External USB hard drive disconnecting issue

[senseless]

I've seen a few threads on this issue, but haven't found an answer. I have a 750gb external USB LaCie drive as Time Machine backup, but when the Imac I7 sleeps, the drive will behave as if it has been disconnected. There's the "you should eject disk before..." message with warnings about damage.

I suppose I could disable sleep mode, but does anyone know what's going on? My external firewire drive never has this problem.

 

[DewGuy1999]

Do you have Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible checked in System Preferences/Energy Saver?

 

[senseless]

Do you have Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible checked in System Preferences/Energy Saver?

No, that is unchecked.

 

[techcafe]

No, that is unchecked.

it should be checked, so MacOS will attempt to spin-down the drive before entering sleep mode

 

[senseless]

it should be checked, so MacOS will attempt to spin-down the drive before entering sleep mode

Really? I'll try it checked to see if the problem recurs and report back.

 

[senseless]

So far so good, but it sure is annoying having the drives spin down so quickly. If the drives slept after 10 minutes of inactivity, it would be better. Thanks.

 

[techcafe]

So far so good, but it sure is annoying having the drives spin down so quickly. If the drives slept after 10 minutes of inactivity, it would be better. Thanks.

i completely AGREE... the power management settings (for the hard drives) are far too aggressive. there should be a slider for Hard Drive Sleep (like the Display/Computer Sleep sliders in the Energy Saver control panel).

i don't like the drives spinning down (and back up again) so frequently, so i disabled hard drive sleep

 

[DewGuy1999]

TinkerTool System Release 2 will allow you to:

Set the energy saver options for hard drives, specifying the exact sleep timeout.

 

[stroedel]

i have same problem...
my questions:

- how can i avoid this?
- is there a possiblity to get hard drive awake without doing log off/logon on