iMac G3 Hard Drive spinning up in sleep.

[Motlimmaj]

So I was given an iMac G3. Brought it home, set it up blah blah blah.

So I've had the Mac for 2 weeks now. I did have prior knowlage with the PowerPC Macintosh as I have the iMac G4 however as I've had it on my desk it goes to sleep often when I'm working elsewhere. However every so often the hard drive spins up waits 10 seconds doing nothing and spins down again. This is getting slightly annoying as if I am working I do not want to be interrupted by the whirring of a 13 year old Seagate hard drive.

Is this normal and if so can it be turned off?

Thanks
Motlimmaj

 

[Intell]

It is a slot loading or a tray loading model?

 

[DeltaMac]

Are you sure that your iMac is actually sleeping? Watch your power LED. The front panel LED will slowly pulse - and depending on model, will change from green to amber - a white LED remains white, even when sleeping - but will do the same slow pulse.
If you see that it does actually wake up (and the LED comes on steady), then it can commonly be something that you have plugged into the USB bus - a mouse that is accidentally moved, or a printer, or a flaky external USB hub can be a common "wake up" culprit.

 

[Motlimmaj]

This is the slot loading summer '01. This happens in sleep the light does its fade and glow and there is nothing plugged in to the iMac other than power. It isn't actualy waking up. Just spinning up the hard drive.

 

[DeltaMac]

I don't think that the internal hard drive can power up, without the iMac also waking up. It may simply be returning to sleep, but the power LED should stop flashing during that same period.
Seems like something that would be tracked in the system log.
Keep track of the approximate time, then check in the console when you next wake your iMac. Look in System.log, which is listed by time and date. If you see a post that you don't understand, post the text here, and someone will know what it is.

My thoughts on this - if you have "nothing plugged in ... other than power", why would you leave it sleeping, and not shut down? (That would solve the hard drive noise, too )

 

[Motlimmaj]

The reason its on is because I can't be bothered to wait for it to turn on again. I'd rather have it at my at my disposal if nesesarry.

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The network is attached but it's not that because the light on my switch is off