External HD spinning up randomly

[Kahnyl]

I have a Mac Mini connected to an external HD. Sometimes while I'm not using either, the HD will just come on. The Mac itself usually isn't doing much when this happens. Most of the time it's just resting on a menu in XBMC. Does anyone know what the OS could be doing to prompt this? The spinning never lasts more than five minutes, which is when the HD is designed to sleep so that implies to me that it's just accessing it briefly rather than doing anything for an extended period.

 

[imaketouchtheme]

It has to do with Spotlight and it indexing your hard drive every once in a while I believe.

Or, it could be Time Machine. Do you have Time Machine turned on and activated?

 

[Kahnyl]

No, I don't use TM on that machine.

I wonder if there's a way to deactivate Spotlight. It's useless on that computer.

 

[imaketouchtheme]

No, I don't use TM on that machine.

I wonder if there's a way to deactivate Spotlight. It's useless on that computer.

Try going to System Preferences > Spotlight.

Then, add your entire HDD to the Privacy section. That may work.

 

[Kahnyl]

Good idea. I'll try it.