 so I posted here), I plugged a USB drive into the server tower and setup the server to back up to it. The setup went no problem and it picked up the drive as USB Drive #1. The next day I wanted to check to make sure the backup went ok and I went into "Computer" and the drive was not showing. I went into Disk Management and saw it there but it had no drive letter assigned, so I assigned it "E" and exited and went back to "Computer" and there it was, I checked it and the back up was there. The next day I came in and went into "Computer" and it was gone again. Checking disk management showed it with no drive letter again. Is this normal or am I doing something wrong?
Thank You
Dave

[Midknyte]

I don't usually use such low letters for USB drives. Try something like U:, as in USB drive.

[Wackyhomer]

Actually I did try "M" as a drive letter and the same thing happened.

[Midknyte]

So it sounds like the USB drive is dismounting sometime after the backup is made?

Did you verify that Power Management - "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" is unchecked for Universal Serial Bus controllers in Device Manager?

What is the make/model of the external USB drive? Did you check for a firmware update?

Sorry, I don't have a Win2012 server box. The closest thing I have is a 2008 R2 x64 VM.

[Wackyhomer]

It's an Iomega external case with a WD Blue 1TB drive in it.
I won't be able to check the Power Management until tomorrow , but will let you know what I find.