External Hard Drive Constantly Being Accessed (Spinning Up)

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Level 2

211 points

External Hard Drive Constantly Being Accessed (Spinning Up)

Every 20 minutes or so, I hear my external hard drive spinning up.

I know that there are no other computers accessing it remotely, and I don't have any files open which are stored on the drive, so there is really no reason that the external hard drive should be spinning up for access. I also have Time Machine deactivated, so there's nothing there that should be causing this. I have set the "Energy Saver" settings to "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible", but when it spins down it shouldn't rewake so soon unless I try to access a file, right?

I know that sometimes, when I do "Open File..." the drive spins up as it expects that I might be searching for something on the drive, which is certainly understandable.

The applications that I have open all the time are:
- Mail
- Safari
- iTunes
- Microsoft Word
- Adium

And the Dashboard widgets I use are:
- World Clock
- Calculator
- iCal
- Countdown Calendar
- iStat Nano
- Dictionary

It's fairly disruptive, and often annoying, to hear the drive spinning up and down every 20 minutes or so. Is there a way that I can pinpoint an application or process that is accessing the drive?

27" iMac i7 (2.8 GHz; 8GB memory), Mac OS X (10.6.3)

Posted on Apr 3, 2010 9:27 PM

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Answer 1

den.thed

Level 9

77,392 points

Apr 3, 2010 9:37 PM in response to Fusion Factor

Hello Fusion Factory

What External HD and have you gone to the manufactures web site to see if there is a fix or current OS X update for it?

Dennis

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Answer 2

Fusion Factor Author

Level 2

211 points

Apr 3, 2010 9:43 PM in response to den.thed

I have a 1TB SimpleTech [re]drive. As far as I can see, there are no fixes/drivers/updates of any sort on the SimpleTech site.

I don't think it's a hardware or driver problem. I think the root of the problem is an OS process or application of some sort that's trying to constantly access the drive. There are no services/applications/files on there that it should be accessing. Just a bunch of backup files.

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Answer 3

den.thed

Level 9

77,392 points

Apr 3, 2010 11:06 PM in response to Fusion Factor

Not sure how to fix it, except maybe try unchecking the Energy Saver Preference +"Put the hard disk(s) to sleep"+ to keep the drive spun-up, then eject and switch it off when your not using it.

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Answer 4

Mac-Medic

Level 6

17,301 points

Apr 4, 2010 12:09 AM in response to Fusion Factor

Note the exact time the issue happens and check your System logs in your Console application for clues to the cause.

Dave M.
Check out the new remodeled MacOSG website! 24-hour Apple-related news & support.
 MacOSG: An Apple User Group  iTunes: MacOSG Podcast  Follow us on Twitter: MacOSG

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Answer 5

Fusion Factor Author

Level 2

211 points

Apr 4, 2010 5:39 AM in response to Mac-Medic

There are no signs of anything in Console within the general vicinity of the times that the drive spins up.

I did start to notice an interesting trend though. The drive spins up at similar times each hour. Here's a list of times that I caught the drive spinning up:

2:07:45 AM
////////////// break, left my computer for an hour or so
3:22:45 AM
4:07:45 AM
4:22:45 AM
4:37:45 AM
5:07:45 AM
5:22:45 AM
5:37:45 AM

Intriguing to say the least. There seems to be a pattern of 15-15-30-15-15-30 (minutes) between each cycle. Rather bewildering if I do say so myself. Clearly this is not some randomized phenomena. It must be coming from some process that instructs it to spin up the drive at this time. But I have no clue what it could be!

I tried shutting down my computer, restarting, and keeping all applications off once the system finished booting up, and this issue still happened. So that rules out the possibility that one of my applications could be accessing it. Which leaves only one thing: the operating system and its processes. Could it be Time Machine that's trying to access the drive, even though I have automatic backups disabled?

Message was edited by: Fusion Factor

null

Message was edited by: Fusion Factor

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Answer 6

Apr 4, 2010 5:43 AM in response to Fusion Factor

Hi Fusion Factor

I don't think it's drive specific, because it does the same thing to me and I have a Lacie 1TB external drive with a firewire 800 cable. My drive also has a tendency to spin up and down often, even when I'm not accessing any information. I felt like when I opened certain applications and files it would spin up, but after trying some of them once it spun down, I couldn't get it to spin up. So I think the application theory was a coincident. I also could not pinpoint anything in console that would point to exactly what is accessing the drive.

My theory is that it has something to do with Time Machine, but I'm not sure what.

Just spun back up. Not doing anything and no entry in console. Exactly 15 minutes from the next scheduled back-up.

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Answer 7

Fusion Factor Author

Level 2

211 points

Apr 4, 2010 5:54 AM in response to Glenn Leblanc

Hey Glenn,

Sounds like we've got the same issue on our hands. I'm starting to become increasingly convinced that Time Machine is behind all of this. I would have thought that having Time Machine disabled would prevent this from happening, but alas it happens regardless.

Time Machine settings in System Preferences are so basic (which is truly a shame... and frustrating to say the least). I know that there is a backdoor way to edit Time Machine's frequency by editing some code; I wonder if there is a similar process to edit Time Machine's drive accessing frequency? Although that may be a bit far fetched, I feel as if I'm at a dead end. Anyone have any other ideas for me and Glenn?

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Answer 8

Apr 4, 2010 6:00 AM in response to Fusion Factor

I'm not sure it's Time Machine, but I don't see anything else it could be. I agree on the issue that it should be more configurable without 3 party applications. That would be nice.

Here's an idea. Watch Activity Monitor to see what process gets active when the external drive spins up again.

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Answer 9

Mac-Medic

Level 6

17,301 points

Apr 4, 2010 8:31 AM in response to Fusion Factor

Try monitoring your processes in your Activity Monitor and see if you can see if any of them may be triggering it.

Dave M.
Check out the new remodeled MacOSG website! 24-hour Apple-related news & support.
 MacOSG: An Apple User Group  iTunes: MacOSG Podcast  Follow us on Twitter: MacOSG

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Answer 10

Apr 4, 2010 10:34 AM in response to Mac-Medic

Fusion Factor & Mac Medic

The only process I could get in Activity Monitor was DirectoryServices when the Time Machine BackUp was due. Other than when Time Machine backup is scheduled, I can't pinpoint an exact time in-between that to catch it in time. Only once I was able to catch it for a brief second and saw "launchd" become more active but I couldn't identify any other processes that might have been involved. I did turn off Time Machine and it did not activate the external drive as usual during the normal scheduled backup time. It's not an exact interval of time that I can pinpoint, but it does spin up on occasion when Time Machine isn't backing up and even if I'm not doing anything at the time except watching the screen.

So, I have no idea.

Fusion: I see you had other issues with the hard drive showing not ejecting when awake from sleep. You said your drive spins up every 15 minutes. Your issues may be a little deeper than mine. Maybe my drive is not spinning up as often as yours is.

I'm not going to beat myself up over the issue. I've just gotten use to it. Just worried about the drive not lasting as long as it's running a lot more than needed.

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Answer 11

den.thed

Level 9

77,392 points

Apr 4, 2010 2:28 PM in response to Glenn Leblanc

{quote:}Just worried about the drive not lasting as long as it's running a lot more than needed.{quote}

Yup, spinning up and down is the worst thing for it and that's exactly why I suggested changing the preference to keep the drive spun-up or just ejecting and switching it off when it's not needed. Even if the drive has been unavailable for an extended period, Time Machine will resume back-ups the next time the drive is switched on and mounts.

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