External Drives Won't Sleep?

[JDW]

Finally, after months of experimenting with various options, I found something that actually works using a utility called SleepWatcher.

According to the description, it does NOT spin-down the drive after periods of inactivity. It will only Eject the drive upon Computer Sleep, and then Mount the drive on Wake. Better than nothing, perhaps, but if it included a "Sleep after xx minutes of inactivity" feature too, then it would be complete.

 

[Sakyant]

Same Issues
I think after extensive investigation into causes, its the energy saver option to 'put hard drives to sleep whenever possible' will return to comment on this as i just changed the settings to sleep whenever possible.

 

[JDW]

Am i paranoid?

Yes. Believe me, I love the X-Files too and distrust Big Government as well as NSA-sponsored hackers, but this "drive won't spin down problem" has nothing at all to do with that. It has everything to do with an OS X bug that Apple refuses to fix. Believe me, I've spent countless hours researching this problem. I even talked with OWC about it and they confirmed its existence. Please join me in pounding on Apple's door about it:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

 

[Sakyant]

My LaCie Porsche design 4tb drive is silent until i sleep the computer and go to bed, when i come back, the Mac is asleep, but the LaCie is whizzing like heck. Makes me paranoid that somebody is using it to upload stuff to the internet with (hacker) . gets on my nerves and i keep switching it off ejecting it. However because i use it for my iTunes Library, if i forget to switch it on again and switch itunes on, next thing iTunes has changed default folder back to Music/iTunes/iTunes Media and is downloading all the movies again. Now changing settings to 'put hard drives to sleep whenever possible in energy saver as i reckon thats probably the cause
[doublepost=1456542895][/doublepost]

Yes. Believe me, I love the X-Files too and distrust Big Government as well as NSA-sponsored hackers, but this "drive won't spin down problem" has nothing at all to do with that. It has everything to do with an OS X bug that Apple refuses to fix. Believe me, I've spent countless hours researching this problem. I even talked with OWC about it and they confirmed its existence. Please join me in pounding on Apple's door about it:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

I believe you
Im sick of apple's feedback page though its throwing pearls at swine and a 140 character count or something similar, im long winded explaining things, and run out of space they dont let you add screenshots or screencasts or anything.. and they ignore you anyway. i would however like to send a grenade up their back-feed, thats the best feedback.
Every apple downdate they bring is indeed that.. a downdate.. the system is getting buggier and buggier.. not surprising considering what buggers they are
Unfortunately the only alternative is.. windows.. and thats not an option

 

[JDW]

Im sick of apple's feedback page though its throwing pearls at swine and a 140 character count or something similar, im long winded explaining things, and run out of space they dont let you add screenshots or screencasts or anything.. and they ignore you anyway. i would however like to send a grenade up their back-feed, thats the best feedback. Every apple downdate they bring is indeed that.. a downdate.. the system is getting buggier and buggier.. not surprising considering what buggers they are...

Agreed, both about the foolish character limit on Apple's feedback page and about bugs in their software. Although the recent interview with two Apple executives yielded little more than "we don't think so" when pressed about such. You can read my take on that interview here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ng-itunes-plans.1956057/page-15#post-22568133

And a following post here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ng-itunes-plans.1956057/page-16#post-22569719

 

[Metro23]

I have seemed to solved the issue on my iMac 2008 with a WD My Book Studio drive using firewire by installing the WD turbo drivers 1.3.7. I have 10.11.6 El Capitan installed.

Wasn't able to get the drivers from the WD site as they wouldn't download, I got them from here:

http://it.pcdrivers.guru/wd-my-passport/download-645248.html

 

[DiegogDiegog]

THIS SOLVED FOR ME.

Power Strip causing it!
"I have been plagued with this issue for TWO YEARS and lost a valuable external drive because of the constant spinning. It was my Monster ecogreen power strip that was power cycling it. It detects when the computer stops drawing a certain amount of power and then shuts down the peripherals attached which included my drive. I think the minimum current draw was just borderline to cause it to cycle on and off. Since its been gone, NO MORE ISSUES."

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/external-drive-wont-stop-spinning.1804154/#post-25171244

 

[Jottle]

So sad. I'm on El Capitan, and the bug persists for my icydock fw800 enclosure. Anyone have an updated workaround/solution?