Hard drive remains spinning at 5,000 rpm, and doesn't spin down by itself!

OK, I thought this was a fan problem until I installed the iStat Pro widget, and discovered that my hard drive was spinning at 5,000 rpm even when no operations were being performed. It doesn't slow down on its own, and I have to put the drive to sleep to get the rpm to return to around 1200 rpm, which seems more normal to me. However, over time (perhaps 20-30 minutes) the rpm gets back up to 5K again. But the CPU fan stays constant at around 1200 rpm. This doesn't seem normal to me. Oh, and Apple just replaced the hard drive on this five-week old iMac. Before I got the new drive, it was not noisy, and did not rev as high, and stay high. Any feedback about this situation would be helpful. I think I'm probably going to end up taking it back to the Genius Bar (sigh)...

Hello grejambri
That does sound like a problem with the Hard Drive or it's temperature sensor.
One thing you might want to do is run the Apple Hardware Test to see if it reports a problem with the HD's temp. sensor. > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509
Then be sure to record and report any test results to the folks that replaced your Hard Drive.
Dennis

Similar Messages

  • 2010 MBP 13" hard drive never spins down... ever.

    Hi Folks,
    I have searched - and even found others with a similar problem - but the threads died out without a solution, so....
    I have a pretty new 2010 MBP 13" 2.4ghz with stock 250gb HDD (I think it's a Toshiba, IIRC). I noticed that the palm rests were vibrating constantly and there was noise that never went away, so I investigated. It is the hard drive under the right palm rest, which is constantly spinning. My hands feel like I just came in from mowing the lawn!
    Now, I just came from ownership of a 2008 MB which also had the Core2Duo processor and which I used about the same. No new programs or new usage to speak of. Yet that hard drive was not spinning all the time; in fact, it was usually spun down and only spun up from time to time.
    I do have the preference checked for "Put hard disk to sleep when possible" on both battery and AC. I downloaded iStat and I can't see any reason for it not to spin down. i.e. light use (or even with all programs closed), cool CPU, CPU 90% un-used, very few page outs (not sure which of this would affect HD though).
    Still, it NEVER spins down.
    It's not clicking or making any of the "I'm a hard drive about to die" type noises. It's just a constant spinning hum.
    Can anyone help me with this? It's making me dislike what should be a nice upgrade from my MB and iBook. Of course I am still under warranty, but I'm 4 hours from the Apple store, and plus I just like to try to figure things out on my own if possible. Gaining understanding of how things work is a plus too
    Thank you in advance for any help
    Stixer
    Message was edited by: Stixer

    I don't know if anyone will click on this since I already marked it solved, but I will try it and then if not I'll start a new thread. Just don't want to clutter up the forum if I don't need to.
    So anyway, it was stated earlier in this thread that it is not possible for the internal hard drive to spin down while the computer is turned on, and that the system pref for "put hard disk to sleep (i.e. spin down) when possible" check box could only really apply to external drives.
    I'm no expert, so although I sure thought the drives in my previous Apple laptops were spun down most of the time (I'm a light user), I figured that okay, they must have just seemed like they were spinning down, and my new one must just be really noisy (even though the "noise" sounds just like my older drives did when they "spun up," but I guess they were just doing something else).
    But okay, so this morning I was reading Anandtech's really great and thorough review of the new MBP's and in the maximum battery life test they did this:
    +Light Web Browsing+
    +Here we're simply listing to MP3s in iTunes on repeat while browsing through a series of webpages with no flash on them. Each page forwards on to the next in the series after 20 seconds.+
    +The display is kept at 50% brightness, all screen savers are disabled, but *the hard drive is allowed to go to sleep if there's no disk activity*. The wireless connection is enabled and connected to a local access point less than 20 feet away. *This test represents the longest battery life you can achieve on the platform while doing minimal work. The results here are comparable to what you'd see typing a document in TextEdit or reading documents.*+
    Doesn't this seem to indicate that my original understanding was correct, and that internal hard drives do have the ability to spin down under light use? It sounds like it to me. My typical usage is exactly what they are talking about above, and apparently their hard drive spins down during such use, unless I'm completely mis-understanding them. Mine also seemed to in my previous Apple laptops.
    So now I'm feeling frustrated, as I hate having an issue that I can't get to the bottom of. Whether or how I can fix it or not is secondary, but I want to understand how it is supposed to work!
    Thank you very much to anyone who reads through, and even more if you reply
    Stixer

  • Ello, I changed my Imac hard drive which no longer worked. I installed a hard drive Western Digital 500 GB 7200 rpm SATA3 WD5002AALX 32M Black. Sometimes I see the hard disk in the utility on the Starter CD, but access seems very slow. By cons when I want

    Hello, I changed my Imac hard drive which no longer worked. I installed a hard drive
    Western Digital 500 GB 7200 rpm SATA3 WD5002AALX 32M Black. Sometimes I see the hard disk in the utility on the Starter CD, but access seems very slow. By cons when I want
    install OS X 10.4.2 on the hard drive, I do not see the disk. What is the problem?

    Thanks for the help
    I started on the installation CD OS X 10.4.2, I used Disk Utility
    to partition the disk according to the document that you have proposed. unfortunately
    I have not succeeded. When I partition the disk, even if I called it Macintosh HD, it
    does not keep the name and it shows disk0s3 instead. I did an erase on disk.
    When I mount the disk it tells me that I must repair. When I tried to repair, I got
    the following message:
    Volume check failed
    The underflying task reported failure on exit
    1 HFS volume checked
    1 volume could not be repaired because of an error.
    I also had a message:
    Invalid b-tree node size.
    Note: The disc is new, but it has already been formatted on a computer Imac 27 inch 2011 OS X Lion.
          I used a USB 2.0 to SATA cable to adjust the formatting.
    What to do to fix it?

  • I had to have a new hard drive installed.  Now programs load slowly and pinwheel spins a lot.  Any suggestions?, I had to have a new hard drive installed.  Now programs load slowly and pinwheel spins a lot.  Any suggestions?

    I had to have a new hard drive installed.  Now programs load slowly and pinwheel spins a lot.  Any suggestions?, I had to have a new hard drive installed.  Now programs load slowly and pinwheel spins a lot.  Any suggestions?

    It's likely that the new drive isn't working, or it wasn't installed correctly, or you had some other hardware fault rather than a bad drive.

  • Opening PDF causes spare Hard drive to spin up

    Hello,
          I use Adobe Web Premium CS3 on my desktop. The OS and software are installed on the primary drive. I have a spare hard drive on the desktop that is used infrequently. After an hour of using my desktop, the spare drive usually spins down due to no-activity.
          Now, anytime after this happens, if I open a pdf (from the desktop or the web), and try to scroll thru' it, there is a delay - till the spare drive spins up. Once the drive is up, I can browse the PDF without a problem.
    I'm guessing that the Web Premium CS3 installation (or a subsequent update) installed something on the spare drive that is needed for Adobe to read  PDF.
    Is there a way to prevent this from happening?
    Thanks
    Note: The OS is Win 7 (x64) Ultimate. Acrobat is version 8.1.7

    Hello,
          I use Adobe Web Premium CS3 on my desktop. The OS and software are installed on the primary drive. I have a spare hard drive on the desktop that is used infrequently. After an hour of using my desktop, the spare drive usually spins down due to no-activity.
          Now, anytime after this happens, if I open a pdf (from the desktop or the web), and try to scroll thru' it, there is a delay - till the spare drive spins up. Once the drive is up, I can browse the PDF without a problem.
    I'm guessing that the Web Premium CS3 installation (or a subsequent update) installed something on the spare drive that is needed for Adobe to read  PDF.
    Is there a way to prevent this from happening?
    Thanks
    Note: The OS is Win 7 (x64) Ultimate. Acrobat is version 8.1.7

  • IPod Photo refuses to sleep when hard drive is spinning

    I am own an iPod Photo 60GB running the iPod Software 1.2 (for iPod with color display).
    I cannot turn my iPod Photo 60GB off/put it into sleep mode while the hard drive is being accessed or spinning. This normally means that some music is playing, but it also can happen when a track is paused. This issue occurs for both ways to put an iPod into sleep mode: 1)"Sleep" from the menu, or 2)holding the play/pause button for a few seconds. Attempting either of these methods of turning my iPod off/putting it to sleep while the hard drive is spinning results in the iPod NOT going to sleep. When I select the "Sleep" item from the menu, I can hear the "click" sound, so I know the selection of that menu item is being detected by my iPod.
    Generally speaking, this issue happens when I have just removed my iPod from being docked with my computer, and it starts playing a track because I hit the play button accidentally while disconnecting the iPod. Usally the first thing I want to do is put the iPod to sleep, because I am going somewhere and don't want to use that battery when I'm not listening to it.
    My workaround: If I select a track at the end of an album/playlist, and then fast forward to the end of that track so that NO music/sound is playing on my iPod Photo 60GB, and the hard drive is not spinning, then I am able to use the "Sleep" menu item or the hold the play/pause button for a few seconds method. Also, if I let the track play for anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute or two until the the hard drive is not spinning anymore, then I am able to put my iPod to sleep. But shouldn't the sleep feature work immediately? None of Apple's documentation or TIL articles suggest otherwise.
    This problem is not related to the hold switch being in the "hold" position, as I am trying all of this with the hold switch NOT in the "hold" position. Also, it is not related to the battery power being low, as it happens with a full charge.
    I have read threads with a similar issue to mine, however the clarification needs to be made that this "bug", as I'll call it, only occurs when the hard drive is spinning/being accessed. Many people have mentioned troubles with putting their iPod to sleep while listening to a Podcast. This makes sense because some Podcasts are too large to fit into the iPod's RAM cache, and so the hard drive is accessing the Podcast through it's entire length. None of these threads have any useful input from Apple Computer support other than the suggestion of resetting the iPod or restoring the iPod's software. In both cases, the suggested solution DOES NOT fix the problem permanently.
    With the hopes that because ALL iPods that Apple sells currently will most likely have this problem, by starting a "new", more detailed thread on this issue, perhaps Apple will get this message to a higher level and actually do something about it.
    I would highly suggest if you have an iPod Photo (any size) or one of the "new" color iPod's, that you try seeing if you can put your iPod to sleep when your hard drive is being accessed, and if not - Please Post on this Thread. The more posts that come up on a thread, the more likely that someone with Apple will notice.
    Thanks for reading...

    To elaborate more on what Rob said. Since the iPod is a hard drive based device(similar to your computer) the disc inside spins and there is a needle to read the data.
    What you are suggusting would be like yanking the power cord out of your computer in mid install of something, the chance of data lose is there and if happened enough bad sectors can arise. Should you do that? No, Would you do it? In most cases not.
    A bad sector would in most causes make the ipod freeze when accessing it or make it fail its disk check and requiring replacement.

  • MBA supposed to be sleeping but hard drive is spinning.

    Help. This has happened to me more than 5 times so I know this is not a fluke:
    When I leave my office, i put my MacBook Air to sleep and put it in my briefcase. When I arrive home (an hour later) my MBA is super hot and sounds like the hard drive is spinning. It is literally overheating. It's as if it woke up in my briefcase and the hard drive starts to spin. This makes no sense as i quit all the applications and make sure the shell is actually closed.
    This does not happen EVERY time but has now happened enough that i know it is not a fluke. The only way to stop the hard drive from spinning is to hold the power button down until the computer just shuts down. Has anyone else had this issue? Sometimes the computer is so hot that i actually smell "burning". Clearly if i didn't notice it for 2 or 3 hours the MBA would just "melt down".
    Any ideas?

    HI and welcome to Apple Discussions...
    "smell burning" isn't good obviously.
    Try Resetting the System Management Controller
    If that doesn't make a difference, definitely take it to an Apple store or Apple certified repair provider.
    Make sure all you don't have any applications running when you put the MB Air to sleep.
    Carolyn

  • Hard drive stop spinning after a while

    I have a Lenovo laptop, running Arch Linux + KDE. I noticed that when I am on battery, the hard drive stop spinning after a while, and it's very annoying to listen the disk starting again, and again. and again. I'm not interested in save energy with this, so how can I deactivate it?
    I thought it was the laptop-mode, but I runned a systemctl status laptop-mode.service, and the service is inactive. Any idea of what could be triggering this?

    man hdparm. Check out -B and -S flags. hdparm -B255 -S0 /dev/your_drive should disable any powersaving settings altogether.
    You could use udev rule to run hdparm when you swithch to battery, but there are probably more elegant solutions as well.
    KDE might handle this via its own power settings as well. I haven't really used KDE ever, so I'm not sure about this, but it's still possible.

  • 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.
    I have a Seagate (that is NOT a recommendation) that I bought at a local PC outlet, and it insists on stopping and starting every 35 seconds or so, when I am not using the machine.
    I found the utility Keep Drive Spinning on Apple’s web site ( www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/systemdiskutilities/keepdrivespinning.html ) and I added it to my login items. During the boot process, it shows a dialogue; I click on a volume on the drive and type in 33 (seconds).
    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.

  • External FW Drives keep spinning down

    I've researched this issue on and off for a couple of months now and am not yet satisfied with what I've found so far. I have a couple of external hard drives One G-RAID 500GB and another modified G-Drive (I recently replaced the original drive an put in a new Western Digital 500GB IDE drive inside).
    THE PROBLEM: Both external drives keep spinning down after about 8 to 10 mins of inactivity. Is there a way to prevent this?
    Other forums say that OS X will ignore the "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible" setting for external drives while other suggest that this spin-down is a function handled by the firmware of actual hard disk drive. If the latter is true then I guess the question would then be which drive manufacturer makes a drive that doesn't spin down?
    It's very annoying to have to to wait for the spin-up (beach ball) every time you want to save your work. Yes it's only a few seconds but when you have lots of work to do this is an annoyance you can do without.
    APPLE: If you are reading, please chime in. Is it true that OS X's "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible" setting doesn't work for external drives?
    I've also wondered OS X is the one issuing the command that orders the external drives to spin-down. And if so, how do you turn it off?
    Maybe a command in Terminal?
    Thanks,
    Xavier

    THis is certainly a common problem with WD drives, especially, but it may apply to others as well. Do you know what brand of drive is installed in the G-Raid?
    Apart from the drive itself it could also be precipitated by firmware in the bridge enclosure.
    One solution to this sort of issue is to simply create an automated process that briefly accesses the drive before the 'spin down" process occurs.
    You will find a page on how to do this HERE (you will obviously have to substitute the name of your own volume for the one in the article).
    An easier way if you don't want to mess around at that level is to simply use a script or app to do the job.
    Take a look at Keep Drive Spinning which is free, or "No Spin" which is shareware, for example.
    Cheers
    Rod

  • My hard drive crashed on my Mac Book Pro and I just had it replaced yesterday.  After restoring my data, Safari will not open.  The error message I continue to receive is "Safari quit unexpectedly"  Should I just delete the application and download a new?

    My hard drive crashed on my Mac Book Pro and I just had it replaced yesterday.  After restoring my data, Safari will not open.  The error message I continue to receive is "Safari quit unexpectedly"  Should I just delete the application and download a new one?

    http://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/37/23/041-5058/lr5tynbldi18zcrqo8a8uq88 rnjushqliu/Safari6Lion.pkg 
    Here you go.....

  • Hi, I got my Mac in 2009 with photoshop elements on it - it's recently been wiped, however before the process we put Photoshpp onto a hard drive, we then copied it back over and it no longer works, I'm getting error code 150:30 and I'm being asked for a p

    Hi, I got my Mac in 2009 with photoshop elements on it - it's recently been wiped, however before the process we put Photoshop onto a hard drive, we then copied it back over and it no longer works, I'm getting error code 150:30 and I'm being asked for a password... any ideas how to get it working again?

    You can never, never migrate an installed copy of PSE. It's just too complex and you can't get to all the bits and bobs.
    First you will have to download and run this:
    Use the CC Cleaner Tool to solve installation problems | CC, CS3-CS6
    which will not seem to do anything, but is necessary to break the links within PSE so that you can pitch the bits manually. Then you will have to go around, not only to applications, but also to your username>library>preferences and most importantly to the library at the top level of your hard drive>application support>adobe, and remove everything you can find. Spotlight will not help with this kind of search, so don't try that.
    Then you can install PSE from scratch.

  • I have an external hard drive that was formatted by a PC and has files and directories etc. I want to format it and use it on my IMAC for backup but I can't seem to write to it nor can I delete current content. How do I initialize it for use with the MAC?

    I have an external hard drive that was formatted by a PC and has files and directories copied to it etc. I want to use it on my IMAC for backup. I see it on my my IMAC . I can open files etc.  But I can't seem to write to it nor can I delete current content. I don't care if I lose current content. How do I initialize it for use with the MAC?

    You can't write to it because it's formatted as NTFS which OS X will read but not write to. If you want to continue using the drive with both a PC and OS X you will need to download and install NTFS-3G so you can then write to it from your Mac. You can get NTFS-3G at:
    http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/24481/ntfs-3g
    If you want to use the drive exclusively with your Mac then move the data off it and reformat it in Disk Utility (Applications - Utilities - Disk Utilities) as Mac OS Extended (Journaled.)

  • On my macbook pro the hard drive icon is not on my desktop and I don't know how to find the hard drive or get the icon back on my desktop

    on my macbook pro the hard drive icon is not on my desktop and I don't know how to find the hard drive or get the icon back on my desktop

    Click on the Desktop. From the Finder menu select Preferences. Check the boxes for what you want on your Desktop. If they are already checked, then try unchecking and rechecking.

  • My hard drive on my MacBook Pro stopped working and I had to replace the hard drive.  I cannot get my playlists and photos to appear in my iTunes and iPhoto.  Does anyone know how to resolve this?

    My hard drive on my MacBook Pro stopped working and I had to replace the hard drive.  I cannot get my playlists and photos to appear in my iTunes and iPhoto.  Does anyone know how to resolve this?

    Peace Lilly wrote:
    ...  Will I loose everything if I connect the iphone to the itunes as a new device?
    To avoid that...
    See these 2 Links...
    Syncing to a New Computer...
    https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3141
    Recovering your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device
    https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3991

Maybe you are looking for