Turned-off external drives remain active and spin ...any risk?

I have several USB-hard-disks connected via USB-hub to my MacBook. The power for each drive can be turned on individually. I noticed that drives are still spinning though power has been turned off (but they don't mount on the desktop). So I guess that the drives draw current via the USB-contacts. Set aside the point of wasting electric energy is there a true risk for the USB-hub or even worse - what happens if I connect a turned off drive directly to the MacBook ... is it "just" sucking some energy or is this stressing the units involved?

Hi Michael,
Thanks for your input on this. I went through several steps, including most of the ones you recommended, and came upon what seems to be the problem (knock on wood).
My editing setup is one MacPro, 4 G-Raid drives, and one Sony DSR-11 digital video deck. After clearing up more space the G-Raid drives to bring them to about 10% free space, things seemed to be running smoother - there were less crashes within FCP. However, I was still getting crashes on opening FCP, at the same "splash screen" point (after all the AE Effects and Video Effects had loaded).
Running Disk Utility on all drives showed no problems, and unfortunately I don't have DiskWarrior (though that may be an upcoming purchase).
It wasn't until I went through your suggestion of starting FCP with the individual drives connected that I got somewhere. FCP would start up fine with one or even two drives connected, but not with three or four. Doing a little research on that brought me to two threads on Creative Cow about G-Raid drives and daisy-chaining:
http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/176/856609
http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/176/856570
Once I put two of the drives onto the rear FireWire800 port, and two of the drives into the front FireWire800 port, with the DSR-11 still in the back FireWire 400 port, my problems disappeared. Huzzah! The G-Raid folks recommend no more than three FireWire devices connected at a time, and lightening the load on the FireWire port by uncoupling the four-drive long daisy-chain has immediately helped. Now, I'll keep an eye on it, and may potentially buy a PCI card if something goes wonky again, but I am very happy to have gotten things up and running again. Cheers!

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My wifi wasn't working for more than 10 minutes at a time after updating to IOS8 and resetting network settings. I turned off google drive, turned off Bluetooth, reset network settings and rebooted my iPad4. So far so good.

I have an ipad4. Wifi keeps cutting out after the upgrade even after I forget the network and resign on or reset all network settings. I deleted iCloud drive from my iPad, turned off Bluetooth, reset network settings, and rebooted my iPad. Since I upgraded to IOS8 this is the longest wifi has consistently been working for me. Which is approximately an hour now. Anyone else find that this worked or have figured out if this or anything out there is a permanent fix?

Hi CollinGCC78,
It sounds like you have been on the right track in troubleshooting this issue. If you are still having issues, you may want to double-check the steps outlined in the following article, in order if possible (apologies for replicating any steps you have already taken):
iOS: Troubleshooting Wi-Fi networks and connections
Regards,
- Brenden

DANGER: Turning off iCould Drive DELETES documents on your local drive and terminates access to those documents on iCloud Drive

So, I wanted to move about 40 GB of my documents to iCloud Drive. I do so. The upload is very slow -- 3 days 24/7 with no end in sight. There's no status report available to know what the progress is. Internet service at work and home slows to a crawl. In frustration, I turn off iCloud Drive in Sys Prefs. HUGE mistake. In addition to losing access to the documents on iCloud Drive, which I expected, turning off iCloud Drive either deleted the original documents I'd moved to iCloud Drive, or deleted the map which, through iCloud Drive, I could view them in my /Library folder.
I think I can regain access to them on my "original" device (the device I used to move the documents to iCloud Drive in the first place), but I also think that requires the same glacial, bandwidth-hogging sync that moved them to iCloud Drive in the first place.
I had current Time Machine backups but, having lost access to the documents on iCloud Drive, those TM backups are now accessible only back to the files before I moved them to Cloud Drive and, of course, include none of the files I've created in those folders since moving them to iCloud Drive.
Has Apple really turned over software engineering for these sorts of new features to its most hateful competitors? iCloud Drive is a joke.

First, to access documents you must use an app designed for that specific Document type. So Pages will not be able to open PDFs. The Documents app by Readdle can handle PDFs though. In the latter case, you'd open the app, click the menu icon at its top left, and click Open to go to your iCloud Drive. With Pages, if you had files outside the main Pages folder, click + then iCloud and navigate to the file's location.
Matt

"If you turn off iCloud Drive, all documents stored on iCloud will be deleted from this Mac.

My wife changed her iCloud password on her iPhone, and when she went to her iMac she changed her iCloud password there to match the iPhone. Then she got the following message:
"if you turn off iCloud Drive, all documents stored on iCloud will be deleted from this Mac. This appears under her iCloud account. She has Yosemite on her iMac.
So she's stuck. Any ideas?

The documents remain in iCloud, but are removed from your mac. So if she turns it off, they will be removed. If she turns it back on, the documents would again be available.

Can you turn off iCloud Drive without losing data?

I enabled iCloud drive but then discovered through some articles that one should not enable iCloud Drive until Yosemite comes out and all of one's devices are running iOS8 and Yosemite on their computes. Since enabling iCloud Drive I am missing Photostream and Pages docs that I had on my phone and god knows what else. When I went to try and turn off iCloud Drive (so I can then wait until Yosemite comes out before I re-enable iCloud Drive), I get the following message:
"Are you sure you want to turn off iCloud Drive? Some changes have not been uploaded to iCloud. If you turn off iCloud Drive, these changes will be lost." Immediately below that message is a red message that says "Delete from iPhone."
What exactly would be deleted from my phone if I turn off iCloud Drive? What changes does the message refer to? Why can't I just return my phone from iCloud Drive to the regular Cloud so I can access my Photostream and my Pages data? And why on earth did Apple not alert us to the issues we would face with iOS8 if we install BEFORE Yosemite comes out? This is so frustrating!
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Teresa

I would love to hear that Apple has remedied this problem. From other discussion strings that I am following related to this issue, it seems thus far we remain out of luck. I did discover that if I log onto iCloud.com I can access my files that way. Still, what a pain.
When I got the message re iCloud Drive as I was setting up my phone after the update to iOS8, it said I wouldn't be able to access my files unless all of my devices were running iOS8 OR Yosemite. That message was misleading as it really should have said all devices need to be running iOS8 AND your mac needs to be running Yosemite, as it was not an "either or" situation. So frustrating...

How do I turn off background ni file activity when not using Labview? files such as nimxs.exe, nipalsm.exe, nipalsm.exe, nisvcloc.exe, nicitdl5.exe

How do I turn off background ni file activity when not using Labview? I use labview rarely, and I also use my computer for demanding multimedia applications, including multitrack digital audio recording. I need to reduce as much background activity as possible, and taking a look with task manager I see files such as nimxs.exe, nipalsm.exe, nipalsm.exe, nisvcloc.exe, and nicitdl5.exe running even when I haven't used Labview (8 I believe). These files run even after I right click the NI icon on the lower right and turn off the application. I would like the computer to boot up without these files, and for the necessary files to be activated only when I start the program.
Can this be done or do I have to remove labview from the system to improve performance?
Thanks

Hello, those processes are part of running NI services that start when Windows boots. These processes serve varied purposes and stopping them can have undefined and unknown consiquences for your NI products. These products run at "normal" priority meaning that they should be preempted by any process running at a higher priority which I would expect your other application to be doing given their time sensitivity. That being said, in Windows XP (I can't speak for other OSes), you can lower their priorities even greater through task manager (right click the process»set priority) to further remove them from contention for resources. If you want to prevent them from running you can set the service startup type to "manual" in Control Panel»Administrative Tools»Services. Right click the process go to Properties and Under the General tab choose Startup Type»Manual. This will start up the processes only when something directly starts it up. LabVIEW will start these processes up as it attempts to use them. When you shut down LabVIEW you will need to manually shut down these processes through task manager. Again, doing this can cause problems with your NI products on your system and it is not advised.
Travis M
LabVIEW R&D
National Instruments

How do I turn off iCloud Drive?

I don't like the idea of all my docs in the cloud. I want to stop the syncing and just keep the docs on my computer. However, when I try to turn off iCloud Drive it tells me that I'm going to be deleting everything from my Mac! How do I stop iCloud Drive but keep my files secure in my Mac?

The logic is that iCloud Drive is a hub for data shared among your devices, and the assumption is that if you delete something, you want it deleted. And practically, your file is treated as if the Drive copy is the only one. The Drive system may cache a copy on your device to allow easy, quick access, but the master copy is the one in the cloud. Delete the master copy and the cached copies have no "parent" and no way of maintaining any kind of sync.
It's similar to using a corporate network drive to get access to your files from anywhere. Delete a file without making a local copy and it's no longer accessible.

2007 Macbook Pro - Won't turn off or on. Power on button only results in quickly flashing power-on button on front of computer by display open latch. Turn off by disconnecting power cord and removing battery. Help!

2007 Macbook Pro OS X Maverick with maxed out processor and hard drive. It's been running beautifully for years! - When shutting down the computer failed to turn off. Now it won't turn off or on. Powering on only results in quickly flashing power-on button on front of computer by display open latch. To turn off by disconnecting power cord and removing battery. Help!

Hi P S 13,
If your MacBook Pro will not power on as you describe, I would suggest you troubleshoot using the steps in this article -
Troubleshooting: My computer won't turn on
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1367
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Brett L

I think I have blown out my USB ports. Plugged eternal drive to USB port; drive also had an AC plug which I plugged in. Screen went white; unplugged external drive (both USB and AC plug). Restarted MAC Pro. Everything came back except USB ports

I think I have blown out my USB ports. Plugged in an external drive to USB, but drive also had an AC connection which I connected. Whole screen went white; unplugged external drive (both AC and USB) and shut down MacPro. Restarted and everything came back except access to USB ports. Have tried to reset PRAM and SMC. No success. Have I blown out the electronic circuitry to my USB ports?

Thanks for the response, but ironically enough, I feel really stupid after posting that because a couple minutes after posting that my DELL mouse started working again, but I honestly don't know how long that'll last. After it started working again, I tried switch which port it's plugged into again, and the other one (the one closest to me) still isn't working. If it stops working again (which it probably will), I'll definitely take it to the Apple Store. But, for some reason almost every time I take a device to the Apple Store, it fixes the problem itself when I get there, and then stops working after I leave (like just now.)
That's happened a couple times, like when my computer was heating up alot, and when my phone's sound kept shutting off by itelf.
Anyways, I want to keep this discussion up just because I know it'll stop working soon. But, yeah, I was planning on taking it to the Apple Store anyways, but I think the earliest I can is probably Saturday or Sunday, so I'll do that then.
Thanks for the response!
Scott

2 day old iphone 5s turns off at 95% battery life and will not turn back on. HELP

So I had an iphone 4s for two years, the battery started to not last as long, so with my upgrade I got the iphone 5s (greatttt). Anyways I had it for a month then all of a sudden I wasn't getting calls, it took over a minute for me to even get a call to send, then once I was on the call others couldn't hear me well, then it would drop (no problems with service, always happened with full bars). Brought it to Apple store, they told me it was a combination between the phone and my SIM card. They gave me a new one and recommended I go to verizon to get a new SIM card. That same day literally 3 hours later, the phone turned off randomly at 65% battery and WOULD NOT turn back on. I had to go back to the apple store, they restored my phone and almost gave me another new one. However they tested the battery and everything and came to the conclusion it was okay and that I needed to restore the phone and set it up as if I did not already have an iphone (not use icloud to bring EVERYTHING over) So we did that and it started to work, that was two days ago. Over the course of the last two days I have SLOWLY downloaded my previous APPS, however the only way to download those are to do it from the "cloud" because apparently I can't just get them from the app store. Well yesterday I got the blue screen of death, however it came back, I thought nothing except that it was over worked. Tonight it went down to 1%, I left it on the charger until it was at 96%. I had NO APPS open. Went to my calendar and added a event for tomorrow, put my phone down and then ten minutes later looked at it and its turned off. It will not turn on, I tried rebooting pressing both buttons, Ive plugged it back it, switched outlets, switched cords, NOTHING.
Of course I wish I never got the iphone 5s at this point.
What now?
Back to Apple again?

Yep.
Just like cars, you lucked on a lemon.

I turned off icloud on my calendar and it deleted my entire calendar. Is there a way of getting that back?

I turned off icloud on my calendar and it deleted my entire calendar. I did this because I wanted to add a sport site to auto add my daughters hockey schedule. For some reason it was not accepting this URL? Is there a way of getting my calendar back?

Perfect, that worked. But I still cannot get this certain URL to work. It gives me an error message 1. Any ideas on that?

How can I play an album in order on my iphone? The shuffle is turned off both on the phone and when the phone is sync'd but it continues to shuffle.

How can I play songs from an album in order on my iphone 4? The shyuffle is turned off both on the phone and on the device when I sync the phone with my iMac but it continues to shuffle. All the songs in the album have been checked in iTunes.

Bill, you ignorant moron. Turn off the ultra secret hidden shuffle diabolically placed behind the album cover. Just tap the album cover to expose the sinister little shuffle icon on the right. Is it blue? Well, tap it until it is no longer blue! Also, make sure you are in your playlist and not the genius playlist.
Hope this helps! Now, who's ready for ice cream? Or do you want to "shyuffle" some more, you weirdo?!?

I have changed my Apple ID name and I want to change it on iCloud, however I am not able to delete the previous account because I need to turn off the Find my iPhone - and for that I need to log in with the old name and that is not working. Help anyone?

I have changed my Apple ID name and I want to change it on iCloud, however I am not able to delete the previous account because I need to turn off the Find my iPhone - and for that I need to log in with the old name and that is not working. Help anyone?

Hey tulgan,
This link will provide information on what to do after you change your Apple ID:
Apple ID: What to do after you change your Apple ID
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5796
Welcome to Apple Support Communities!
Take care,
Delgadoh

Easy question I'm sure. imac hard full (500gb) mostly from iphoto. no capacity left. what are my options? I've thought of an external drive of 1tb and then a 2nd external drive of 3tb to back up both???? please help.

easy question I'm sure. imac hard full (500gb) mostly from iphoto. no capacity left. what are my options? I've thought of an external drive of 1tb and then a 2nd external drive of 3tb to back up both???? please help.

Those are the options - more space is more space.
Moving the iPhoto Library is simple:
Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.
3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.
4. Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.
Regards
TD

In preview all is good...burning dvd the music cuts out 2 times in 4 songs...i have turned off all other programs, sleep and energy mode for battery...multiple tries... same result ...help

IDVD - in preview all is good...burning dvd the music cuts out 2 times in 4 songs...i have turned off all other programs, sleep and energy mode for battery...multiple tries... same result ...help

Hi
No audio on DVD disc.
Most common origin.
1. Imported audio from iTunes.
• In iTunes copy out as an audio-CD .aiff
• Use this in Your movie project
2. Low - Free Space on Start-up/Boot/Internal/Mac OS Hard disk makes it hard for iMovie to work as intended.
Down to 1.3 GB and it doesn’t work - especially audio don’t migrate over to Media Browser
(iM’08 & 09)
3. Material in iMovie’08 & 09 - Shared to Media Browser and here selected as Large
large.m4v. It silenced out this project in iDVD. By making a slight alteration - provocing it to ask for a new Share/Publish to Media Browser and here selecting 640x480 - and audio was back when a new iDVD project was created including this movie.
176x144
480x360
640x480
720x540 960x540
4. Strange audio formats like .mp3, .avi etc.
• Change them to .aiff. Use an audio editor like Audacity (free)
5. Main audio is set to off in System Preferences - Does this by it self - Don’t know why
Cheque Audio-Out resp. Audio-In
6. Ed Hanna
Had the same problem; some Googling around gave me a kludgy, but effective fix
Downgrade Perian from recent versions back to version 1.0.
That worked for me, and so far I haven't encountered any deficiencies—except it takes more advanced versions of Perian to enable QuickTime to handle subtitles in .srt format—that I have noticed.
7. GarageBand fix.
In this set audio to 44.1 kHz (Klaus1 suggestion)
(if this don’t work try 48 kHz - me guessing)
Before burning the DVD.
• Do a DiskImage (File menu and down)
• Double click on the .img file
• Test it with Apple DVD-player
If it’s OK then make Your DVD.
Burn at x1 speed.... (or x4)
• In iDVD 08 - or - 09
• Burn from DiskImage with Apple’s Disk Utilities application
• OR burn with Roxio Toast™ if You got it
Yours Bengt W

Turned-off external drives remain active and spin ...any risk?

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