External hard drives spinning up incessantly

I have 4 external drives with about 12 volumes on them and it's literally spinning up a drive every 5 minutes, 24x7 when I am not even using the computer. Nothing weird is running, and it's clear the application is exactly Finder. (and rarely, fseventsd). Here is the output of
sudo fs_usage -f filesys | grep Volumes
01:00:55 getattrlist
/Volumes/Uber
0.000012   Finder
01:00:55 getattrlist
/Volumes/Uber
0.000024   Finder
01:02:21 getattrlist
/Volumes/Big
0.000013   Finder
01:13:04 getattrlist
/Volumes/Giant
0.000014   Finder
01:13:15 getattrlist
/Volumes/Giant
0.000013   Finder
01:17:21 getattrlist
/Volumes/Big
0.000012   Finder
01:17:30 getattrlist
/Volumes/Big
0.000013   Finder
01:32:21 getattrlist
/Volumes/Big
0.000016   Finder
01:32:30 getattrlist
/Volumes/Big
0.000011   Finder
01:47:21 getattrlist
/Volumes/Big
0.000072   Finder
01:47:30 getattrlist
/Volumes/Big
0.000014   Finder
01:54:37 getattrlist
/Volumes/6snow
0.000012   Finder
01:54:49 getattrlist
/Volumes/6snow
0.000014   Finder
01:56:56 getattrlist
/Volumes/4tiger
0.000012   Finder
01:56:57 getattrlist
/Volumes/4tiger
0.000023   Finder
01:57:14 getattrlist
/Volumes/Medium
0.000014   Finder
01:57:23 getattrlist
/Volumes/Medium
0.000013   Finder
01:57:49 getattrlist
/Volumes/Small
0.000016   Finder
01:57:50 getattrlist
/Volumes/Small
0.000024   Finder
01:58:32 getattrlist
/Volumes/Little
0.000012   Finder
01:58:32 getattrlist
/Volumes/Little
0.000021   Finder
01:59:17 statfs
/Volumes/BACKUPUSB
0.000009   Finder
01:59:18 statfs
/Volumes/BACKUPUSB
0.000008   Finder
02:00:10 getattrlist
/Volumes/BABY
0.000014   Finder
02:00:21 getattrlist
/Volumes/BABY
0.000015   Finder
02:00:55 getattrlist
/Volumes/Uber
0.000019   Finder
02:02:21 getattrlist
/Volumes/Big
0.000015   Finder
02:10:01 getattrlist
/Volumes/Medium
0.000022   Finder
02:10:01 getattrlist
/Volumes/Uber
0.000010   Finder
02:10:01 statfs
/Volumes/BACKUPUSB
0.000009   Finder
02:10:01 getattrlist
/Volumes/BABY
0.000013   Finder
02:10:07 statfs
/Volumes/BACKUPUSB
0.000010   Finder
02:10:11 getattrlist
/Volumes/Medium
0.000023   Finder
02:10:11 getattrlist
/Volumes/Little
0.000025   Finder
02:10:11 getattrlist
/Volumes/Small
0.000012   Finder
02:10:12 getattrlist
/Volumes/Giant
0.000015   Preview
02:10:12 getattrlist
/Volumes/BABY
0.000010   Preview
02:10:12 getattrlist
/Volumes/Uber
0.000009   Preview
02:10:12 getattrlist
/Volumes/Big
0.000009   Preview
02:10:12 getattrlist
/Volumes/U3 System
0.000009   Preview
02:10:12 getattrlist
/Volumes/Medium
0.000011   Preview
02:10:12 getattrlist
/Volumes/4tiger
0.000010   Preview
02:10:12 getattrlist
/Volumes/Little
0.000009   Preview
02:10:12 getattrlist
/Volumes/Small
0.000009   Preview
02:10:12 getattrlist
/Volumes/6snow
0.000009   Preview
02:10:12 getattrlist
/Volumes/BACKUPUSB
0.000008   Preview
Note the 02:10:12 "all drives spin up" event. That was opening a PDF in Preview. The PDF was in my home directory/Downloads on "Macintosh HD". The rest is entirely Finder; I was doing nothing at all.
I'm hearing a spool-up literally every 4-5 minutes.
I have essentially given up, and dismounted all the drives until I have need for something on one of them. Of course that kills Time Machine.
Since there is no rime or reason for these accesses, I am NOT impressed with the argument that "drives should spin 24x7, it's better for them". This is a home system, not a server. I know how often I actually need data off these drives - several times a day and many days not at all. So I should use a program to force them to spin 24x7 (by doing more unnecessary accesses)? That's like leaving a hot water faucet open 24x7 to deal with a glitch in an on-demand water heater.
I want the drives to spin down. And stay spun down. And then, when I choose to access something on one of the drives, or an application has something it's going to actually use the drive for (e.g. midnight backups) -- I want it to spin up. Simple enough?
I am running 10.5 but my searches tell me Snow Leopard is worse, and Lion is worse yet.

Good point, just checked, and the answer is no. I had 3 Finder windows open, all viewing the main hard drive.
They did, of course, have the hard drive icons along the left edge.
Edit (from here):
But I wasn't doing anything with Finder during these times.
This activity occurred when I was not using the computer at all.
04:00:41 getattrlist
/Volumes/Uber
0.000009   ScreenSaverE
04:00:41 getattrlist
/Volumes/Uber
0.000022   ScreenSaverE
04:02:10 getattrlist
/Volumes/Uber
0.000015   Finder
04:02:22 getattrlist
/Volumes/Uber
0.000019   Finder
04:59:17 statfs
/Volumes/BACKUPUSB
0.000011   Finder
04:59:18 statfs
/Volumes/BACKUPUSB
0.000005   Finder
05:02:10 getattrlist
/Volumes/Uber
0.000013   Finder
05:02:21 getattrlist
/Volumes/Uber
0.000016   Finder
05:59:17 statfs
/Volumes/BACKUPUSB
0.000014   Finder
06:02:10 getattrlist
/Volumes/Uber
0.000013   Finder
06:02:21 getattrlist
/Volumes/Uber
0.000021   Finder
06:59:17 statfs
/Volumes/BACKUPUSB
0.000006   Finder
06:59:18 statfs
/Volumes/BACKUPUSB
0.000006   Finder

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go to apple logo > system preferences > spotlight
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OR
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also
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pointless
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Why are my external hard drives always spinning up?

DESKTOP MAC.
I came home to my Mac after a day away, and found one of my external hard drives had been running apparently all day. The only thing I had open was Camino and iTunes, and also Activity Monitor.
DESKTOP MAC.
I often find the other hard drive(s) spin up at seemingly random times, for instance as soon as I sat down and started browsing the Web, the other external hard drive also spun up.
Why? I didn't do anything which would call for them to be active.
Is there any way to tell if certain applications have incorrectly placed important files on the external HD's (i.e. Safari putting its cache there, or iTunes linking to songs on an external)?
Are there utilities which can tell me which applications are banging on which disks or volumes?
DESKTOP MAC. Not laptop. Please do not give answers which use the words "sleep", "clamshell" or "battery". Again this is a desktop Mac not a laptop.
Oh and one other thing. It's a desktop Mac. Not a laptop. External drives are USB. Also it's a desktop Mac.

If it is a desktop machine, you want the hard drives to keep running all the time; it is disastrous to their longevity to be stopping and starting repeatedly.
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Thanks, Jon Stovell!!
p.s. There is a setting “Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible” in System Preferences: Energy Saver. This should be off, for the same reason; this is strictly for laptops, in my opinion.
p.p.s. If I leave my machine on, while I am not using it for a day or so, I put it to Sleep; under those circumstances, Keep Drive Spinning does allow the machine to sleep properly.

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External hard drives spinning up incessantly

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