How to stop Ext. HDD from waking when saving something to iMac

[jman995x]

Hello,

I'm hoping that someone can help me with this issue, because it's starting to irritate me.

I have an external HDD hooked up to my iMac and I don't save very much to it, so it gets put to sleep most of the time while I'm working on my computer.
However, when I go to save a document (say Word, or Excel...the applications of which both reside on my iMac and NOT my ext. HDD), my ext. HDD spins ups before I'm given the option of where to save the document.
Am I the only one who thinks this is a waste of time, energy and HDD life?
Why aren't I offered the option of where to save the file, and if it happens to be the ext. HDD, THEN spin up those drives.
I see NO benefit to spinning up those ext. HDD's from sleep, to neither read nor write, and then be put back to sleep 5 minutes later when they've done absolutely nothing.

Is there a way to prevent my ext. HDD's from waking when I not even going to read/write to them?

Thanks,

J.

 

[Slydude]

I don't think there is a way to do this. If I recall correctly this used to be referred to as polling. In essence the OS used to check periodically to see what drives were attached.

I understand that you want to choose where the file will be saved before the drive spins up. The problem is, from a program behavior standpoint that could be a royal pain if the user tires to choose a drive that isn't there.

I'm not a programmer but here are the steps that I think would be needed for both procedures. I think you'll see the potential complications.

Current Method: Attached drives
1. System has been "polled" for a list of attached devices
2. Save Dialog is presented (only valid locations are presented to the user)
3. File saved (errors generated if improper filename is chosen or insufficient space on drive)

In this method polling is not constant but occurs when the drive is mounted and periodically as needed (Save dialogs, Open File dialogs, updated list when additional drives attached).

Alternate Method based on your desire to have the drive spin up only when needed.
1. User chooses to save a file
2. User has to be asked for a drive I'm not sure how that could be done without either a pre-defined list or the user inputting the name of the drive.
4. System has to determine if drive is attached If not user has to either choose a new location or attach the drive. From a program stand point each of these would likely be different routines.
5. File saved (errors generated if improper filename is chosen or insufficient space on drive)

I know that was a bit long-winded. Hope it wasn't too confusing.

 

[jman995x]

@Slydude

Thanks for the detailed reply.
I understand what you are getting at with the "polling," but (and remember, I not a programmer either), you'd think that the computer would think to itself, "I know that I have these ext. HDD's attached to me, but they are sleeping right now, so I know they are there, and available, but I won't wake them up unless the user decides to actually pick one of them as the save location."
It seems kind of odd that the computer would have to reconfirm that a drive is still attached, even though the user has not indicated that s/he wants to even use that drive at the moment.

Anyway, thanks for the explanation.

 

[Slydude]

That was based on what was true some time ago so perhaps it is possible now and I've just missed it. I suspect it's not impossible but more a question of two things:

1. Programmers don't think that the wear and tear or energy used is significant enough to warrant the code change. If more users pushed for this perhaps there'd be more of a rush to do it.
2. I wonder if different drive manufacturers don't implement the sleep function in slightly different ways. If true that might complicate things even further. Perhaps someone with a bit more specific knowledge in this area will chime in.

 

[harryb2448]

If you are not using Time Machine unmount and remove. Personally use SuperDuper each Friday and use SmartBackup which simply changes what is on the external to any changes made during that week.