SB keeps disconnecting external hard drives

[WPCentral Question]

Hi,
I have the base model of Surface Book (i5, 128 GBs, no GPU), when I connect it to my external HD (seagate USB 3.0, 1 TB, self powered), the surface book keeps disconnecting my HD after a few mins usually (sometimes it lasts longer) and then reconnecting automatically. all transfers fail in the process.
I have looked around and found one fix that might actually be working, I went to device manager > USB controllers, and then I have repeated the following steps for all sub items (Generic superspeed USB hub, generic USB hub, Intel USB 3.0 extensible host controller, and USB root hub (xHCI))
- double click on any of the items above
- select the power management tab
- uncheck "allow computer to turn off this device to save power"
- click OK

again, I repeated the steps above for all sub items of USB in device manager. and so far the fix seems to be working, my external HD has been hooked for a few hours and it never got disconnected.

My questions are:
1- is everyone facing the same issue with their SB, or is the unit I have not good?
2- are there any dangers that, after unchecking "allow computer to turn off this device to save power", that my SB my fry up my external HD or damage it in any way? or are there any drawbacks in unchecking this item?

Many thanks