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I have a LaCie 160Gb portable which has no fan, I put G4PB to sleep but the little ext hd continues spinning, it doesn' get very warm. (As a side issue it only works from the Mac's USB port and refuses to work from a USB hub.)
Posted 53 months ago.
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Is there no on/off/auto switch on the back?
Anyway, keeping the drive spinning is probably more energy-efficient (spinning up is costly, keeping it going not so much) depending on how often it gets accessed and definitely causes less wear on the drive, making it last longer.
Posted 53 months ago.
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This is a great topic, now made even more relevant with Time Machine and Time Capsule.
A related topic is keeping a backup continuously connected to computer or base station in the event of an electrical storm. One reason I will continue to use SuperDuper! and disconnect the backup drive is to keep it isolated from potential problems.
Of course, my house burning down trumps this but that's why I keep one backup outside the house.
Posted 53 months ago.
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the check box you ticked "put the hard drives to sleep where possible" refers to the hard drive inside the computer i believe, and not any external ones.
you could always buy a device that measures how much power you're drawing when your hard drive is on. if you turn the hdd on/off multiple times a day, it'll be worse for the drive than keeping it on all the time.
as for time capsule, supposedly they have server grade drives in them so they should last for quite some time. i saw somewhere someone posted an article from google that heat wasn't that big of a factor for failing drives. not sure the accuracy on that, but i should go find that article.
edit: found it
from: storagemojo.com/?p=378
"In the lower and middle temperature ranges, higher temperatures are not associated with higher failure rates. This is a fairly surprising result, which could indicate that data center or server designers have more freedom than previously thought when setting operating temperatures for equipment that contains disk drives."
my concern is if the hdd fails in time capsule, will you have to bring it to apple to replace the drive, or will it be user replaceable.
Originally posted 53 months ago.
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aye_shamus edited this topic 53 months ago.
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There is a switch at the rear, its a bit awkward to get to and switching it on and off mucks up my Mac.
Ive had loads of external hard drives before and they sleep quietly until data is required or sent to it.
This is the drive in question. Great price of £66 for 500GB...
www.amazon.co.uk/LaCie-Desktop-Design-Porsche-7200RPM/dp/...
Tc
Posted 53 months ago.
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Pity it's not Firewire :(
I am torn between the WD 500Gb triple access and the Iomega 500Gb triple access both around the 150€ mark. I really want a FW 800 drive to back up my whole system onto in case of int hd failure, then at least I'll have a bootable external hd.
Originally posted 53 months ago.
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abriwin edited this topic 53 months ago.
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I have the same problem with a Western Digital GB Fire wire 800 external hard drive. It seems to be on a lot more than necessary. I have installed all the relevant utilities to no avail.
Posted 53 months ago.
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I just got a 500GB D2 Quadra (also made by LaCie), and it goes into sleep mode just fine when the switch is set to auto, but I'm using Firewire rather than USB. I have about decided to leave it on though to save the wear and tear.
Posted 53 months ago.
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Wow what timing for this post!
I bought a LaCie 500 gig yesterday (mini hub firewire) and last night spent a few hours loading it up with data. At the end of the night I dragged the icon into the trash to eject and then turned it off with the button at the back. Then I turned off the Mac Mini to which it is attached. All lights were off but there was still a loud noise as though the fan was running in highest speed. I waited...and waited...and waited. After 20 minutes I pulled the plug and went to bed as there was no change.
I have an identical LaCie but the only difference is that it is 250 gb and it has never behaved like this before. When I turn that drive off with the button at the back, it shuts down completely.
I'll be testing it out some more this morning.
Originally posted 53 months ago.
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heru44 edited this topic 53 months ago.
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And I just got a 500GB D2 Quadra yesterday and spent a few hours loading it up (funny how many of us just took possession of a LaCie HD). Anyway, I am like Scorch07, I have mine connected by Firewire800 and haven't noticed anything, I think it is sleeping fine.
Posted 53 months ago.
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Btw I must add that my LaCie quadra does not seem to have a fan.
Posted 53 months ago.
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Marco Wessel, is yours a D2 (500GB). I know mine has a small fan on the back.
Posted 53 months ago.
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I have not been able to replicate the scenario from last night. Now it shuts down just as it should when I turn it off at the back.
So I am hoping that the only reason it wouldn't shut down last night was because I had been working it hard for several hours that perhaps the fan remained on to cool it more.
I really don't know for sure.
I have read a bit more online of others having problems with LaCie 500 gig drives, being very noisy and not shutting down properly.
Posted 53 months ago.
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the firewire port on intel macs remains hot even after u shut down the machine same for usb devices. ppc macs usually powers down devices when shutdown as every ppc mac ive owned has
Posted 53 months ago.
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Its fine.
I've confirmed that after working the drive hard for a while the fan remains on for a while even after its turned off (light off) to continue cooling the drive.
Once its deemed cool enough the fan turns off and everything is then completely shut down.
Posted 53 months ago.
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Maybe the USB version is different to the Firewire version.
My Mac had been asleep for 6 hours yet the Lacie was humming and very warm!! You can actually hear it humming in the kitchen below!
In contract my 250GB Firewire is silent and hardly on.
Im sending the 500GB thing back!!
Tc
Posted 53 months ago.
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Ironically, I can't get mine to stay on. I put the switch to full-on mode and it still goes to sleep every now and then! It's very annoying when I'm using it on and off for a few hours and it keeps turning off, then have to wait for it to start back up, etc.
Could the "Turn Disks off When Possible" option that was mentioned earlier be causing this?
Posted 53 months ago.
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Although this is hard to believe it seems that the OS X's power saving feature does not have the ability to control external drives.
It's always annoyed me that I can't get my external drives to stay on for more than ten minutes without them falling asleep. I am concerned that powering them up and down every 20 minutes or so when I go to use a file that resides on an external will wear them out faster than normal.
So I looked around and found CHUD Tools
I am puzzled as to why such a basic feature was not considered a necessary and default feature for OS X.
Or am I completely wrong?
Originally posted 53 months ago.
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heru44 edited this topic 53 months ago.
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Tc7,
"Apparently the early (no idea of dates) 500GB drives did shut down but at some point the controller was changed and they do not shut down."
discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6313883
Posted 53 months ago.
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Scorch 07: yes. Lacie D2 Quadra 500GB.
Vin444: the OS has no influence on it actually. The drives are powered down by their own controller, deciding 'I haven't seen any activity for the last X minutes, let's power down until we see some'.
Originally posted 53 months ago.
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Marco Wessel edited this topic 53 months ago.
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Marco,
I was just surprised to find Apple's Power Saving utility has no ability to control external drive action, forcing me to download and install a third party application to achieve this very basic function.
It would also be helpful if LaCie would include with all their drives a program to take care of this simple need.
Posted 53 months ago.
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