"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.

Similar Messages

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.

"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

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.

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

Clearing The Hard Disk

Hello All,
I just bought my mac mini from my brother, for the soul purpose of using Final Cut Express HD. Well my problem is that I can't import videos becasue there is only about a Gig of memory left on the hard disk. I don't know how so much space got used up but about 72 GB is used up right now. Can someone tell me a way to start fresh with the hard disk, not delete everything but to just clear out all his old crap? I would appreciate it. Thanks a lot.

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
When obtaining a Mac from another person, it would usually be a good thing to simply reformat it and reinstall MacOS and the software you need, to make sure you don't end up with a system full of potential issues resulting from it's prior use. If you have the original install disk that came with the mini, you can do this by inserting it, then rebooting the system with the C key held down. This forces the mini to boot from the install disk.
From there, select 'erase and install'. This will erase all data (so don't do this if you need something already on there) and then install a fresh copy of MacOS. After that, when the system reboots it'll be the same as if it just came out of the box, and will ask you a few basic configuration questions and then to register it.
If you absolutely must keep the existing MacOS install, beware that the system will barely run with so little free space on the drive. You'll need to clear a fair bit of that at the very least! The easiest tool for the purpose of tracing what is taking up the used space is a freeware app called 'WhatSize'. You can download it from www.versiontracker.com and use it to examine what is on the drive, thus allowing you to find and remove unwanted material quickly.
By the way, to the other poster - no, Mac Janitor cannot be the cause of the problem you describe because it doesn't do anything that impacts the functionality of MacOS. It simply runs some basic log trimming and clearing tasks.

Partitioning The Hard Disk

I wanted to how to partition the hard disk so I can have three partitions, i.e One for the Mac OS X 10.6 and applications, and one for the User files i.e all documents, downloads, music etc, and one for the bootcamp partition, I know how to partition, i wanted to how to move the user directory permanently into the second partition, this way if I ever have to reinstall the OS I dont have to back up my data, all the time.
Actually I also would like suggestions on whether this is a Good or Bad Idea, Performance wise?, and also whether this is possible?

Do you mean uninstalling software? If so see the following:
Uninstalling Software: The Basics
Most OS X applications are completely self-contained "packages" that can be uninstalled by simply dragging the application to the Trash. Applications may create preference files that are stored in the /Home/Library/Preferences/ folder. Although they do nothing once you delete the associated application, they do take up some disk space. If you want you can look for them in the above location and delete them, too.
Some applications may install an uninstaller program that can be used to remove the application. In some cases the uninstaller may be part of the application's installer, and is invoked by clicking on a Customize button that will appear during the install process.
Some applications may install components in the /Home/Library/Applications Support/ folder. You can also check there to see if the application has created a folder. You can also delete the folder that's in the Applications Support folder. Again, they don't do anything but take up disk space once the application is trashed.
Some applications may install a startupitem or a Log In item. Startupitems are usually installed in the /Library/StartupItems/ folder and less often in the /Home/Library/StartupItems/ folder. Log In Items are set in the Accounts preferences. Open System Preferences, click on the Accounts icon, then click on the LogIn Items tab. Locate the item in the list for the application you want to remove and click on the "-" button to delete it from the list.
Some software use startup daemons or agents that are a new feature of the OS. Look for them in /Library/LaunchAgents/ and /Library/LaunchDaemons/ or in /Home/Library/LaunchAgents/.
If an application installs any other files the best way to track them down is to do a Finder search using the application name or the developer name as the search term. Unfortunately Spotlight will not look in certain folders by default. You can modify Spotlight's behavior or use a third-party search utility, Easy Find, instead. Download Easy Find at VersionTracker or MacUpdate.
Some applications install a receipt in the /Library/Receipts/ folder. Usually with the same name as the program or the developer. The item generally has a ".pkg" extension. Be sure you also delete this item as some programs use it to determine if it's already installed.
There are also several shareware utilities that can uninstall applications:
AppZapper
CleanApp
Yank
SuperPop
Uninstaller
Spring Cleaning
Look for them at VersionTracker or MacUpdate.
For more information visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on removing software.

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.

Sleeping mode problem: the hard disk doesn't stop to run.

Hello,
I try to put my iMac (Lion) in the sleeping mode. The screen becomes black but the hard disk doesn't stop. I don't see any live process in the activity monitor. This problem was not there before and I have no idea to correct it.
I you have a good idea for me !!!
Thanks

Then perhaps you have something now running on your system that is causing the computer not to fully sleep. You may want to open Activity Monitor to check what is running and to see if any application or process may be crashing.
You can also try creating a new, temporary user account, then logging into the new account to see if this issue ceases.

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 a problem with the hard disk on a 2010 macbook pro. Replaced the hard disk with an Hitachi 1TB and when I tried to erase and format It fails with input/output error. Any help much appreciated!

I had a problem with the hard disk on a 13" 2010 macbook pro. Replaced the hard disk with an Hitachi 1TB disk but when I tried to erase and format, it fails with input/output error and at other times saying unable to allocate memory. Any help much appreciated!

Zap the PRAM and Reset the SMC, then try again.

I converted from a PC to a Mac Mini. I have my PC documents backed up on a DVD disk. I have an external DVD drive connected to the Mac Mini. I want to open them up and save them to the Mac, BUT....when I put the DVD disk in the Mac is NOT reading it!

I converted from a PC to a Mac Mini. I have my PC documents backed up on a DVD disk. I have an external DVD drive connected to the Mac Mini. I want to open these documents up from the DVD storage and save them to the Mac, BUT....when I put the DVD disk in the Mac is NOT reading it!

Hi Joe,
Thanks for your quick response. I should add....it worked before. When I previously inserted the two DVDs into this remote drive, and I went into finder, I could click on the "remote device" line and see all my saved documents (excel, word, etc) on the DVD and open them on the Mac. Now I cannot see them, when I try to open them on the Mac, nothing happens, nothing is displayed. I just re-tested the remote DVD drive with a CD and, no problem, it opened up the CD via iTunes and I cold play the CD. SO......I know the remote DVD drive (it's an LG by the way) is fine, it's something to do with some settings on my mini mac,especially where I could open it previously. I do not remember changing any settings since then.
When I go into system preferences and click on CD/DVD it gives me options of how to open up a music CD (default is iTunes), a DVD (default is iMovie), etc. The problem is my DVD is all miscellaneious files/documents. I just want to be able to see them in the finder. I also tried to open them via microsoft word, from the remote disk and again, it could not open the drive, even though some of the documents were microsoft word documents. Again, I was able to open them previously and the DVD is not corrupted in any way.
Any additional advice?
Thank you!

I disabled my Macbook Hard Disk and lock the settings, after i try to reboot, the system wouldn't come up. It refuses to read instructions from the hard disk. How can i enable the hard disk when the system wouldn't come up?

I disabled my Macbook Hard Disk and lock the settings, after i try to reboot, the system wouldn't come up. It refuses to read instructions from the hard disk. How can i enable the hard disk when the system wouldn't come up?

How do you disabled it if running the same?

Can I access my files stored in the hard disk connected to airport extreme when I am away? how?

Can I access my files stored in the hard disk connected to airport extreme when i am away? How?

You can't technically. iPads cannot directly read HDDs like a computer can.
You will need an app liie FileBrowser to do this. Of course all file operations will be done through the App itself.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/filebrowser-access-files-on/id364738545?mt=8

When i import movies from my iPhoto app to my iMovie app does it make a copy (thereby using double the hard disk space) or does it link to my iPhoto app? The reason i ask is i want to archive all my videos from iPhoto/iMovie. HELP!

When i import movies from my iPhoto app to my iMovie app does it make a copy (thereby using double the hard disk space) or does it link to my iPhoto app? The reason i ask is i want to archive all my videos from iPhoto/iMovie. Do i need to archive the movies in iPhoto AND iMovie? HELP!

Hi - I'm having the same problem with freeing up space on the HD. If I can't free space if I'm using any part of the clip, how can I split up the clips so that I can discard the part I won't use? This is crazy! I have only 4 GB of free space left!
Also, I've tried to transfer the project file to my external HD but I keep getting an error saying I can't transfer it. I've been told this is because I don't have enough space on the HD for the transfer. I tried a similar transfer with another computer with plenty of HD space but the same error occurred. Is there a way to break up the project file into small pieces for the transfer (I'm thinking the whole movie file is just too big)?
Thanks for any info!

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

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for