External disks won't sleep?

I recently changed from a ppc g5 to an intel mac mini and find that my four wd smartbook USB drives no longer sleep when the mini is shut down, is this normal?

Hmm, while the mini is up and running, both pairs of disks DO sleep, it seems pointless that they run full-time when I shut the mini down and stop when it's awake!!
Kind of makes a joke out of a low energy computer
I'll try leaving the mini on but just let it sleep instead, see if that's any better.

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External Drives Won't Sleep

Hi
Since upgrading to Leopard none of my external drives go into sleep mode when not being accessed. They do when connected to other Macs... so that points to the iMac.
Tried resetting the SMC and also 'put hard disk(s) to sleep' is checked in energy saver. Any suggestions greatly appreciated. Many thanks
Colin
PS I use Lacie drives... Quadra D2 and Porsche

I have the exact same problem. I have my energy setting to put my drives to sleep when possible. I also have an external Firewire drive. In Tiger the external drive was sleeping unless I was accessing it. Now with Leopard the drive constantly wakes up. Just now I hit the back button on Safari and the drive woke up. Crazy.
Unfortunately I have no idea what is causing this, but do have the same issue. I see you excluded them from Spotlight. I just tried that and will see what happens. Are you using Firewire or USB for the external drive? I'm going to switch to UBS and see if that makes a difference.
-Dan

External display won't sleep

I just purchased an NEC PA271 27" LCD display for my Mac Pro. It's beautiful, clear and sharp, but there's one problem: it won't sleep.
When I put the computer to sleep or shut it down, the monitor doesn't go into sleep mode. The blue LED on the front is supposed to turn amber, indicating sleep, but it doesn't.
I've tried resetting the SMC and PRAM, as well as repairing permissions, to no avail.
Any ideas?

I should also mention that I didn't have any problems with my ACD 23" previously, so it would seem to be an issue with this particular display and how it communicates with my Mac Pro.

External disk won't mount after 10.5.7 upgrade

Hi,
I know there's problem with Buffalo external HD; mine is Lexcron 3.5'' external case and it won't mount neither. I tried PRAM restart, and if I go to Disk Utility and try to repair, it gives me the following message:
Verify and Repair volume “Dirty Hary”
** /usr/local/bin/ntfsfix has been disabled because of volume corruption issues.
** If you still want to try fixing your volume, use /usr/local/bin/ntfsfix from the command line...
Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.
It worked with 10.5.6 and it still works with Win XP (it's NTFS format).
Is there something that I can do?
Will this issue be solved in Snow Leopard?
Thanks in advance for any kind of constructive info (I've already read threads with Buffalo issue, but I didn't find any thread giving a solution).
Sharlo

Sharlo wrote:
Hi V.K.,
Thanks for your response, can you provide some more details?
OS X has very limited support for NTFS. you need to repair the drive from windows.
How do I do that? I mean the disk works normally in Win XP and it worked normally in the previous OS X version. Btw. I've also installed NTFS-3D which allowed to write on the disk and search from spotlight (of course when it was mounted).
run chkdsk in windows and see if it finds any errors.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265
it can also be that the problem is caused by ntfs-3g which is known to have a number of bugs. you can try uninstalling it or plugging in the drive in a mac without ntfs-3g installed.
there is no "issue" to solve.
Well if it worked in 10.5.6 and it works in Win XP and it doesn't work in 10.5.7 I am tempted to say 10.5.7 has an issue.
the fact that you have a problem with one drive on your particular system doesn't mean there is a problem with os x in general. an issue is when all or at least many people have a problem, not one.
furthermore, NTFS is a proprietary file system of Microsoft with closely guarded secrets about its inner workings which is why it has very limited support on other types of operating systems. apple is under no obligation to provide ANY support for something like that. programs like NTFS-3g are essentially unauthorized hacks.

New FREE App To Stop External Disks Going To Sleep During Editing.

Digital Heaven have provided this free application to stop external HDs sleeping whilst editing.
I have not had that problem since selecting "Never Sleep" in the Energy Saver panel, but apparently some disks can ignore that command ...... but not with DISKSOMNIA !
http://www.digital-heaven.co.uk/freeware/request.php

Hi Jack,
I think these presets are set in the lacie drive/firmware.
If you have a cd that came with the drives see if it has an app on it that allows you to change the settings inside the lacie.
Hope this helps.

External drives won't sleep properly

Hi
I have my preferences set to allow drives to sleep when possible.
In Tiger this meant that my external drives slept most of the time. They would awaken only when directly accessed by the Finder or an application.
In Leopard my externals are constantly waking.
I have them excluded from Spotlight. They will start when I access something in the Finder that has nothing to do with the drives. They will also start when I access an app like safari.
Any ideas what is happening?

I have the exact same problem. I have my energy setting to put my drives to sleep when possible. I also have an external Firewire drive. In Tiger the external drive was sleeping unless I was accessing it. Now with Leopard the drive constantly wakes up. Just now I hit the back button on Safari and the drive woke up. Crazy.
Unfortunately I have no idea what is causing this, but do have the same issue. I see you excluded them from Spotlight. I just tried that and will see what happens. Are you using Firewire or USB for the external drive? I'm going to switch to UBS and see if that makes a difference.
-Dan

External Disk Won't Mount

I've got two Maxtor external drives plugged to my iMac via Firewire and for suddenly one of them no longer mounts automatically upon startup. The other is fine. I tried turning it off and on and went into Disk Utility to see if there was some way to manually mount it but the Mount button is grayed out. Can anyone help.
Thanks.

Disconnect and power down both FWHDs, and follow the procedure in http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379

Macbook Pro 13 (late 2013) - external disks unmount after sleep

I've seen many other similar posts - just adding mine to the pile - wondering if anyone has seen a fix or has a recommendation
Macbook Pro 13 inch (late 2013) the Thunderbolt and firewire drives unmount when Macbook pro sleeps. (NOTE firewire drive connected via Thunderbolt display - but same happens with TB drives when connected direct to MBP)
Not a showstopper - but frustrating - fix would be nice.
Thanks
PS I had a Macbook Air 2011, with no "unmount" problem when i upgraded to Mavericks.
PPS - Really enjoyed moving from MBA to MBP 13 - superior build quality, keyboard much better and display.... amazing. Weight difference neglible.

Short update: After reading a while I tried several keyboard shortcuts during start up ... and I solved the issue:
Hold Command + Option + 'p' + 'r' during startup. This zaps the PRAM (Parameter RAM), an option that long-time Mac users will remember. Press and hold the key combination until you hear the second set of chimes. Zapping the PRAM returns it to its default configuration for display and video settings, time and date settings, speaker volume, and DVD region settings.
Thanks to all people who document such issues and its solution.

External harddrive won't sleep in Yosemite

This has been happening since previous OS (Mavericks). Any tips to share, anyone?

Unless your'e using them, turn them off. If you're using them, don't sleep them.
27" i7 iMac (Mid 2011) refurb, OS X Yo (10.10), Mavs, ML & SL, G4 450 MP w/10.5 & 9.2.2

500GB WD My Book external drive won't sleep!

I recently bought a 500GB WD My Book external drive. I formated it as Mac OS Extended and ran a complete backup of my Mac and other external drive. Now the activity light blinks non stop and the drive stays running even though its not being accessed. I've also checked the security of my network thinking maybe somebody on the outside was getting access. I don't get it. Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!

Open the Spotlight pane of System Preferences and add that drive to the list of locations not to index if it isn't already there.
(26811)

Thunderbolt external SSD won't mount

I'm using the Elgato Thunderbolt SSD as an external hard disk with my 2013 MBP. Since I'm also using a Thunderbolt display, I usually daisy-chain the disk to the display.
Recently I disconnected the Thunderbolt display from my computer without unmounting the external SSD. Since this also disconnected the disk, I got the usual ticking-off ("You should eject a disk before disconnecting it").
However... since then, the external disk won't mount. It doesn't show up on the desktop or in Disk Utility, though it DOES show up ("Thunderbolt SSD") in System Information.
Because the SSD gets warm when it's in use, I think it's still working. I just can't access it.
Can anyone help?

Is the Apple Thunderbolt Display at the END of the daisy-chain? That's where it should be - all other TB devices should be connected first, with the Display at the end of the chain.
As to why you're having a problem getting the TB SSD to work, I'm stumped. It seems as if you've done everything that I would try to do to get everything working... and I'm assuming that you have powered down and unplugged the Display and all other devices for 15 minutes or so?
Just make sure that the Display is at the end of the TB chain - that's really the only advice that I can offer.
Clinton

External disk not seen after sleep on Yosemite

My sleep/wake issue on Yosemite affects the external disk (USB 3 connection) and the printer (HP 8600 all-in-one): On wake, after a long sleep, my iMac late 2012 shows an error message saying that the disk was not properly ejected and, in fact, the disk icon disappears from the desktop. The printer issue is even worse: no longer seen by the system after a long sleep but also right after a print, i.e.the next print won't start because the system no longer "sees" it.
About the printer, I originally thought it could be a driver issue but now that I see a similar problem occurring on the disk, I start thinking the driver could be only part of the problem.
Most of times, a restart fixes the problem but this is very annoying.

My sleep/wake issue on Yosemite affects the external disk (USB 3 connection) and the printer (HP 8600 all-in-one): On wake, after a long sleep, my iMac late 2012 shows an error message saying that the disk was not properly ejected and, in fact, the disk icon disappears from the desktop. The printer issue is even worse: no longer seen by the system after a long sleep but also right after a print, i.e.the next print won't start because the system no longer "sees" it.
About the printer, I originally thought it could be a driver issue but now that I see a similar problem occurring on the disk, I start thinking the driver could be only part of the problem.
Most of times, a restart fixes the problem but this is very annoying.

Lion won't sleep when my external USB drive is connected

Hi guys,
I've searched the forums and can't find anyone with quite the same problem I'm experiencing here. I've noticed that my power saving settings are not being actioned properly on my 2011 mac mini, in that the system never goes to sleep at the specified interval.
This isn't a problem that the system will not sleep at all, if I manually put the computer to sleep it obeys and goes to sleep instantly, also when using Plex media centre software, and allowing it to control the system sleep state, it also works fine.
After some digging, I found using pmset -g assertions that the system won't sleep normally because of the following
Listed by owning process:
pid 20: [0x0000012c00000014] ExternalMedia named: "com.apple.powermanagement.externalmediamounted"
At first I wondered if it was because of some network shares I had mounted, which is not the case, it does however seem to be because of my external USB hard drive. As soon as I unplugged this, the assertion went away and pmset reports sensibly and the system can sleep.
The problem is that I use the external drive to store quite a lot of media (the built-in HD is not nearly big enough to store both the OS *and* all my files), so what gives? Why will Lion refuse to go to sleep when I have an external USB HD attached, and yet sleep perfectly willingly when I explicitly tell it to do so?
Any help will be gratefully received - suggestions of buying a new external HD to see if it helps shall not be entertained and dismissed forthwith, as this setup worked perfectly well with Snow Leopard and an old style mac mini.

I am stumped too. The issue is that the 'pmset -g' command does not allow changing the ExternalMedia flag.
An observation that may be relevant to this topic is as follows: if you unmount the drive (but not physically disconnect it), sleep comes in the specified time. Upon wakeup, however, the drive is mounted again to the desktop. I've noticed this behavior with SD cards, and I assume that HDs should do the same.
If this is the case, then it may be possible to use ControlPlane (current version is ControlPlane-1.1.4) and create an "about to sleep" situation, which triggers USB disk unmounting. Haven't tried it, but was thinking to (subsequently just gave up and eject my USB storage manually).
Hope this helps.
Xen

My external HD won't mount anymore on Mac OS, Disk Warrior or TechTool Pro, but appears as "media" on Disk Utility. What do I do?

I have this 1 TB Caviar Black drive from WD, I've installed it on an external HD case and have been using to store large files like HD movies and old archive things. Its file system is Mac OS Journaled.
Last year, all of a sudden, it gave me the following error while trying to plug it in: "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer"
I was mad and left it for dead while looking for a way to fix it.
Then, again all of a sudden, it started working again, flawlessly and without any problems.
It worked well for at least 5 more months and then BAM... same error again!
I've tried DiskWarrior, TechTool Pro, Disk Utility and nothing... The disk won't show up on any of these apps, except on Disk Utility as a "Media" drive with 0 bytes used and unformatted partition.
What do I do?
Could it be the external HD case?

It could be a problem with enclosure, but it also could be a problem with the drive itself or the drive is possibly corrupted. I would start by contacting WD tech support.
It may be possible to recover files from the drive using file recovery software:
General File Recovery
If you stop using the drive it's possible to recover deleted files that have not been overwritten by using recovery software such as MAC Data Recovery, Data Rescue II, File Salvage or TechTool Pro. Each of the preceding come on bootable CDs to enable usage without risk of writing more data to the hard drive. Two free alternatives are Disk Drill and TestDisk. Look for them and demos at MacUpdate or CNET Downloads. Recovery software usually provide trial versions that enable you to determine if the software would help before actually paying for it. Beyond this or if the drive has completely failed, then you would need to send the drive to a recovery service which is very expensive.
The longer the hard drive remains in use and data are written to it, the greater the risk your deleted files will be overwritten.
Also visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on Data Recovery.
Otherwise, unless the drive fixes itself like before you should try repartitioning and reformatting to determine if the drive has failed or is now working properly.

External FW/USB Western Digital, Seagate Disk Drives and 'Sleep' function

As you are aware, most external disk drives be they FW or USB (and irrespective of the manufacturer, save for LaCie) have a 'sleep' function built into their Firmware. In the case of the Western Digital and Seagate Ext FW drives I have, this function cannot be disabled and this per both WD and Seagate.
Unfortunately this is extremely annoying if using Photoshop and Bridge...it takes about ten seconds for each disk to spin up while the latter programs search the drives. (In Windows this can be enabled/disabled. Not so with the Mac O/S I have been told). Multiply this by six of the aforementioned drives and it can be quite time consuming.
Is there an OS-X workaround for this?
Thanks again,
Lyman

I always avoid vendor cases. Might want to look at an Oxford 912 etc, or better yet, why use Firewire when eSATA works so well?

External disks won't sleep?

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