Hard Disks Sleep When Possible in Ventura M1 Mac mini

Hello ddausend,

In order to put your Mac mini to sleep follow the steps below:

"Specify sleep and wake settings for a Mac desktop computer

1. On your Mac, choose Apple menu  > System Settings, then click Energy Saver  in the sidebar. (You may need to scroll down.)
2. Do any of the following: 

• Put hard disks to sleep: Turn on “Put hard disks to sleep when possible” on the right.
• Update your system while it’s asleep: Turn on Enable Power Nap on the right.
  • See What is Power Nap?
• Allow your Mac to wake briefly so users can access shared services (if applicable): Turn on “Wake for network access” on the right.
  • See Share your Mac resources when it’s in sleep."

Set sleep and wake settings for your Mac

Let us know if you have any questions.

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.

Take care!

I believe that it is in Displays - Advanced in Ventura. Why, I don't know. It doesn't seem logical to configure external drive availability in the Displays preference.

I cannot remember but that line item is in another menu with Ventura. Perhaps another user can provide which one it is.