Lacie hard drive won't spin down when MacBook is asleep

I'm having the same trouble, but it's with two 500Gig Lacie Drives, but not with three others...so it seems to be an issue with particular drives...and it's odd that it's only happening with drives of 500Gig...the other lacie's that I have that are smaller don't seem to have the same issue. PLUS what's bad is the fans in both that are having issues are not engineered well, so they kinda squeak and the drives get HOT. Anyone have an answer yet? I've talked to Lacie about the issue and they suggest that the fan needs replaced...but I'm concerned about the beahviour...it sounds like it keeps revving up in cycles every few seconds?

It should not make any difference if the drive keeps running, they should spin as long as their rated lifetime, assuming a reasonable environment.

The annoyance to this of course is the noise it may generate 24/7 and the extra energy it takes to keep it running.

If it doesn't spin down, either the AEBS is not providing signals to tell it to spin down, or the controller in the Lacie is not letting it spin down. If you have nothing mounted anywhere, disconnect the drive from the AEBS and if it spins down after a few minutes, its something the AEBS is doing, if it doesn't spin down at all, then its the Lacie..

aliasgio wrote:
My LaCie 500 GB USB, Porsche Design, don't spin down never.. even if connected via USB to my MacBook !
This isn't an ecologically-correct behaviour... 😟

Bye
Giorgio.

The other possibility is in the energy saver at least on local connections, is put hard disks to sleep when possible checked? While this may not do anything when connected to a AEBS, it may be why is doesn't spin down when connected to your Macbook. Perhaps there is a setting for that in the Airport config for attached storage, never looked.

Firesign3000 wrote:
The drive should actually be able to spin 24/7 for years with no problems. Seriously.

yes, we all understand this. the problem is that it +(LaCie 'Porsche Designed' USB2 drive)+ spins hot and 'loud' even when Mac is asleep. About 1 time in 4 it doesn't mount when Mac wakes up. I don't know if the drive is flawed, the USB2 interface is flawed or the OS is flawed...but something here is not working as it should...

The option ' Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible' is checked but LaCie don't spins down even when the Mac is off !
Another external HD (firewire and not LaCie branded) spins down regularly and immediately when the Mac is off, so I think that is something in LaCie's firmware that is wrong, maybe not a bug (?).

Bye

I have the same problem with my Maxtor Onetouch external HDD.
I never had the problem when it was connected to my iMac via firewire...it slept like a baby when not in use.
Now with the APE it just keeps on spinning. Heat and friction are not friends of electro-mechanical devices.

Yes, I know the drive should last for just as long, but I've already read on the forum of someone who has had one die.
The whole idea for me is for the drive to be a back up, plus handle the big stuff like iTunes and iPhoto files. If I have to worry about it, it's not much of a back up.
It just seems wrong.

I am also having this problem with a 500 GB USB2. I don't know if the drive just never spins down by design, but it's very annoying to have it be loud even when the iMac is asleep/off. My previous LaCie drive spins down immediately after the computer goes to sleep.

Yes, I connected my brand new Lacie 320GB drive to my iMac and performed a backup with Time Machine last night, leaving it to run overnight.

Came home tonight (at 1am) only to notice the hard drive still running, it must have been running all day!!

Has anybody contacted Lacie support? Is anybody having the same problem under Tiger or earlier versions of Mac OS X?

Thanks
Steve

I have the same problem. The hd just keeps spinning, even with the mac in stop or OFF.
Mine is a LaCie Porsche 500GB USB.
I have sent a request to the LaCie Support hoping for answer about this spinning issue.
Maybe it's just a firmware problem to be correct with Leopard ...

Not sure if this is related but I have the following setup:
1.83 Core Duo Mac Mini (10.5.1) used as home theater computer
500GB Lacie Porsche Drive (USB 2)
320GB Lacie Porsche Drive (USB 2)
iTunes Library and Music / Video on 500GB drive

My drives have never had a problem sleeping properly (under 10.4 or 10.5), but recently in 10.5.1 after running Front Row or iTunes and then letting the drive sleep (pausing a movie for a few minutes or even opening and then quitting iTunes) Finder, Front Row, and iTunes all become completely unresponsive and the Mini requires a hard reboot (even shutting down over SSH doesn't work).

I wonder if this could be an issue with the Lacie firmware or 10.5.1 drivers.

Hi,

I would say it has to be the firmware of the drive. I have a 500 GB USB2 LaCie disk, which won't spin down, while my older 320 GB USB2 LaCis disks pins down after a couple of minutes. (Both are "Porsche Design")

msinn

Hi

I posted something about this issue some months ago when I first got my Lacie Porsche design 500 GB drive. It is USB2 only. It did not spin down as expected. I contacted Lacie who initially said it should then later the same guy contacted me again. 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. You can check this by plugging the drive into a power socket and switching it on - it will spin up and keep running - no computer attached. Very annoying and not eco friendly, apart from the noise/vibration. The only way to deal with this I've found is to simply unmount it when you have finished using it and switch it off manually.

I also have have an older 160GB, same design, with FW. Behaves perfectly. I can leave it connected, switched on and know that the bearings and anything else in there is not going to just dry up, burn out or whatever.

Such is life....

TY

My 160GB Porsche usb 2 spins down just fine under Tiger... But won't spin down at all under Leopard... Even with the computer off. Lacie support blows me off by responding that the drive is not under warranty and that I should just turn it off. This kind of "support" will cause me to never buy Lacie gear again... But more importantly... Being able to observe the drive spin down with Tiger on the same machine but not with Leopard tells me that something is up with 10.5.1... We need help here Apple!

The USB hard disk will only spin down when the number of logged in user to AEBS reaches zero. If the user count more then zero, it will not spin down.

However, before the Mac goes to sleep, OS X will not log you out, and the connection is maintained, so the hard disk should still be active and spinning, until you manually logout or eject the AirDisk.

You can tell your Mac to perform an auto-logoff before the Mac goes to sleep. The settings is in Perferences > Security.

My Lacie 500GB Porsche won't spin down either when my iMac is asleep or shut down. I have to manually press the power button in order for it to spin down.

In contrast I have another external HD, a BlueEye USB2/Firewire400 case that I chucked a hard drive into and that spins down when there is no disk activity for a while and is then completely silent.

And a 2.5" USB2 external case I bought from Jaycar also spins down.

So it seems the Lacie Porsche just does not recognise spin down signals from OS X. Very annoying as it's a very sleek-looking drive. I wouldn't buy Lacie again however knowing also that there are no screws that enable me to remove the hard disk without having to break the case.