HDD Not Spinning Down?

[w00t951]

I installed a WD Scorpio Blue 640GB 5400 RPM drive in my Macbook Pro from 2009 (13"). For some reason, the drive platters are not spinning down and they just keep going. I made sure that "Put Hard Disks to Sleep" in Energy Saver was checked, but it doesn't work. I know that this will contribute to a shorter HDD life span, so how can I fix this? Thanks.

 

[GGJstudios]

I installed a WD Scorpio Blue 640GB 5400 RPM drive in my Macbook Pro from 2009 (13"). For some reason, the drive platters are not spinning down and they just keep going. I made sure that "Put Hard Disks to Sleep" in Energy Saver was checked, but it doesn't work. I know that this will contribute to a shorter HDD life span, so how can I fix this? Thanks.

Not significantly shorter. Apparently, you have some process that's accessing the drive. Launch Activity Monitor and change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes", then click on the CPU column heading once or twice, so the arrow points downward (highest values on top). Then look to see what may be consuming system resources.

 

[negativzero]

Type:
sudo fs_usage | grep <name of volume>
enter your password and track what is logging or accessing information from your hard drive.

 

[w00t951]

Apparently, mdworker is doing a lot of the accessing.

 

[GGJstudios]

Apparently, mdworker is doing a lot of the accessing.

If a drive is constantly active or your CPU utilization is high (possibly with increased temps and fan speed) when you're not running any major apps, check to see if Spotlight is indexing by looking at the Menu Bar icon:

(not indexing)

(indexing) (pulsing dot)​

 

[w00t951]

If a drive is constantly active or your CPU utilization is high (possibly with increased temps and fan speed) when you're not running any major apps, check to see if Spotlight is indexing by looking at the Menu Bar icon:

Image (not indexing)
Image (indexing) (pulsing dot)​

Spotlight isn't actively indexing my drive. My CPU usage is completely normal, at 0.01% usage at idle with Finder open.