What's it doing when I plug in external disk?

[donawalt]

I am curious - whenever I replug in my external backup disk to my MBP 2017, the disk churns for awhile, maybe 10 minutes I think - it's doing something. I checked, and no backup is going - last backup was 30 minutes ago. I did a proper eject of the drive when I unplugged the cable to take my laptop somewhere on its own....is it doing some sort of integrity check every time it's plugged in/connected? Nothing is wrong, I am just wondering...thanks!

 

[jerryk]

I am curious - whenever I replug in my external backup disk to my MBP 2017, the disk churns for awhile, maybe 10 minutes I think - it's doing something. I checked, and no backup is going - last backup was 30 minutes ago. I did a proper eject of the drive when I unplugged the cable to take my laptop somewhere on its own....is it doing some sort of integrity check every time it's plugged in/connected? Nothing is wrong, I am just wondering...thanks!

If you mean a rotational disk it is likely spinning up and being mounted into the file system. If you do not access the drive, it may spin down and go silent.

 

[donawalt]

I don't think it could be just spinning up, I have heard this before - it sounds just like a backup, very busy - like its doing an integrity check or something. I was a solid 15 minutes...

 

[Stygma]

Spotlight search indexing maybe?