X230 - stop USB HDD turning off in Sleep mode

I bought a Lenovo X230 from the Outlet Store a few months back, while fairly happy with it there is one issue I've been having. If I connect my external drive and leave it running doing some background task (most worryingly this can include chkdsk or defragging the drive in question) the laptop will still go to sleep and once in sleep mode the hard drive does not receive sufficient power and starts to make a clicking noise.

I have gone through all the options that I thought might be related in Win7 power management but not managed to stop it doing it. I could not find anything useful in the BIOS. I do have it dual-boot to Ubuntu but have to admit I haven't checked the status on that boot. (Currently I'm running a chkdsk after disabling sleep as it complained the drive has errors every time I insert it now!)

Anybody else come up against this? It wont even charge a phone when it's in Sleep mode (so why it gives some power to make the hard drive click I don't know.) That part is not so much of a worry but will be more so when I take my laptop travelling with me!

I'm going to get a new drive to replace the disk in the caddy anyway but changing this behaviour would be very beneficial. Anybody know if it's possible and if so how?

 

Well seems last time I looked in BIOS I must have missed a very obvious setting (charge phone by USB when off/hibernate/standby. Just changed this one and a little worried that in over 20 minutes it still hasn't booted into Windows completely and responsive! Hopefully just as there are some changes under the hood to the power saver settings it is having to apply...

Will test and see if this does cure all my ailments

 

Not even that setting stops the external HDD disconnecting and clicking like it has intermittent power. This sucks!!!!

 

Nobody??? Computers that break your external hard drives if you leave them plugged in are not good!!!!!!!