Hard Disk Sleep Delay Time

Is there a tweak out there somewhere where I can set the amount of time before my external disks go to sleep? The 5 minute delay is way too short and it's driving me crazy when I use the Finder.

Hi, B.
See my "Spinning Beach Ball Of Death (SBBOD)" FAQ, specifically the section entitled "SBBOD spins for 30-35 seconds. You may hear your hard drives spinning up." Depending on the firmware of your external drives' enclosures, there may be no way to change how it responds to Energy Saver preferences.
Good luck!
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:
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Recently upgraded Mac 24" to Lion (clean install) and now no external hard disks work with Time Machine

Recently upgraded Mac 24" to Lion (clean install) and now no external hard disks work with Time Machine.
installed new internal disk first with fresh 10.7.3 Lion software. Also upgrade ram to 4GB. Work great, super fast.
BUT.... my WD 1TB firewire400 external disks no longer work with the Lion enabled machine now.
FURTHER... I read somewhere that WD is problematic with Lion but Seagate was not... so I went and bought a new 3TB Seagate GoFlex.
When it didnt work properly either, I patiently searched and found a software/firward upgrade and applied.
I re-partitioned disk to extened/journaled standard, etc.
Then assigned the particition to Time Machine. Drive turned the blue/grey color, so I thought it would work.
But, it has now been in "preparing" mode in Time Machine for HOURS....
What is up Apple? So dissappointed. Ive read these type of problems are notorious with Lion and I wish I never upgraded.
Are you trying to make issues with External disks, to drive people to iCloud? That trick ont work in me. I will not reward bad behaviour Apple.
Please provide a fix... I wasted hours/days screwing around with this, instead of using the Mac for what its intended!

Solved by Pondini, on another thread I opened...
Answer:
Sounds like either:
A directory problem on your internal HD. Verify your internal HD, and Repair any other volumes being backed-up per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
Something in OSX may be damaged. You've tried the "combo," so a fresh copy of OSX (that won't disturb anything else) would be worth a try (and you don't need a tech for that). See Installing the ''combo'' update and/or Reinstalling OSX.

HT1331 How to connect external hard disk to airport time capsule and use it throughmy ipad ?

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You need the disk formatted HFS+ on a Mac.. you cannot format disks from the airport utility and there is no hard disk utility of course on ipad.
Once you set it to share.. then you need to load a file app to the ipad as it has no ability to natively handle files.. check out filebrowser as a standard one.. but there are several available.

My mac can't find the volume" Data" on Time Capsule. Also Ican't find with the disk utility program the hard disk in the Time Capule; so I can't format the disk again. What can I do?

My Mac can't find the volume " Data" on Time Capsule, Also I can't find with the disk-utility program the hard disk in the Time Capusule.
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I listed the commands.. that is how you manually mount the disk.. follow exactly the commands I gave you.
In finder use top menu, go, connect to server.
Type in the following.
AFP://TCname or AFP://TCIpaddress (obviously you replace with the actual name or the actual IP address).
If that fails..
try
SMB://TCname
Here is the screenshot.
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It should then ask you for your credentials.
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My macbook won't copying anything to any external hard disk drivers same time can copying to any flash memory

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Safe to turn off hard disk sleep?

i have a powermac g4 with mirror drive doors. i've been having occasional trouble waking from sleep. i turned off sleep mode for the computer, and unchecked "put the hard disk to sleep when possible". is this safe for my computer, or will it harm the hard disk?

If I had a nickel for every "sleep" related question I wouldn't have to work for a living.
Your hard drives are, as David says, fully capable of running all the time. Some swear that it is better for the drives. My belief is that this comes from the experience of older hard drives which were best left on all the time. Newer drives are designed to power down as required by the EnergyStar mandates. So they can run or sleep and it really shouldn't matter.
What does matter is the not waking from sleep. If by that you mean you had to use the power button to shut down completely and then restart your computer acutally crashed. If/when this happens you should do one of the following upon or before attempting to restart
1) Boot single user and run fsck
2) Boot from the install disk and run Disk Utility from the cd/dvd
3) Hold down the shift key for a Safe Boot which also runs fsck before booting fully
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External Hard Disks Sleep after 10.8.5 update

After installing the latest Apple update to Mtn Lion, my external disks sleep and cannot be awakened via remote access. Nothing changed except the update.
It happened at work as well as on my home network.

I am on a Mac Pro 2.8 (3.1) 2008 model. 12 Gb ram and a radeon 5870. This supplemental update has been pretty horrible. I have had the following issues: messed up sleep, random wake ups, and one hard crash. I have also had the long sleep delay where the fans crank up and it takes forever to sleep...only a restart cures this, which is pretty useless. The mach file showing but that was fixed with a terminal command. Lost video chat icon on iMessage for a while but that has now mysteriously returned. The last annoying bug I have suffered with is what seems like horribly reduced audio quality out of the Apple LED 24 inch cinema display speakers. It sounds like 22kz mono both input and output.
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Adjusting Hard Disk Sleep?

Is there a way to adjust the default time when I've enabled "put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible"? The default time seems very short to me, and would love to extend it to a half hour or so before they go to sleep.
Thanks!

yes, it's possible. install TextWrangler and open the file /library/preferences/systemconfiguration/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist in textWrangler. change the entry for Disk Sleep Timer from 10 to 30 and save. you'll have to provide your admin password. then restart and the disk sleep timer will be set to 30 minutes. you can adjust that number to whatever you want of course.

Hard Disk Sleep Issue

Does anyone else notice their Hard Disks trying to sleep even though the "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible" box is unchecked in the Energy Saver preference pane? I keep hearing drives inside my Mac Pro spooling down, then normally spooling up again 30 seconds later. I've tried restoring the prefs to default and an SMC reset with no luck. Thanks..

Hi Mate ! I am experiencing the same problem with my MacPro - did search a lot of discussions - but didn´t get any helpful answer. I switched off all sleep/energy saver modes. Did all system resets, even all onyx scripts - nothing helped. From time to time - specially when working with the Mac Pro Apps - the second internal diskdrive falls to sleep and needs about 20 to 30 sec. to reactivate. I can switch between programs at that time, but all I see is the rainbow wheel. Does anyone know a workaround for that ? It would be very much appreciated

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I've found hunderds of questions that look alike but not one has solved it.
I have a Time Capsule with 2 TB hard disk. In all descriptions of the TC Apple states that an extra drive can be attached through the USB.
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I don't have a Time Capsule; I have an AirPort Extreme Base Station, which is similar except for not having the built-in storage. Since your question got moved from the initial category (where you posted it) to Time Capsule, maybe someone else who has a Time Capsule will pop by with some advice. If you don't get any more replies (other than from me), you may want to summarized what you learned so far, and post a new question (in this category). New questions often get more views and responses.
With a Time Capsule, you can share the built-in hard drive as general network storage (not just for Time Machine purposes), is that correct? Does that work for you? Can you set that up using the latest version of AirPort Utility?
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I don't know why the latest version of AirPort Utility does not see the external drive volume? If possible, I would try another USB storage device (even if it's a 4GB thumb drive), to confirm it does work, and it's not a hardware problem on the Time Capsule's USB port.
Also, if you have not tried so far, you may want to reset your Time Capsule (to give it a fresh start).
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3728
This also has some relevant information about attaching a USB drive.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2426

HT201250 if I used external hard disk for backup time machine, is it possible to use that external hard disk to save another else from diffrent computers?

If I used external hard disk for back up time machine, is it possible to use that external hard disk to save another else from diffrent computers?

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
You can do this, but you should make a new volume on your external disk. Time Machine needs a volume that is only used to store backups, so you can't store other data in the same volume as the one you are using for making backups.
If you want to create another volume on your external disk, use Disk Utility to do this > http://pondini.org/OSX/DU3.html Anyway, you should get another external disk to store other files, but if you don't want to, you can create another volume in it

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I have noticed in the Energy Saver in the System Preferences section, that their is a Put Hard Disk to sleep when possible, but I know that my laptop is an SSD and not a hard drive. Is this something I should uncheck or leave checked?
Thanks!

You can leave it as it is now. That option also applies to the SSD, although you see hard disks

External Hard disk connected to time capsule not visible in windows vista

I have connected my external hard disk to Time capsule. Am Able to find the same in my MBP in finder under shared. But with windows I am not able to see this hard disk. I have installed airport utility and am able to see the time capsule. What to do?

What is the format on the external USB drive?
Have you setup the disk in workgroup correctly to the network workgroup name?
Turn on guest read and write at least to get things started. If you turn on password or changed the default password you will need to remember that.
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Severe problems and had hard disk replaced 2 times! Going to 3rd?!!!

Hello everybody... I come to you because I'm running out of options.. I've bought an iMac 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, with mac OSX 10.4.11 more than 2 years ago. 8 or 9 months after buying it it started to malfunction and eventually crashed. I took it to the nearest mac support store and they told me that the hard disk burnt out and they had to replace it for a new one. They gave me no explanation for it. Last year, it started having problems again... would take a lot of time to start up and eventually showing up a question mark when starting up... talked to a technician on the mac support phone line, guided me through the hardware and sftware tests... When using disk utility, it said it was unable to mount the disk.. I took it to the store and once again, they said the disk burnt and replaced it for a new one. I insisted that there should be another problem elsewhere because this was the second time it happened. They said no... And I lost all my data, because I had no backups.. Now the 2-year warranty has expired a couple months ago and I'm having problems again... It only starts in safe boot. I tried to run the hardware test by restarting it and pressing D while it starts up and instead of going to the hardware test, it started normally, without safe boot for the first time. I took the opportunity to go online and write this post... I really don't know what to do because I have no money at the moment to take it to tech support (since it's out of warranty, I'm sure they'll charge a lot!)
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Thanks!

If you purchased the AppleCare extended warranty that would mean your system is covered a full 3 years from the date of purchase. You can go to this site:
https://selfsolve.apple.com/GetWarranty.do
and it will tell you the exact date your warranty expires. If you are still covered contact Apple directly explain the problem. Because this is the third time you have had the same thing fail it is possible you might be entitled to a replacement machine.
Best of luck.
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Hard drive disconnects itself improperly-Hard disk sleep?

Hello,
I have recently bought a 2011 Macbook Pro and I am facing a problem with an external Verbatim LCD hard drive.
It seems like when the drive is inactive for 10 minutes or so, it gets disconnected improperly, I get an error message and the drive disappears from the system until I unplug it and plug it back in.
Also I have noticed that when the disk is in use , it does not disconnect. I tried leaving playing a movie to see what will happen and everything was ok. When I stopped the movie and left the Macbook Pro it disconnected itself after a while.
I know this may be bacause of the option in the Power Saver "Put hard disks to sleep if possible".
So, I have decided to untick this option and up to now everything seems fine again.
I just wonder, should I leave this option on or off? And if this option is there, why does it cause such a serious problem like disconnecting a hard drive?
This certainly should not be happening!
I would appreciate any information on that.
Thank you in advance!

Anyone?

Hard Disk Sleep Delay Time

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