"put hard disk(s) to sleep when possible" setting - YES or NO?

I've searched.... but I can't find a definitive answer.
Is it a bad idea to NOT "sleep" my hard disk(s)?
(i.e. - uncheck the "hard disk(s) sleep" option)
I have a new macbook and I'm running Time Machine on an external (powered) drive. I have my computer set to "put hard disk(s) to sleep when possible" but I'm having problems with "improper device removal" warnings when I wake up the macbook. I would hate to shorten the life of my drives - but potentially corrupted
files on my Time Machine disk kind of defeats the purpose of back ups.
I realize that "sleeping" conserves battery life - but when the macbook is plugged in, what should I do?
thanks

the external hard drive is unmounting itself and I receive the "improper removal" warning. I've seen similar posts in the Time Machine discussions. It seems that it might be a sleep related issue. Macbook wakes - but doesn't wake external?
(Although one time it unmounted while the macbook wasn't sleeping)
At first I thought it was because the drive was bus powered -so I switched to a powered drive. Problem still happened - so I removed the drive from my usb hub and plugged straight into macbook usb port... but the problem is still occuring.
(Also.... wondering if verifying my back up drive will assure me that no data corruption occurred with improper removal...of should I do another complete backup?) thanks

Similar Messages

"Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible": How to Exempt One Drive?

I have a Mac Pro with 4 internal hard drives, 2 external hard drives, the built-in SuperDrive, and a new Pioneer BDR-205 internal Blu-ray drive. Here's the problem: If the "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible" option is enabled, when the system puts the BDR-205 to sleep, it will never wake up unless the computer is shut down and restarted. (Basically, it disappears from the System Profiler and can no longer be accessed.)
If I turn off the Energy Saver "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible" option, then the BDR-205 never has a problem -- but then none of my other drives ever go to sleep, either.
Does anyone know of a way to exempt a specific drive (or drives) from being put to sleep by the "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible" feature? I've found where the settings for this feature are stored, in \Library\Preferences\SystemConfiguration\com.apple.PowerManagement.plist (the setting is Disk Sleep Timer -- 0 = never sleep, any other number = how many minutes before a drive is put to sleep), but I can't find where there might be some undocumented option to allow us to say, "Don't put THIS drive to sleep". It seems silly that this option is an all-or-nothing proposition.
Anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance.

I am having the same difficulty. A way to exempt a specific drive from sleep would be most useful.

Does "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible) work with external drive

I have an external backup drive which I use for doing daily backups. I have set an iCal alarm daily to remind me to turn the hdd on at the right time.
When Time Machine comes along in a couple weeks, I am going to be leaving this drive on all the time while I'm working on my computer but was wondering if the energy savings mode of putting the hard drive to sleep applies to external USB drives as well? Would be nice to know that when I put my computer to sleep at the end of the day that my external drive also goes to sleep. I'm not sure if this has to be a function of the external box or if OS X can shut off the drive.
Any wisdom?

You can test this very easily:
The "Put the hard disk(S) to sleep when possible" default time is 10 minutes of inactivity.
Just leave your Mac alone for 10 minutes: you should hear both drives spinning down. If the external noise was not clear enough, you can then "wake it up" by double-clicking its icon on the desktop:
If it was spun down, you'll have to wait a couple of seconds or so, with the spinning colored beachball, while it is spinning up again.
Note that if you're performing a task that uses only you Mac's internal HD, the external should spin down while you're using your Mac. Then if double-clicking its icon shows the colored spinning beachball stalling, it's very clear it goes to sleep as intended.
Most of the external hard drives should be able to spin down, at least all my LaCie do it with no problem.

Hard disk going to sleep without permission

The hard disk on my Mini spins down despite the fact that I have the "put hard disk(s) to sleep when possible option" shut off. Is anybody else experiencing this? This is before the system starts going into sleep mode.

I've never used it myself, so I'm not sure what happens to these manual settings if you use the Energy Saver System Preferences to change the settings again, but take a look at the "pmset" (modify power management settings) command. Type:
man pmset
...and then press "return" at a Terminal prompt to see the "manual" pages and all of the options. Remember to type a "q" when you're done to return to the prompt. Note, "The -a, -b, -c, -u flags determine whether the settings apply to battery (-b), charger (wall power) (-c), UPS (-u) or all (-a)." And the argument is "disksleep" and then the number of minutes. So, if you want the hard drive to spin down after 30 minutes of idle time only while you're using the battery, you type:
pmset -b disksleep 30
...and then press "return". If you want the hard drive to spin down after an hour of idle time no matter what power you're using, type:
pmset -a disksleep 60
...and then press "return". After using the "pmset -g disk" ("get" command), it appears that the setting to put the disk to sleep when possible sets it to ten minutes. After changing it to uncheck the option, mine was then set to zero when connected to AC power.
-Doug

10.8.5 on MacPro5,1 - disabling "Put hard disks to sleep when possible" doesn't work any more

I have always had "Put hard disks to sleep when possible" disabled in the Energy Saver section of System Preferences, but since upgrading to 10.8.5 this setting is no longer obeyed... I can distinctly hear the sound of my hard drives winding down and winding back up *very* often, and toggling the setting has no effect...
There's other threads about hard disk sleep issues with 10.8.5 and it seems this is another one to add to the list... Definitely needs to be addressed because my hard drives are powering up & down quite a lot even when the system is sitting idle, which is gonna create a lot of unnecessary mechanical wear on those drives...

Unfortunately, this is a known bug that Apple is working on.
I submitted feedback regarding this issue and surprisingly received a couple of phone calls from Apple support about this issue. I ran through several questions with the tech and advised him that I temporarily resolved the issue by restoring from a saved 10.8.4 installation. So, for the moment, everything is working as it should. The Apple tech asked if I would be willing to re-install 10.8.5 and provide some logs, but I declined since everything is back to normal now.
As a side note, it has been said on other forums, the issue can be temporarily "fixed" by setting your monitor to never go to sleep and stay on, which ironically causes your hard disks to "never" sleep either. I also provided this bit of info to the Apple tech in hopes of resolving this.

Sleep Question when "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep" is unchecked

In the Energy Saver options, I unchecked the "Put the hard disks to sleep when possible" option ... what happens if I close the lid? Does that option get overridden and the hard drive goes to sleep?
Will I be safe to move my mbp around in my backpack when I travel? Or do I have to shut it down totally? I tried finding the answer but couldn't find a real response.
I just want to know if the laptop's drive stops spinning and I can move it around safely or if I should always turn off my mbp when I put it in my backpack. Thanks for any answers.
Mac OS X (10.4.8)

> what happens if I close the lid? Does that option get overridden and the hard drive goes to sleep?
Yes, it's over-ridden, the heads park and you can move it around happily
Make sure it does actually go to sleep and not hang up on some run-away (BootCamp) process or similar ... you can tell by the noise. If it's not silent within 10 seconds of the lid closing open it up again and check Activity Monitor.

Putting Hard Disks to Sleep?

Is there any way to lengthen the time the hard drives are put to sleep once I've activated "put hard disks to sleep when possible"? The default seems to put them to sleep within minutes, and I'd like to change it to one hour if possible.
Thanks!

Why bother in a desktop machine? Sleeping the drives is mainly a power saving feature mostly for laptops. If you uncheck the box in Energy Saver it defaults to 180 minutes of idle time. If you want an hour idle, then why not just set Energy Saver to put the computer to sleep after one hour of idle time?

"Put harddisks to sleep when possible" vs longer HDD life?

Something I've been pondering:
I can save battery by telling the computer to put the harddisk to sleep when possible, but am I sacrificing HDD life span by spinning it up and down often?

I doubt that you are making much of a difference in either respect. It probably takes less energy to keep an already spinning disc spinning than it does to start it spinning again, if the interval is short. If it's longer, putting the disk to sleep probably does save a little energy, and the strain on the drive's mechanical parts will be less than if it's spinning down and back up again every five minutes.

If I set my iMac not to sleep, but set hard drives to sleep when possible will they sleep?

If I set my iMac to never sleep, but my Hard Drives to sleep when possible why don't they sleep?

They don't sleep because your Mac is using them (as your Mac is turned on). If they go to sleep, you may damage the external drives because your Mac doesn't unmount the drives first

Hard Disk going to Sleep but I told it not to

In System Prefs | Energy Saver, I have "Put hard disk to
sleep when possible" UNchecked but it constantly
goes to sleep and has to be reawakened after only a few
minutes.
BTW: I have "Put the computer to sleep when it is inactive
after - 3 hrs."

I wrote a little script which worked in prior operating systems to avoid this issue. Not sure if it will work in the current since I never ran into the issue, but you can try it out:
http://www.macmaps.com/software.html
Disclaimer: Reference to links I make to my Macmaps.com website are a for your information only type reference. I do not get any profit from this page, and it is open to the public.

Hard disk test? and when to tighten?

hard disk test? and when to tighten?

I'm not quite sure what you mean either, but if you are worried about the state of the hard drive then this is probably the information you need...
Check your iPod with Diagnostics Mode
It's possible that your iPod's hard drive has started to fail. Take your iPod and place your right thumb on the centre SELECT button and your left on the top MENU button. Press down both thumbs for about 6 seconds until your iPod reboots. Immediately move your left thumb around to the rewind button |<< on the left and hold this down together with SELECT for a further 6 seconds. Your iPod should now switch into Diagnostic Boot mode. Press MENU for Manual Test, then select IO > HardDrive > HDSMARTData to reveal your stats. For comparison here are mine taken when my 6th Generation Classic was about 2 years old:
Retracts: 889
Reallocs: 12
Pending Sectors: 0
PowerOn Hours: 2202
Start/Stops: 894
Temp: Current 24c
Temp: Min 10c
Temp: Max 50c
Take a note of your results. When finished press SELECT & MENU for 6 seconds to reset the iPod again.
With modern disc drives sectors are no longer marked bad by a disc scan, if the SMART firmware detects a sector it has trouble accessing it will attempt to invisibly reallocate it to a spare area of the disc.
Note that I've only 12 remapped sectors and none pending. To help explain what the numbers mean here is an extract from the Wikipedia S.M.A.R.T. article:
Reallocated Sectors Count
Count of reallocated sectors. When the hard drive finds a read/write/verification error, it marks this sector as "reallocated" and transfers data to a special reserved area (spare area). This process is also known as remapping, and "reallocated" sectors are called remaps. This is why, on modern hard disks, "bad blocks" cannot be found while testing the surface – all bad blocks are hidden in reallocated sectors. However, as the number of reallocated sectors increases, the read/write speed tends to decrease. The raw value normally represents a count of the number of bad sectors that have been found and remapped. Thus, the higher the attribute value, the more sectors the drive has had to reallocate.
Pending sector count
Number of "unstable" sectors (waiting to be remapped, because of read errors). If an unstable sector is subsequently written or read successfully, this value is decreased and the sector is not remapped. Read errors on a sector will not remap the sector (since it might be readable later); instead, the drive firmware remembers that the sector needs to be remapped, and remaps it the next time it's written.
Large numbers of Reallocs or Pending Sectors would suggest your drive is failing and that you may need to repair or replace your iPod. Check your stats after another attempt to update your iPod. If the numbers increase that again points to hard drive failure. While it won't be good news at least you'll know it isn't some random software problem and you can decide what to do next.
tt2

How do I put an external display to sleep when I am using my MacBook Air for presentation?

How do I put an external display to sleep when I am using my MacBook Air for presentation? I do not want to go to the projector just to turn it off and turn on again after a while? Is there a keyboard shortcut for that?

I want to be able to sleep the external display and at the same time do things in the MacBook.( This feature is useful for me so that I can prepare some things and so that my audience will not see what I am about to show them.)
Is there a feature for Mountain Lion?

I was using raw & my hard disk nearly full. When I downloaded pix, I got message that said hard disk nearly full. My pix downloaded into 2 folders. When I merged them about 50 disappeared. Where can I find them? Using MacBookPro, IPhoto 9.5.1

I was using raw & my hard disk nearly full. When I downloaded pix, I got message that said hard disk nearly full. My pix downloaded into 2 folders. When I merged them about 50 disappeared. Where can I find them? Using MacBookPro, IPhoto 9.5.1

Where were you downloading the to, iPhoto, a folder on the Desktop, where? Are they still on the camera's memory card? If you deleted them from the card and haven't used the card since they can be recovered with recovery software like MediaRECOVER. You can download the demo version to verify they can be recovered before purchasing it. Other similar apps can be found at MacUpdate.com by searching for "photo recovery" or similar terms.

HT1339 Hi i have an I pod and i had used it as hard disk also. Now when ever i connect it with my Laptop it shows restore to factory setting....i wanted to knwo is there any way i can save the data which i had already stored in the I pod

Hi i have an I pod and i had used it as hard disk also. Now when ever i connect it with my Laptop it shows restore to factory setting....i wanted to knwo is there any way i can save the data which i had already stored in the I pod. I dont want to loose that data???

sure pretty simple. make a backup of your current settings
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1766?viewlocale=en_US
then restore device from old backup you need pics off of
then import pics to computer
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4083
you may need to save pics to camera roll first
then restore the new backup and sync pics back to phone via itunes
Peace, Clyde

I have Itunes on an external hard disk, now it's not possible to upgrade my Itunes.

I have an external hard disk drive for my Itunes. Until now it's always been possible to upgrade Itunes.
Now I keep getting message E-drive not found. The hard disk is on the F-drive. And I can't find where I need to select the correct drive before installing.
It seems that it's not possible to select the drive where you want to upgrade your Itunes.

For "Invalid Drive" errors when uninstalling or reinstalling try b noir's user tip:
"Invalid drive X:\" install errors.
For other problems see Troubleshooting issues with iTunes for Windows updates.
tt2

"put hard disk(s) to sleep when possible" setting - YES or NO?

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