Usb Drive content seems to dissappear

Hi.
I´ve running last updaate of OSMC on an RPI 3, with a 1tb external drive usb attached, ntfs format. The drive is also shared to my win7 laptop through smb-shares.conf file.
Until now, i´ve had no problems at all.

But since a few days, anytime i try to transfer files from the laptop to the pi (with destination on the atached usb drive), the operation always fail after a while, showing an error saying just that it is impossible to complete the operation, and next the disk is showing just “empty”. If i browse directly on the pi, it´s the same.
If i reboot the system, all just seems fine again, with all my files and the drive mounted.
If i try a new transfer, goes to the same again…If i try to play a movie, it just stops suddenly after 6 o 7 minutes, and then again the disk is showing as “empty”, until a new reboot.
I´ve checked the disk for bad sectors or hardware failure, but it´s perfectly ok (it has 3 months of use).
I´ve reformated the disk to ext4, and i have the same behaviour.
Tried transfers through smb and ftp, same problem…

I can´t say for sure if this is related to the last recent update, but i think the issue begins with that.
I can´t see nothing related on the last logs. It just seems the disk is unmounted minutes after a transfer or movie play starts… or is deniyng permissions…

I konw my explanation is not very clear, but i appreciatte any possible help with this.
Thanks in advance.

UPDATE:
Did some more tests, transfer a couple of small files, all of them fine, but failed to create a folder.
Transfer a file sized 11 Gb, failed when reached about 9 Gb size…

Is the drive powered via USB, or a seperate power supply? If it’s powered via usb, try adding max_usb_current=1 to /boot/config.txt, or use a powered usb hub.

It´s directly to the usb, had no problems until now with that. Also tried that option you suggest, no luck.

I’d recommend that you try a powered usb hub. A spinning drive may be to much for the Pi to power.

[Edit] You did reboot after adding max_usb_current, right?

With 3 months 24/7 fully working ok until now ?? I don´t think that may be the solution to the issue, maybe a workaround in case… But i want to know what´s causing this.
Much appreciated, regards.

Your power supply could be weak. They do degrade over time. Or, have you added any other USB devices lately?

Power is 2.5 A, and just repeat, all the set (RPI 3 and all cables or devices) has no more than 3 months. No new usb devices added. Just like from the start, the usb hdd and a bluetooth dongle for a minikeyboard remote.

Added some more info to the OP:

Did some more tests, transfer a couple of small files, all of them fine, but failed to create a folder.
Transfer a file sized 11 Gb, failed when reached about 9 Gb size…

Some more:
After replicating the issue another time, i´ve checked the storage tab and now it shows the usb drive is mounted on /dev/sdb1/ … So, it seems its mounted on sda1 on fresh start and then fails and mounts on sdb1… ¿¿???

Sounds like the drive is un-mounting and re-mounting. Really seems to me that it’s power related.

Now this seems really weird… I´ve changed the propietary usbe cable supported from Western Digital when purchased the external hdd (the one who has a “double” micro usb connector) with another generic usb to micro usb i had left on a drawer…
Guess what… It seems the issue is gone ¿?¿ Made a few large transfers and the completed 100% without problems…
Gonna do some more huge and massive transfers to check, but, i can´t understand the reason of this happening.

You still bet to a power issue ???

I sure do! The Y USB cable was drawing twice the power from the Pi. That’s the purpose of that cable. I’m surprised that it works at all with a regular cable, but glad to hear that it works.

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