LaCie hard drive goes to sleep while rendering in FCP X

People have complained of this type of thing in the past though I don't know of any "cure".

It has been suggested that this app will stop it occurring:-

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/31058/no-spin

Just double-check your System Preferences again.

Here is a free app which should do the same job

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/31158/keep-drive-spinning

It says that some drives don't respect System Preferences so it sounds as though there is nothing wrong with your LaCies.

Here's the creator's description:-

Keep Drive Spinning...This applet makes sure that a connected drive never goes to sleep (that is, that it never spins down).

Normally this can be controlled using the Energy Saver preference pane in System Preferences, and that should be your first resort in dealing with the problem, rather than this or any other third party software. However, some external drives (e.g. Western Digital's MyBook drives) do not respect the System Preferences settings, so for them an alternative like this is needed.

This applet simply creates a launch agent that tells OS X to touch a hidden file on the selected drive once every minute so that the drive stays awake.

Launch agents are built-in OS X technology and persist across reboots, etc., so you can run this once to set-it-and-forget-it. You can find the launch agents made by Keep Drive Spinning in the LaunchAgents folder of your user's Library folder.

Energy Saver only controls internal drives. Get Disksomia from Digital Heaven.

It's a no-brainer for starters as Keep Drive Spinning is free.

That should be your first port of call.

It'll only take 30 minutes to get your answer!

Only consider the other if you have any problems with it . . . which you shouldn't.

Looks like there are problems with the 2 I listed.

The Keep Drive Spinning website seems to have gone and the paid for app has some nasty complaints!

If you can't get Keep Drive Spinning you should try Tom's suggestion of Disksomnia.

I know it says it's not for FCP X but I reckon it's worth a try!

It has nothing to do with any version of Final Cut. It works with the OS and any applications. It simply pings the drive periodically to keep it from falling asleep.

Sounds like the same idea as KDS.

I wonder why they mention the Final Cut apps?

LaCie has a firmware update (free) to fix the problem

If that's correct, the LaCie rep was very naughty (or clueless) to tell the OP to return the drives.

Ian R. Brown wrote:

If that's correct, the LaCie rep was very naughty (or clueless) to tell the OP to return the drives.

Let's just say uninformed. It sounds nicer.

http://www.lacie.com/support/drivers/driver.htm?id=10248

I have about 6 D2s and there was a run of them that had the spindown problem. I noticed it on the model that has the two way power switch (auto/off) vs the earlier version which had the 3 way power switch (On/Off/Auto).

I downloaded the firmware but haven't installed it yet. I discovered that the worst symptoms happened when my computer went to sleep. It would send the D2 into a coma. I set my preffs so the computer never sleeps and I haven't had any show stoppers since then.

good luck

g

You need to open it with Terminal. LaCie tech support can walk you through the process of installing it.