How to put external HDD to sleep?

[cmccarten]

I've got the system preferences to put the discs to sleep when not in use, however, that only works on my MBP's system disc and not the mounted external disc. For whatever reason, it buzzes and runs all the time when not in use.
Is there a backwards way I can go about forcing it to sleep when not in use? (It is used seldomly - only when I turn on itunes, but I like to keep it on and mounted all the time).
Thanks.

 

[downinitjr]

What type of external drive is it? Firewire? If so what chipset is it using? You can find what chipset it's using by going to about this mac, under the apple menu selecting more info then looking under the fire wire heading. Reason being I just recently was trying to fix the same problem, one of my firewire external disks using the initio chipset would not go to sleep. I was able to find a firmware update for it listed under a different drive case manufacturers website that fixed the problem.

 

[cmccarten]

I have a coolmax CD-311 enclosure (firewire, esata, USB) and am using the FireWire connection.

I'm looking at the FireWire info in the about this mac contents, but I can't find anything that specifically refers to a chipset. What heading is the chipset info generally beside?

You said you installed a different company's firmware upgrade? Isn't that pretty risky?

(ps - I did got to the manufacturer's website and there is a firmware upgrade for my enclosure...but only for Windows.)

 

[downinitjr]

Look under the manufacturer heading, two of the common ones would be INITIO, or OXFORD. After that there is a firmware revision heading that should help you find what version of the firmware is currently installed. The update I found for mine was being offered by a different company than the one that manufactured my external case, but it was for the same chipset used in my case, so I wasn't to worried about it. The firmware updater I found had both a windows and a mac version. Although the windows version had the option of adjusting the sleep time for the drive, where as I don't think the mac version did - it just stayed at the factory preset which was 15 minuted I think before it spun down.

 

[cmccarten]

Thanks for the tips. I am using the Prolific PL-3507 chipset.
After scouring around on the web a bit, a found that this chipset has proven to be problematic for a number of users. However, a couple of forums have posted firmware updates that have worked for them. The updates they have posted are in .exe (obviously unusable) or .hex (for macs, I presume?).
How does one go about opening / installing a .hex file?
Thanks again.

 

[downinitjr]

Not looking so good for the prolific chipset. After doing a quick search I found this thread, specifically post #79. It appears that even afterj applying the firmware updates available at that time his drive still wouldn't spin down. As far as the .hex files those are, I believe, just the "raw" firmware files to be used by a romwriter program that is included with many of the firmware downloads. Post note: This Thread isn't looking so good either. Good Luck!