Hi all,
I've got a sweet LaCie d2 200GB Extenral FireWire Hard Drive hooked up to my dual 2.3hgz G5 PowerMac (running OS X 10.4.2). I only use the firewire drive for weekly automatic backups (I use Prosoft's DataBackup X v. 2.0.6), but since I've got it plugged into my Mac all the time, it's on all the time too.
Here's the thing: it keeps spinning up and spinning down, sometimes seemingly at random. When it hasn't been looked at in a while, it will spin down (and rightly so), but then will spin back up whenver I do a find in the Finder (despite the fact that I don't WANT to search in the backup HD!), and at other times for no discernable reason. In addition to this making annoying sounds, I worry it may be putting unneeded wear and tear on the drive.
Is there any way to keep the external HD spun down except for the weekly backup? Maybe there's a way to keep it unmounted and then automatically mount it before the weekly backup?
I know the low-tech solution: unplug the thing (shutting it off), then plug it back in before the automatic weekly backup, but that pretty much defeats the purpose of "automatic" back ups, and I'd really prefer not to have to remember to do that every week.
Thanks!
I've got a sweet LaCie d2 200GB Extenral FireWire Hard Drive hooked up to my dual 2.3hgz G5 PowerMac (running OS X 10.4.2). I only use the firewire drive for weekly automatic backups (I use Prosoft's DataBackup X v. 2.0.6), but since I've got it plugged into my Mac all the time, it's on all the time too.
Here's the thing: it keeps spinning up and spinning down, sometimes seemingly at random. When it hasn't been looked at in a while, it will spin down (and rightly so), but then will spin back up whenver I do a find in the Finder (despite the fact that I don't WANT to search in the backup HD!), and at other times for no discernable reason. In addition to this making annoying sounds, I worry it may be putting unneeded wear and tear on the drive.
Is there any way to keep the external HD spun down except for the weekly backup? Maybe there's a way to keep it unmounted and then automatically mount it before the weekly backup?
I know the low-tech solution: unplug the thing (shutting it off), then plug it back in before the automatic weekly backup, but that pretty much defeats the purpose of "automatic" back ups, and I'd really prefer not to have to remember to do that every week.
Thanks!