Internal Hard Disk spin down - Mac locks up

Hi.
Recently my iMac has started to occasionally lock up. The other evening it was quiet and I heard the hard drive spin down. Following this any action results in the beach ball, and eventually everything locks up, because it cannot read from or write to the disk.
I have tried disabling hard drive sleep. Reseting the SMC and PRAM.
Not sure if it is related, but I also noticed that the system profiler reports that the last hardware test was run in 4008 (I'm sure it used to say 2008). So I ran a hardware test, no problems. The last hardware test date is now reported as 28th June 4010. Hmmmm.
Any thoughts on this, or help as to the next step will be very happily received.

It is normal to see the spinning beach ball cursor while the drive spins up, but obviously it should go away once the drive is spun up & the iMac should not eventually lock up.
Also, not every drive honors the spin-down command from the OS -- some spin down automatically according to their own internal timer regardless of the system preference -- but AFAIK no drive Apple ships in any Mac does this.
So just to cover all the possibilities, can you confirm that your iMac has the original internal drive it shipped with, & that there are no external drive(s) attached to it? If you do have any external drives, does the issue persist if they are unattached?
You might want to run Disk Utility's Verify/Repair Disk step on each drive you use to make sure a file system issue is not involved, & the Apple Hardware Test (which will require removing any non-essential peripherals like external drives & thus not test them) to see if a hardware issue is causing this.

Similar Messages

Hard disk spin-down

I have installed a second hard drive (500GB Western Digital SATA SE16) in my Mac Pro quad-core. The drive spins down regardless of the power management settings (system preferences) and does so even when I’m actively working, but not directly accessing the second drive. It then spins up, with a corresponding time lag of 10-20 seconds and the spinning beach ball, when drive access is necessary. I know from the WD website that there is a setting for a jumper on pins 3 & 4 which will prevent spin down (much like would be required for a RAID setup). Does it make sense to enable that jumper to prevent spin down in this case? Will the system power management settings still function properly with the jumper set? Thanks for any input.

Hi Pascal,
"I'd really love to be able to work in silence.. and also save my poor hard disk !"
As you already know, constantly spinning up and down is very bad for a hard disk.
The best would be to have it sleeping all the time, but if this is not possible, better leave it spinning constantly then.
"What is the annoying Panther feature (that Jaguar or OS9 didn't have) that keeps spinning my disk ?"
I'm not sure about that, but I think it has to do with the constant rewriting of files that Mac OS X uses (causing defragmentation as a side-effect, BTW).
My guess is that this didn't happen to your newly installed system, but now happens because there is much more fragmented free space on your hard drive.
Another explanation is if the OS X behaviour mentioned has been enhanced after 10.3.6 or so?
Or this can be also the kind of buggy behaviour described here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1267183#1267183
The default spindown time if you choose "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible" in Energy Saver, is 10 minutes of inactivity.
You can use Cocktail or TinkerTool System to modify this 10 minutes delay, or paste this Terminal command:
sudo pmset -a spindown 2
to reduce the required inactivity to 2 minutes
(but again, this is not what you are looking for, as this is worse than leaving it constantly spinning, unless perfect silence is so important to you).
I don't know how to tell Mac OS X to behave like former systems though, and I don't even know if it is possible at all.
Usually someone would like to set a longer spindown delay, like
sudo pmset -a spindown 120
for example.
Good luck!
Axl

Hard Disks Spinning Down

Apologies if this has been answered.
In the Energy Saver preferences, I have unchecked the preference to spin down the hard disks (put them to sleep). But even so, the disks still spin down, which leaves me staring at the beach ball several times a day. I have the other preferences set to sleep both the system and display after 1 hour.
Is there a way in 10.4.6 to keep the disks from spinning down?
QuickSilver Mac OS X (10.4.6)

I have the same problem with a similar, if not identical, computer.
I have unchecked "put hard disks to sleep" in the Energy Saver and trashed the preferences (Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist)
The problem still happens. Can anyone help?

Disks spin down (sleep) unbidden

Under Tiger (10.4.6) One or more of my internal hard drives spin down (sleep) when the drive isn't accessed for a short time, even if I'm using the computer, e.g. typing a message.
I have unchecked "put hard disks to sleep" in the Energy Saver and trashed the preferences (Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist) and reset the pram. The problem still happens.
Can anyone help?

This problem is definitely related to Tiger, at least partly. Previously, I was running 10.2, and this didn't happen.
It's not the only change to my drive behavior that appeared when I installed Tiger. At some point when I was running 10.2, I mistakenly moved my third internal hard drive (which is on its own interface card) to the wrong connector on the ribbon cable. The drive still worked, but it would spin down after an hour or so if I didn't access the drive. But the other 2 drives would keep spinning. When I installed Tiger, things changed. It didn't even see that third drive at all, and the other 2 drives would spin down after some short time (like 15 minutes or so) of inactivity. I moved the drive to the correct connector on the ribbon cable, and all of a sudden, Tiger recognized the drive -- but that drive now spins down too after a short time. Again, this is a new behavior under Tiger.
FYI, I migrated from 10.2 to 10.4, so it could have been a change introduced in 10.3.
G4 dual 1GHz Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Disks spinning down unbidden

you folks in this topic are so knowledgeable, maybe you can shed some light on this one. I got no answer for it in other topics, maybe because some underlying Unix thing is related to the problem? Or not. I don't have a clue.
Under Tiger (10.4.6) One or more of my internal hard drives spin down (sleep) when the drive isn't accessed for a short time, even if I'm using the computer, e.g. typing a message or editing a file. This is a new behavior that appeared when I installed Tiger, under 10.2 and 10.1 it didn't happen (I skipped 10.3).
I have unchecked "put hard disks to sleep" in the Energy Saver and trashed the preferences (Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist) and reset the pram. The problem still happens. I don't even have a clue which piece of software is responsible for this.
Can anyone help?

Bill's got a good reply there... but if you don't understand what using sudo does, you might want to do a quick bit of reading (in very VERY short: you are 'God' on that machine)
You should check out pmset -g as well (don't need to run it with sudo ('as root')

Mac OSX wont reognise my internal hard disk drive

I have a problem where for some reason when I start up my Macbook Pro (intel core duo) it does not detect the internal hard disk drive at all. I have run a hardware test and it shows no problems whatsoever. I have tried resetting the PRAM etc and to no avail. Yesterday the system hung and I tried to force quit and it wouldn't do anything so eventually I held down the power key and when it tried to reboot this is the problem I was faced with (it would boot up with the "no entry" sign). I accepted complete defeat and went to completely re-install OSX however it doesn't even show the internal hard drive when I wait for it to give me install destinations. I had tried seeing the hard drive through disk utility however it only shows the install DVD and that's it in the sidebar. I resigned myself further to thinking either the logic board or the HDD had packed in all and I took it round to my brother in law to see if there is anything he could do without opening the machine (he is Oxford educated and writes programmes etc so is very knowledgable), now this is the part that has miffed us both, he started it up using a Linux disc and once running, Linux see's the hard drive with no problems. He has been able to access the HDD with absolutely no problems under Linux both reading and writing to it. I even took my Mac Mini round and he booted them both up in Linux and completely copied Mac OSX from the mini to the macbook pro but still when I try booting up its as if the HDD isn't even there. Why can Linux see the drive and not Mac OSX? Please don't be affraid to get very technical in your answers as they may mean nothing to me but will probably all make sense to my brother in Law. Any sugestions at all would be greatly accepted.

Dear mcdkev,
You guys may have made a big error cloning the Mini HD into the MBP. They both have very different drivers and hardware settings and their OS X versions are customized to fit the hardware. That is why each mac comes with it's own version of OS X and their backup disks. That's a reason why it did not work.
Ok, so now that you do not have any of the original info on the MBP try the following:
Use linux to scan the disk surface & repair any problems.
Reformat the drive as DOS or FAT 32. (I wouldn't go into any linux specific format unless you can "Apple" format it, which I don't think linux has that option.)
Now, the MBP should be able to see it's drive...
boot from the OS X DVD , from the Utilities menu choose Disk Utilities, partition the drive as GUI file system (in case the linux format made the drive a "system boot record", you do not want that... )
Then format the drive as "OS X Extended Journaled"
Now go back to install and install your original basic set of OS X (the factory default).
*If nothing works, please do take your MBP to the Apple store or to a certified tech before you do more damage to the drive and it becomes unusable ...*

Problem installating Snow Leopard on old Macbook Pro with Intel Core 2 Duo. After creating partition on internal hard disk (Extended Journaled), installation starts but stops at half of the progress bar. Screen asking Restart appears.

Hello:
I have tried installing Snow Leopard via the installation disc on a Macbook Pro (2007) with an Intel Core 2 Duo, but I the installation has failed more than 5 times.
I have first formatted and partitioned the internal hard disk with Mac Os Extended Journal format.
Once the installation starts, it starts without a problem unti lthe progress bar gest until half completed then a screen asking for a Computer Restart shows up.
It asks to press the power button for some time until it the computer shuts down and then, press again to turn it on.
Once turned on, the installation disc gets readed, the installation screen appears again and asks again to start the whole installation process form the beginning.

Then you have a Hardware Problem.
Your system is Crashing part way through the install and Re-Booting because of the crash.
Could be the drive itself or it could be some other hardware part in your system. Like the RAM.
To check if it is the internal drive connect an External drive to the system by USB and do the install on that external. If the install completes then it more then likely the drive is bad. If it crashes again then it is more then likely some other piece of hardware in your system.

Hi, I just put a new internal hard disk to my MacBook after formattimg it and I don't know how to install the OS X? Any help please

Hi, I just put a new internal hard disk to my MacBook after formattimg it and I don't know how to install the OS X? Any help please

Be sure you have prepared the new drive correctly:
Drive Preparation
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Steps 4-6 are optional but should be used on a drive that has never been formatted before, if the format type is not Mac OS Extended, if the partition scheme has been changed, or if a different operating system (not OS X) has been installed on the drive.
When formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Complete the OS X installation.

MacBook does not see internal hard disk

Sorry if this is already answered somewhere, but I have searched so many forums that my head is swimming!
My boyfriend connected a new USB drive to his MacBook, formatted the new disk, copied some backup data onto it. At some point, the MacBook hung, so he held down the power key until the MB turned off.
Each time we restart it now, we get the flashing-folder-with-question-mark, and Tiger won't boot.
I have tried almost all of the tips I can find, and was even willing to reinstall OS X, however... the MacBook does not appear to see it's internal hard disk. As such, I cannot perform first aid on the disk via booting to setup DVD, and I cannot reinstall OS X.
If I boot from the OS X install disk, and use Disk Utility, the MB only sees the CD-RW/DVD-RW drive and the install disc. No internal HD ever shows up.
Help! I am at a loss as to how to fix...

Let me guess: you're also experiencing a low clicking noise from the right side of your mac immediately after you turn it on, right? Same thing happened to me and others, in fact there are several threads on this subject already:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=960977&start=0&tstart=0
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5325539&#5325539
My drive was done for, and no data could be saved. I ended up buying a new drive, and now I'm just hoping the same thing doesn't happen again. I'm beginning to get a sense that this problem is occurring on a more frequent level now that the 1st generation macbooks have reached their 1-year birthday, give or take. Let's hope Appel fesses up if it is indeed a design flaw.
Anyway, you most likely need a new drive. I just got a Hitachi Travelstar 250 gb for around 200$US, so they're quite cheap, and VERY easy to install, just 3 screws, slide it in, boot up, run disk utility, erase/format and you're good to go.

Disk Utility hangs while initializing internal hard disk in Core Duo iMac

I have a 20" Core Duo iMac. Recently the internal hard drive crashed ("invalid B-tree node size" or something reported when Disk Utility tries and fails to repair it). I have all my data on an external hard disk used as a Time Machine volume, so recovery is not my issue. Initially I picked the write zeroes once security option and chose to erase the internal hard disk. Realizing this would take too long, I clicked on skip, and Disk Utility appeared to hang. I quit and restarted Disk Utility, and chose the "don't erase" security option, but when I go to erase the drive it appears to hang while at the "partitioning" stage and doesn't seem to get any further. There is motion in the progress bar, but no additional progress after about an hour. Disk Utility shows the disk but no volumes underneath it (whereas immediately after the crash, it showed an unmountable volume labeled "disk0s2").
Why would Disk Utility be taking so long and not making any progress? How can I reformat this disk if Disk Utility is not able to? Incidentally, I am running the Disk Utility that comes with OS X 10.4.8, since that is the OS X version on my portable hard drive that I booted from. I also tried using Drive Genius to initialize the hard disk, but it also appeared to hang with no progress.

It is possible the drive has failed, but to be sure start by turning off the computer. Wait five minutes. Then do this:
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger or Leopard.)
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the number of partitions from the drop down menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (only required for Intel Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Be sure to boot from the OS X installer DVD, not a backup clone.

Unable to erase internal hard disk

Dear Mac Book Users
To begin with I got a problem of spinning wheel and grey screen, upon extensive research online i could,nt find any solution and everytime i tried to repair it with disk utility's first aid otion i got the following error:
Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.
There were a lot of errors wth permissions (upon clicking verify permissions) but the repair permissions button was greyed out.
Now all that is history and finally the only solution to get rid of the above problem was to back up my data to an external hd (WD-My passport) using the Restore option in disk utility. That worked well and all my data, the whole volume named MACINTOSH HD was copied to external hd and alsi now I am able to boot with this external hd.
Now the problem is that when i go to disk utility and try to erase the original internal hard disk details of which are as follows:
Disk Description :
ST9160314ASG Media
Total Capacity :
160.04 GB (1,60,04,18,85,696 Bytes)
Connection Bus :
SATA
Write Status :
Read/Write
Connection Type :
Internal
S.M.A.R.T. Status :
Not Supported
Partition Map Scheme :
GUID Partition Table
I get the error:
Volume Erase failed with the error:
File system formatter failed.
I want to know that has my hard disk crashed and if yes how to confirm it?
Also if it has crashed, now can i get a new hard disk with a greater capacity (let me know the maximum capacity) than my original 160gb. Are there any things i should keep in mind while buying a new one?

Please check the results:
Last login: Thu Aug 30 11:34:15 on console
Manan-Dewans-MacBook-Pro:~ manandewan$
Manan-Dewans-MacBook-Pro:~ manandewan$ bash
bash-3.2$ diskutil erasedisk HFS+newdisk Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.diskutil erasedisk HFS+newdisk /volumes/disk0
Unknown partition scheme: Utility
bash-3.2$ diskutil erasedisk HFS+newdisk /volumes/disk0
Usage: diskutil eraseDisk format name [[APM]Format|[MBR]Format|[GPT]Format]
MountPoint|DiskIdentifier|DeviceNode
Completely erase an existing whole disk. All volumes on this disk will be
destroyed. Ownership of the affected disk is required.
Format is the specific file system name you want to erase it as (HFS+, etc.).
Name is the (new) volume name (subject to file system naming restrictions),
or can be specified as %noformat% to skip initialization (newfs).
You cannot erase the boot disk.
Example: diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ UntitledUFS disk3
bash-3.2$ diskutil erasedisk HFS+ newdisk "/volumes/disk0"
Could not find disk for /volumes/disk0
bash-3.2$

No way to free space in the internal hard disk.

Hi guy
There's no way to free any space in the internal hard disk. If I throw 5 giga of files in the trash and empty it, I don't find 5 more giga of avalaible space in the internal hard disk. Time Machine is not activated. Any idea to solve the problem? Sorry for my english....

Freeing Up Space on The Hard Drive
1. See Lion/Mountain Lion/Mavericks' Storage Display.
2. You can remove data from your Home folder except for the /Home/Library/ folder.
3. Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on freeing up space on your hard drive.
4. Also see Freeing space on your Mac OS X startup disk.
5. See Where did my Disk Space go?.
6. See The Storage Display.
You must Empty the Trash in order to recover the space they occupied on the hard drive.
You should consider replacing the drive with a larger one. Check out OWC for drives, tutorials, and toolkits.
Try using OmniDiskSweeper 1.8 or GrandPerspective to search your drive for large files and where they are located.

Ssd internal hard disk compatible for a macbook2010

Hy everyone!i need help to choose a new hard disk for my Mac book pro 2010!
I was wondering which ssd 2.5 inch internal hard disk brand is compatible for it?
I would go with a crucial or samsung,but i really don't know what i should notice before choosing.

stefanobernardini,
I put a Samsung 840 PRO SSD in my Mid 2010 MacBook Pro. It’s been working flawlessly for me so far. Other people here have good things to say about the SSDs made by Crucial and by OWC, but the 840 PRO is the only one which I have experience with, so I’ll restrict my recommendations to it.

I have a Mac pro(1 free bay) and a mac mini I need to back both of them Is it better to use an external NAS HD or an internal hard drive on my mac pro (mid 2010) What option has the faster GB/s?

I have a Mac pro(1 free bay) and a mac mini I need to back up both of them (time machine) Is it better to use an external NAS HD or an internal hard drive on my mac pro (mid 2010)
What option has the faster GB/s?

Disk drive using native SATA bus interface will allow the drive to copy and always present and ready.
But once you have backup any hourly changes should be smaller and as long as the NAS and your switch should allow enough.
You should always have off line backups and don't rely on just one backup set or just TimeMachine.
WD RED models are designed for RAID and NAS and 7.2k instead of your more standard slower green 5400 rpm green models while still costing less than WD Blacks.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008JJLW4M/
How to clone your system:
http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-HowToClone-backup.html
http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-HowToClone.html
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7032/carbon-copy-cloner
Using Cloning as a Backup Strategy
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7032/carbon-copy-cloner
http://www.bombich.com/software/updates/ccc-3.5.html
Clone to internal, TimeMachine to NAS is one way to go at it.

Hard drive spins down and have to do a hard reboot

I have an Intel iMac 3.06 (April 2008). Ever since I upgraded to Snow Leopard especially when I am using itunes (9.02) (downloading) the hard drive spins down for no reason at all.The energy settings are fine. The only option I have is to hold the power button down for 5 sec and reboot when it happens. I know this has been an issue with other intel iMacs but when the "fix" for other machines was available it said my machine did not need it. I beg to differ. This is getting very annoying as I am sure it is not doing the hard drive any good having to hard reboot all the time.
I have tried the power management reset which has not resolved the problem.

Hi David
Welcome to Apple Discussions
1. In the Energy Saver preference try setting Computer sleep: to "Never" and make sure the the box "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible" is unchecked.
2. Try resetting the System Management Controller as described in the article below.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1543
Now then if you are still having a problem you might also:
1. Use the Restore Default button on the Energy Saver preference panel and then reselect your sleep settings.
or
2. Go to: Macintosh HD > Library > Preferences > SystemConfiguration and trash the "com.apple.PowerManagement.plist" which also restore's the Energy Saver preference to default, then go back to the Energy Saver preference and reselect your sleep settings.
Dennis

Internal Hard Disk spin down - Mac locks up

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