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farmermac

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Does your mac shut off your external backup hard disk when shutting down? Maybe not shut it off, but at least send a "spin-down" command?
 
Yes. I have a 500GB Seagate Freeagent Go USB, a 1.5TB Seagate Freeagent FW800 and a homebrew Eagle Consus/1TB Samsung Spinpoint. I've also have good luck with the Maxtor Onetouch series and the WD Passports that I have previously owned.

It depends on the enclosure electronics. Some of them don't listen to the spindown command from the Mac..
 
Yes, and there is the option in Sys Prefs/Energy to spin them down when not in use for a while too.
 
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