Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Will my mini 2011 spin down second internal hdd when not in use?

S

smellalot

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 6, 2011
277
2
Hi, looking for somebody with a OWC second hard drive connector in his 2011 Mac Mini.
Will my secondary hdd spin down when not in use? I'm planning to have a setup like is:

SSD (primary drive):
OS X

HHD (second drive):
Boot camp
Music, movies, ...

This is quite important to me, since I really would like the mini to be silent when downloading overnight.
 
N

neilmacd

macrumors 6502
Apr 18, 2010
301
24
UK
It will spin down, but may also occasionally spin up. My iMac second HDD does this randomly and it drives me crazy.
 
S

smellalot

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 6, 2011
277
2
neilmacd said:
It will spin down, but may also occasionally spin up. My iMac second HDD does this randomly and it drives me crazy.
Click to expand...

Well that's not good.. :rolleyes:

Maybe I should get a bigger SSD, put Bootcamp and OS X on it and get some kind of NAS for storage?! The NAS could be in the hall where the noise doesn't bother me.
That would make the whole thing quite expensive though :(
 
D

DaLurker

macrumors 6502
Mar 30, 2006
364
0
smellalot said:
Well that's not good.. :rolleyes:

Maybe I should get a bigger SSD, put Bootcamp and OS X on it and get some kind of NAS for storage?! The NAS could be in the hall where the noise doesn't bother me.
That would make the whole thing quite expensive though :(
Click to expand...

The second hard drive is quite quiet since its a laptop hard drive. You should give it a try before spending money on a NAS.

Generally speaking the secondary hard drive will only spin up if there is usage, however depending on what data you have on there it may seemingly be spinning up randomly in the middle of the night.
 
C

Chippy99

macrumors 6502a
Apr 28, 2012
989
35
neilmacd said:
It will spin down, but may also occasionally spin up. My iMac second HDD does this randomly and it drives me crazy.
Click to expand...

Yes but the primary drive does that as well.

I have an SSD as the boot drive for programs and temporary storage and a 1TB 2nd drive with most of the data on it.

If I am just surfing, or working on a proposal or something, I sometimes unmount the data drive. This stops it from randomly spinning up, and keeps the Mini to all intents and purposes, completely silent.
 
N

neilmacd

macrumors 6502
Apr 18, 2010
301
24
UK
Chippy99 said:
Yes but the primary drive does that as well.

I have an SSD as the boot drive for programs and temporary storage and a 1TB 2nd drive with most of the data on it.

If I am just surfing, or working on a proposal or something, I sometimes unmount the data drive. This stops it from randomly spinning up, and keeps the Mini to all intents and purposes, completely silent.
Click to expand...

I'm the same, main drive is SSD, therefore spooling up/down isn't an issue. Second drive (HDD) is currently Music/Video as my external HD died. This is shared out across the house therefore I can't unmount.

But as I'm using an iMac the drive is 3.5" maybe the 2.5" won't be loud enough to bother the OP as much?

ETA, in future, any Mac I buy will be single drive only, which I'll swap to SSD. When I eventually get the courage, I'll be taking the second HDD out of the iMac :)
 
Last edited:
S

smellalot

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 6, 2011
277
2
neilmacd said:
I'm the same, main drive is SSD, therefore spooling up/down isn't an issue. Second drive (HDD) is currently Music/Video as my external HD died. This is shared out across the house therefore I can't unmount.

But as I'm using an iMac the drive is 3.5" maybe the 2.5" won't be loud enough to bother the OP as much?

ETA, in future, any Mac I buy will be single drive only, which I'll swap to SSD. When I eventually get the courage, I'll be taking the second HDD out of the iMac :)
Click to expand...

You are right, the 2.5" hdd is already fairly quiet but having owned a MacBook air before makes me really feel the difference.

I'm actually thinking about selling the Mac mini now to get a 2012 model next spring. I won't be at home to use it anyway during the winter.
The lack of USB 3 is really bothering me!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom