Riley P. Richardson

Q: Put SSD to sleep?

I recently swapped out a 500 GB hard drive in my MacBook Pro running OS X 10.8.2 for a 480 GB SSD from Other World Computing. Works great and is much faster, but it does raise a question. In the Energy Saver preference pane there's an option (while on the power adapter) to "Put hard disks to sleep when possible," which I checked when I first got this MacBook Pro in late 2011. Does this option do anything once the hard drive is replaced with an SSD? If it does anything, is it likely to be helpful or useless?

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Jan 5, 2013 12:58 PM

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Q: Put SSD to sleep?

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  • by dwb,

    dwb dwb Jan 5, 2013 1:07 PM in response to Riley P. Richardson
    Level 7 (24,152 points)
    Notebooks
    Jan 5, 2013 1:07 PM in response to Riley P. Richardson

    Except for the interface, the SSD has nothing to put to sleep. For a hard drive that setting lets the motor spin down so the platters stop turning.

  • by Riley P. Richardson,

    Riley P. Richardson Riley P. Richardson Jan 5, 2013 1:25 PM in response to dwb
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 5, 2013 1:25 PM in response to dwb

    Just to clarify your response, I conclude that you are saying that putting an SSD to sleep is useless. Are you confident that doing so is also harmless? Specifically, can an SSD that's been put to sleep respond as quickly as one not put to sleep?

  • by dwb,Solvedanswer

    dwb dwb Jan 5, 2013 1:31 PM in response to Riley P. Richardson
    Level 7 (24,152 points)
    Notebooks
    Jan 5, 2013 1:31 PM in response to Riley P. Richardson

    I believe it to be useless unless you have external drives connected. Safe? Probably because that setting can also trigger external drives to sleep when not in use. It is checkmarked on my MBA because at work I plug it into a hub with external drives but I notice no difference between when it is checked and unchecked while on the road.

  • by elopez1,

    elopez1 elopez1 May 25, 2016 8:15 PM in response to Riley P. Richardson
    Level 1 (12 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 25, 2016 8:15 PM in response to Riley P. Richardson

    Was anybody here able to confirm if it is necessary to have the option "Put hard disks to sleep when possible" enabled when you have an internal SSD? I also have an internal 1 TB hard drive. Would that make any difference?

  • by leroydouglas,

    leroydouglas leroydouglas May 25, 2016 8:29 PM in response to elopez1
    Level 7 (23,358 points)
    Notebooks
    May 25, 2016 8:29 PM in response to elopez1

    elopez1 wrote:

     

    Was anybody here able to confirm if it is necessary to have the option "Put hard disks to sleep when possible" enabled when you have an internal SSD? I also have an internal 1 TB hard drive. Would that make any difference?

    dwb has it correct above.

     

    Note: Solid-state drives (SSD) do not use a motorized mechanism to read or write data. For Mac computers that only include a built-in solid-state drive, this setting does not affect the built-in drive. It only applies to externally connected, mechanical drives.

     

    YOu can read more here in the kb   OS X: Saving energy with Sleep - Apple Support