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Delay in anything happening due to External Hard Drive iMac

S

shippouk

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 2, 2010
109
0
Hi there

My iMac has a strange delay in anything happening from time to time due to a hard drive that is connected to it.

Its about a 5 second delay which is VERY annoying considering I have the top of the range maxed out iMac and its all USB 3.

This is usually say when I try to upload an image to a website, or if I try to open TextEdit, or save something (and various other things) and a pop up window has to open up.



Any thoughts?



Thanks in advance.


iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.4), 27" Ret 32GB Ram 4GB Graph 1TB SSD
 
Last edited:
The delay is normal, it happens while the external HDD is spun up. It certainly can be annoying, especially when the external isn't needed and must be spun up anyway.

It might help to uncheck System Preferences > Energy Saver > Put hard disks to sleep when possible. You could also simply disconnect it when you don't need it.
 
redheeler said:
The delay is normal, it happens while the external HDD is spun up. It certainly can be annoying, especially when the external isn't needed and must be spun up anyway.

It might help to uncheck System Preferences > Energy Saver > Put hard disks to sleep when possible. You could also simply disconnect it when you don't need it.
Click to expand...

Hi
Cheers for the response.
I already have that set.
I'm not accessing the external drive (if you get what I mean)
Disconnecting the drive is not an option. Sometimes I use it, sometimes I dont.
 
I've had the same issue before. For whatever reason, certain operations seem like they need to check all mounted volumes, which means spinning up the external hard drive if it's gone to sleep. You might consider unmounting the volume (not physically disconnecting the drive) when you're not using it, and mounting it when you need it. If the volume's not mounted, then you shouldn't have to wait for it to spin up. You can mount and unmount volumes quickly from the menu bar with something like Semulov.
 
Some external HDDs have an automatic spin-down caused by the firmware that is trying to save energy and promote drive health. Not much you can do if the drive is mounted since OSx can't control the firmware.
 
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OP wrote:
"Disconnecting the drive is not an option. Sometimes I use it, sometimes I dont."

Well, for practical purposes, that may be your only workable option -- to get rid of the "delay", of course.

I can think of something else to try.
Trying this will cost you nothing, and damage nothing.
If it doesn't work, just go back to what your were doing before.

There's a nifty and free utility out there called "Semulov":
Semulov (when run) puts an icon in your menu bar, listing all your volumes.
To UNmount a mounted volume, select it from the "mounted" list. It dismounts.
To mount an unmounted volume, select it from the "unmounted" volume list.

I would suggest you use Semulov to UNmount the external drive.
I'm thinking along the line that once it is unmounted, the OS won't be "looking for it" during open/save dialongs, etc.

It's worth trying and if it doesn't help, just don't use it anymore.

Would like a followup post if you DO try it and it DOES work.
 
Sadly, I have experienced this issue with the past 4 versions of OS X and it still happens today. What really annoys me is when the external disk decides to spin up when clicking a hyperlink on a web page. WTF does it need to access an external hard drive for that?
 
Its also worth noting that I have MANY ext h drives connected
Fishrrman said:
OP wrote:
"Disconnecting the drive is not an option. Sometimes I use it, sometimes I dont."

Well, for practical purposes, that may be your only workable option -- to get rid of the "delay", of course.

I can think of something else to try.
Trying this will cost you nothing, and damage nothing.
If it doesn't work, just go back to what your were doing before.

There's a nifty and free utility out there called "Semulov":
Semulov (when run) puts an icon in your menu bar, listing all your volumes.
To UNmount a mounted volume, select it from the "mounted" list. It dismounts.
To mount an unmounted volume, select it from the "unmounted" volume list.

I would suggest you use Semulov to UNmount the external drive.
I'm thinking along the line that once it is unmounted, the OS won't be "looking for it" during open/save dialongs, etc.

It's worth trying and if it doesn't help, just don't use it anymore.

Would like a followup post if you DO try it and it DOES work.
Click to expand...

Its not really an option I'm afraid as my iTunes music is on this external hard drive that I listen to all the time.
 
shippouk said:
What does this mean please??????
Click to expand...
well try run it. write console in lauchpad or spotlight. It is an app to watch system logs and crash-reports.

edit: if you find a suspicious message mark it and copy it with cmd+c and do a google. Remove date/time etc. information specific for your entry, else you don't get any hit.
 
shippouk said:
What does this mean please??????
Click to expand...

It doesn't matter. This annoying behavior is normal and the only options to make it go away have already been mentioned but are not appropriate for your situation. So unfortunately, you are stuck with it.

Every time some operation occurs that could potentially result in navigating to that disk such as a file open or save dialog and some other situations where I am not sure why the heck it would need to be accessed, the drive(s) spin up so they are ready to be accessed. There's no away around it save for unmounting the drive or disconnecting it altogether.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but that's the way it is.

I guess you could write to Apple about this but I don't see that as a good use of time really. :(

My own solution is to just keep mine unmounted and mount it when I need to access it but I appreciate why this does not work for you. On a bright note, it isn't going to be long before we are all using SSDs for everything as prices fall and we won't need to wait on those to spin up.
 
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shippouk said:
Here is the issue.

I'm using a Toshiba Canvio - Which, when you look on various forums has this AUTO SLEEP issue that cannot easily be fixed.

But here is a free work around (Apparently)
https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/31158/keep-drive-spinning

I'm trialing it as I type and will report back.
Click to expand...

Won't that just wear your disk out faster and waste power? I had 3 external drives for a while and when the system decided to spin them up, it was painful. I ended up consolidating everything on one big hard disk which is better, but it still is a flawed process.
 
I dont honestly care about wasting power, all my other attached ext hard drives (all Seagate) are "Wasting power" too, but they work without the need for this.
Its worth noting for the future to NOT buy a Toshiba Canvio.
 
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