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On Apr 1, 2025, at 12:06 PM, todhop <hoplist@...> wrote:
Believe it or not, there are drives that are buggy with Macs. Rare, but it happens.
And it almost always seems to be Western Digital rotating disk hard drives. Actually, if you dig through WD’s tech notes, they often document and warn about this. Bombich used to have several Web pages warning not to use WD drives, but I just checked and they have all been taken down. __________________________________________________ Randy B. Singer Co-author of The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th, and 6th editions) Essential But Hard To Find Macintosh Software and Advice __________________________________________________
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This is an observed behavior for some drives, an incompatibility between the drive and the Mac OS, but it could also be bad cable, bad power adapter, or failing drive.?
An external drive may spin up anytime the system checks to see what is available even if you are not directly accessing the drive. For instance, each time you open a finder window or spotlight. Some will spin down fairly quickly. If it’s spinning down within seconds of spinning up, that sounds like a power problem honestly. You might also notice when you connect it for the first time, you’ll hear it spin up, hesitate, spin, stop, then spin all the way to mount. That’s often a failing power supply.?
The most obvious symptom would be if Mac OS gives you the unexpected eject warning when it spins down. That’s a hardware problem, or a severe firmware incompatibility. Believe it or not, there are drives that are buggy with Macs. Rare, but it happens.?
Power supplies are, by far, the most common failure of external HDDs.
Cheers,
???????????????tod
Tod Hopkins
Video Producer?Editor?Technologist?
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On Mar 28, 2025, at 4:54?PM, Jim Willett via groups.io <jimwillett@...> wrote:
My external hard drive case is hooked directly to the Mac Mini M4 via USB-c on both ends. I wish the drives would just spin down and stay that way until I access files from one of them. ?However, even if I am just reading on Safari they spin down and seconds later spin up and then down again shortly after that. ?It is annoying. ?I use a Mac Mini M2 at my work place with an external drive. ?That external drive spins down and stays that way until I access something on it. ?
Thanks to everyone who has made a comment about this. ?
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My external hard drive case is hooked directly to the Mac Mini M4 via USB-c on both ends. I wish the drives would just spin down and stay that way until I access files from one of them. ?However, even if I am just reading on Safari they spin down and seconds later spin up and then down again shortly after that. ?It is annoying. ?I use a Mac Mini M2 at my work place with an external drive. ?That external drive spins down and stays that way until I access something on it. ?
Thanks to everyone who has made a comment about this. ?
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Ah, the huge difference was that when mine stopped, I was not actively doing things. Only on rare occasions was I in the middle of something and the drive had to spin up. It didn’t shut down in the middle of something.?
Because it is not directly connected, it sometimes spins down, but more like an hour plus of inactivity.?
The OP hasn’t said if he is directly or indirectly connected, or if he changed to a direct connection. ?
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On Mar 27, 2025, at 07:50, todhop <hoplist@...> wrote:
? On Mar 26, 2025, at 3:20?PM, Brent via groups.io <whodo678@...> wrote:
So I don’t care that my “external drive” starts and stops.
It’s was a huge annoyance for me. On my M1 Mac Studio it causes a noticeable pause in Finder response anytime an action triggers the HDD drives to spin up. 9 times out of ?10, I don’t want data from that drive, but I’m still waiting because the system is waiting for the drive to come online.?It was pretty much the only time I ever had to wait for anything so it was glaringly frustrating.?It happened many, many times per day.?
Important note: ?The “Keep Drives Spinning” scripts do NOT keep drives from “sleeping” when the system sleeps. If the OS tells the drives to spin down, they do. No power wasted by drives spinning when the system is sleeping.
Some drives and connections are worse than others so experiences vary a lot. I’ve had this system for over two years, but only in recent months did the problem get unbearable. I spent a lot of time troubleshooting and could not find a specific cause or a solution other than this app. Directly attached portable drives don’t do this. It’s mostly cheap, large externals. Hubs make a difference, but none of these factors are easily controlled. I keep multiple drives attached all the time and change drives frequently. I never know when this is going to pop-up but once I tell the app to keep a drive active, it remembers that drive forever.
Cheers, ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? tod
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On Mar 26, 2025, at 3:20?PM, Brent via groups.io <whodo678@...> wrote:
So I don’t care that my “external drive” starts and stops.
It’s was a huge annoyance for me. On my M1 Mac Studio it causes a noticeable pause in Finder response anytime an action triggers the HDD drives to spin up. 9 times out of ?10, I don’t want data from that drive, but I’m still waiting because the system is waiting for the drive to come online.?It was pretty much the only time I ever had to wait for anything so it was glaringly frustrating.?It happened many, many times per day.?
Important note: ?The “Keep Drives Spinning” scripts do NOT keep drives from “sleeping” when the system sleeps. If the OS tells the drives to spin down, they do. No power wasted by drives spinning when the system is sleeping.
Some drives and connections are worse than others so experiences vary a lot. I’ve had this system for over two years, but only in recent months did the problem get unbearable. I spent a lot of time troubleshooting and could not find a specific cause or a solution other than this app. Directly attached portable drives don’t do this. It’s mostly cheap, large externals. Hubs make a difference, but none of these factors are easily controlled. I keep multiple drives attached all the time and change drives frequently. I never know when this is going to pop-up but once I tell the app to keep a drive active, it remembers that drive forever.
Cheers, ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? tod
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Thanks Tod for reminding me.?
I use a Drobo, a proprietary RAID, purchased in June of 2009. When plugged directly into my Mac, it runs most of the time and the proprietary diagnostics are able to work. When plugged into another device like an Airport that acts like a router, so my other Macs can access the data on it, it starts and stops, and the diagnostics can’t find it.?
Besides, what is the big deal if the external drive stops when not in use. It takes only a second to be accessible again. I have had the RAID in operation continuously for almost 16 years. In that time, I have only had one drive fail, and upgraded to larger drives. I love being able to hot swap the drives.
So I don’t care that my “external drive” starts and stops. In fact, the only physical maintenance other that to swap out the failed drive, has been to shut it down about once a year going into summer, to clean out the dust bunnies. And to be honest, my 2002 Quicksilver Power Mac G4’s internal fans that is under my desk, is noisier than my Drobo which is placed on a shelf pointed at my right ear.?
Brent ?
On my late 2012 Mac mini running 10.15.7?
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On Mar 26, 2025, at 8:29 AM, todhop < hoplist@...> wrote:
This is a major problem with newer macs and external HDDs, particularly if connected through a hub. That OS setting stops the OS from actively putting the drives to sleep, but it doesn’t keep them awake because modern external drives commonly? have their own spin down routines which this does not override.?The problem is worse when the drives are connected through a hub.?
You will see the “Adrenaline” app recommended for this. Don’t bother. Adrenaline does not solve this problem. It keeps the system awake but does not keep drives spinning.
I use the “Keep Drive Spinning” app.?
This app simply installs a resident script that periodically writes and rewrites a tiny hidden file to keep the drive activated. That is all it does. The app itself simply configures the scripts and installs them but does not need to run in the background. It is drive specific so you can configure only the drives you want. The app has been around for a very long time and has been continuously maintained by the developer.?
For a long time I kept one drive awake by continuously playing music from it, but that’s not a convenient solution. ;)
Cheers,
???????????????tod
Tod Hopkins
Video Producer?Editor?Technologist?
I have a new Mac Mini, 16/256 (currently 75 GB available) with the latest Sequoia update.? Attached to it is a hard drive enclosure that I’ve been using for a couple of years with a 2015 iMac, 16/1T running Monterey.? With the iMac the hard drives would spin up and stay running while the iMac was in use.? With the Mac Mini the drives spin up when I wake the Mini but are regularly spinning down and then almost immediately spinning up again. I have turned to OFF “Put hard disks to sleep when possible”. Any idea as to how to stop the drives from spinning up/down so frequently? ?I am hoping this may be due to the small internal storage, which I have ordered a 2TB replacement, and maybe this will solve the problem with the external drive.? ? Thanks in advance to responses.? Jim Willett ?
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This is a major problem with newer macs and external HDDs, particularly if connected through a hub. That OS setting stops the OS from actively putting the drives to sleep, but it doesn’t keep them awake because modern external drives commonly? have their own spin down routines which this does not override.?The problem is worse when the drives are connected through a hub.?
You will see the “Adrenaline” app recommended for this. Don’t bother. Adrenaline does not solve this problem. It keeps the system awake but does not keep drives spinning.
I use the “Keep Drive Spinning” app.?
http://jon.stovell.info/software/keep-drive-spinning/
This app simply installs a resident script that periodically writes and rewrites a tiny hidden file to keep the drive activated. That is all it does. The app itself simply configures the scripts and installs them but does not need to run in the background. It is drive specific so you can configure only the drives you want. The app has been around for a very long time and has been continuously maintained by the developer.?
For a long time I kept one drive awake by continuously playing music from it, but that’s not a convenient solution. ;)
Cheers,
???????????????tod
Tod Hopkins
Video Producer?Editor?Technologist?
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On Mar 22, 2025, at 9:18?AM, Jim Willett via groups.io <jimwillett@...> wrote:
I have a new Mac Mini, 16/256 (currently 75 GB available) with the latest Sequoia update.? Attached to it is a hard drive enclosure that I’ve been using for a couple of years with a 2015 iMac, 16/1T running Monterey.? With the iMac the hard drives would spin up and stay running while the iMac was in use.? With the Mac Mini the drives spin up when I wake the Mini but are regularly spinning down and then almost immediately spinning up again. I have turned to OFF “Put hard disks to sleep when possible”. Any idea as to how to stop the drives from spinning up/down so frequently? ?I am hoping this may be due to the small internal storage, which I have ordered a 2TB replacement, and maybe this will solve the problem with the external drive.? ? Thanks in advance to responses.? Jim Willett ?
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On Mar 23, 2025, at 7:10 AM, Jim Willett via groups.io <jimwillett@...> wrote:
I purchased it from an outfit called Expand Mac Mini. I do hope that you are aware that to successfully pull off the upgrade with this kit, that you will need access to another Apple Silicon Mac other than your new Mac mini? __________________________________________________ Randy B. Singer Co-author of The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th, and 6th editions) Essential But Hard To Find Macintosh Software and Advice __________________________________________________
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SEVEN WEEKS seems unconscionably long to ship a RAM module.
Jim Willett wrote: I purchased it from an outfit called Expand Mac Mini. I made the order on February 1 and still waiting. ?Their site said it was to be shipped this past week. Maybe tomorrow. ?
jimdoc@...
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I purchased it from an outfit called Expand Mac Mini. I made the order on February 1 and still waiting. ?Their site said it was to be shipped this past week. Maybe tomorrow. ?
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On Mar 22, 2025, at 6:18 AM, Jim Willett via groups.io <jimwillett@...> wrote:
I have a new Mac Mini, 16/256 ... I am hoping this may be due to the small internal storage, which I have ordered a 2TB replacement, and maybe this will solve the problem with the external drive. "New Mac mini’s" have internal SSD’s, of course. Apple considers them to be non-upgradeable. Though there are third party kits that allow upgrading if you go through some hoops. I’m just curious; who’s 2TB upgrade did you order? __________________________________________________ Randy B. Singer Co-author of The Macintosh Bible (4th, 5th, and 6th editions) Essential But Hard To Find Macintosh Software and Advice __________________________________________________
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Mechanical or SSD?
--
Vincent Winterling
Vineland, NJ
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I have a new Mac Mini, 16/256 (currently 75 GB available) with the latest Sequoia update.? Attached to it is a hard drive enclosure that I’ve been using for a couple of years with a 2015 iMac, 16/1T running Monterey.? With the iMac the hard drives would spin
up and stay running while the iMac was in use.? With the Mac Mini the drives spin up when I wake the Mini but are regularly spinning down and then almost immediately spinning up again. I have turned to OFF “Put hard disks to sleep when possible”. Any idea
as to how to stop the drives from spinning up/down so frequently? ?I am hoping this may be due to the small internal storage, which I have ordered a 2TB replacement, and maybe this will solve the problem with the external drive.?
?
Thanks in advance to responses.?
Jim Willett
?
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I have a new Mac Mini, 16/256 (currently 75 GB available) with the latest Sequoia update.? Attached to it is a hard drive enclosure that I’ve been using for a couple of years with a 2015 iMac, 16/1T running Monterey.? With the iMac the hard drives would spin up and stay running while the iMac was in use.? With the Mac Mini the drives spin up when I wake the Mini but are regularly spinning down and then almost immediately spinning up again. I have turned to OFF “Put hard disks to sleep when possible”. Any idea as to how to stop the drives from spinning up/down so frequently? ?I am hoping this may be due to the small internal storage, which I have ordered a 2TB replacement, and maybe this will solve the problem with the external drive.?
?
Thanks in advance to responses.?
Jim Willett
?
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todhop
Brent
Jim Saklad