Prevent OS X From Waiting for Drives to Spin Up?

[revenantprime]

Hi there,

I have this annoying problem with an external USB drive. It's an old Seagate Freeagent 1TB drive that spins down when not in use. When it needs to be accessed after spinning down, it takes about 20 seconds before it becomes ready.

This isn't a big deal for this drive. Unfortunately, often when I'm trying to save a file on the internet, or just loading spotlight, the system will hang for a bit and wait for the drive to spin up before proceeding to show me items in a folder NOT ON that drive. I also have this problem somewhat when I have an optical disc in the drive - the OS waits for the disc to spin up before it will show me folder contents, even if I'm not looking at the CD/External HD.

Is there a way to tell the OS NOT to wait until these devices are ready?

Thanks for any help

 

[GGJstudios]

Is there a way to tell the OS NOT to wait until these devices are ready?

Yes. Eject the drive. If the drive is mounted, the system will wait for it to spin up before certain operations like opening and saving files.

 

[Intell]

No, but there are some ways that will allow you to keep the drive spinning all the time.

 

[revenantprime]

Yes. Eject the drive. If the drive is mounted, the system will wait for it to spin up before certain operations like opening and saving files.

If I eject it, is there a way to remount the drive without having to go unplug and plug the usb cable back in? I'm guessing there should be, but it's been a long time since my *nix days.

 

[GGJstudios]

If I eject it, is there a way to remount the drive without having to go unplug and plug the usb cable back in? I'm guessing there should be, but it's been a long time since my *nix days.

Yes, you can remount it with Disk Utility.