Thunderbolt issues??

[ivnj]

http://support.wdc.com/product/install.asp?groupid=205&lang=en

I have the 5000MT. Just got this thunderbolt to firewire adapter on the 9th at my apple store.

Anyhow the problem is when I connect the adapter to the mac mini I have (i5 2.3ghz 8gb ram) it works. But as soon as I put the mini to sleep the hard drive also sleeps. But my usb devices don't sleep. At least the lights are still on. So why is my firewire sleeping. Lights are out too. So its definitely sleeping.

Energy saver put hard disk to sleep when possible. Unchecking this makes no difference.

So is this normal or am I missing something??

 

[Poki]

Is it a problem in any way? 'Cos I don't know why this is - probably some kind of TB/FW power management, but as long as its no problem, you're fine.

 

[ivnj]

Well it is a problem if like I'm transfering data or something.

 

[blevins321]

That sounds normal. The option of putting hard drives to sleep is to allow them to power down while your computer is still awake if you don't use the drives for a period of time. They'll still all sleep when your computer sleeps though.

As far as the USB drives, I've noticed that some of these, the lights stay on but the drives themselves power down inside. I think Firewire literally powers off, while USB just sleeps the drives.

 

[paulrbeers]

Well it is a problem if like I'm transfering data or something.

How would you transfer data if your computer is asleep?

Data can't magically jump from a USB or network drive to your Firewire drive if the computer isn't awake to aid in the process....

So again the question is, if your computer is actually asleep how is this a problem? and wouldn't you want your firewire drive to sleep to save energy and life span of your drive?

 

[ivoruest]

I have WD firewire desktop drive and it doesn't sleep when my Mac is asleep and still connected (or not) to the drive. Don't worry. It should not cause any trouble.

 

[ivnj]

I din't think about that. I just thought while copying data i don't wan't to leave the monitor on all day long. But it was strange the usb enclosure lights were still on while sleeping and not firewire. Good to know someone else here noticed that also.

 

[Poki]

I din't think about that. I just thought while copying data i don't wan't to leave the monitor on all day long. But it was strange the usb enclosure lights were still on while sleeping and not firewire. Good to know someone else here noticed that also.

Why not just turn your monitor off while letting your Mac on? Should save the biggest part of the power usage. I do it with an active border, but there's also a key combination: Shift-ctrl-eject.

 

[ivnj]

Because the monitor has a hub so if the monitor goes off so does the hd. I can switch to directly plugging everything into the mini was just afraid of overwhelming the mini. But for the firewire adapter its not a bid deal as its directly plugged into the mini. I was just surprised that the mini on sleep still shows the usb lights.

 

[WesCole]

Because the monitor has a hub so if the monitor goes off so does the hd. I can switch to directly plugging everything into the mini was just afraid of overwhelming the mini. But for the firewire adapter its not a bid deal as its directly plugged into the mini. I was just surprised that the mini on sleep still shows the usb lights.

If you leave the monitor "on" but just use the ctrl-shift-eject combo (as suggested earlier) to put the display to sleep, it should still function as a hub, correct?

 

[ivnj]

hitting (crtl shift eject) does nothing for me in lion.