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

Y-Guy

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 8, 2008
22
0
Washigton State
I have had an external drive setup for 100% by Time Machine. I have set the time for backups using the Time Machine Editor to every 4 hours. I have the energy saving setting to spin down drives. The problem I am having is my Firewire ext drive spins down, idles for a few and then spins back up. I can't seem to determine what is causing it to spin back up. Is there another setting I need to adjust so the drive can rest?
 
This just happens with OSX. If you don't want your FW Drive spinning up (and don't need to use it for a while) - then just un-mount it.

When you need to use it again, go into disk utility, and remount the drive.
 
Thanks for the reply. Not what I was hoping to hear but had a feeling this wasn't something I could set. Any idea what causes it to spin up, is the Mac just testing to see if anything is connected?

Thanks again!
 
There might be something you can do, but I'm not sure to be honest. I do believe it's the OS pinging connected drives / devices. It happened a lot more to my WD Mybook Pro (500GB using FW800) when I was running Leopard. Since going back to Tiger, it happens a lot less, but it still happens. If you do find a work around, please share it. Good luck.
 
I will. I had the same issue with the WD USB drive, but it was much louder when it started and shut down and the vibration from it was very annoying. I'm using one of the Macally cases and like it, just with the thing would sleep!
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.