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external hard drive - leave on / turn off??
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Senior User
Join Date: Oct 2001
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Offline
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i just got a WD external drive and a bytecc fw800 case.
it has a power switch on the back as well. should i turn off the hd when i put my powerbook to sleep?
do i need to eject it fist? should i disconnect the cables?
i'm not sure at all and want to take as good care as possible of this drive regardless of the extra effort.
please post back if you know about this stuff thanks!!
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: brooklyn ny
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Offline
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if you sleep your powerbook, the external drive will spin down as well; this is good.
if you want to shut it off, you MUST eject it from the desktop first.
i use my pb & 2 external firewire drives all day long, and let everything sleep.
at night, i eject the external drives, and sleep my pb (just my choice about this).
any other opinions? 
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"At first, there was Nothing. Then Nothing inverted itself and became Something.
And that is what you all are: inverted Nothings...with potential" (Sun Ra)
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Senior User
Join Date: Oct 2001
Status:
Offline
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i use my pb & 2 external firewire drives all day long, and let everything sleep.
at night, i eject the external drives, and sleep my pb (just my choice about this).
i currently eject and power down when i sleep my pb which is often. and i power up the external after i restore from sleep.
i think from now on i'll sleep everything, simply by closing the lid.
does anyone think thats a good bad idea?
why do you power down the externals at night??
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Nov 2001
Status:
Offline
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Originally posted by fisherKing:
if you sleep your powerbook, the external drive will spin down as well; this is good.
if you want to shut it off, you MUST eject it from the desktop first.
i use my pb & 2 external firewire drives all day long, and let everything sleep.
at night, i eject the external drives, and sleep my pb (just my choice about this).
any other opinions?
The external drive may not spin down... it depends on the drive. The newer La Cie drives automatically spin down, but some cheaper enclosures do not.
On my machine at work, I boot from a La Cie that spins down... I just sleep the machine and it auto spins down. When I wake the machine back up, it spins back up and all is fine. No ejecting is possible in my case -- I booted from the drive. If I were to disconnect it with the machine asleep, and wake the machine back up, it would kernel panic 
On a machine at home, the enclosure I have doesn't auto spin down, and it's not bootable either (cheapie nexstar enclosure). I eject it and turn it off before I sleep the machine -- and I don't always turn it on when I wake the machine up, only when I want to play music (my music library is on the external drive).
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Senior User
Join Date: Oct 2001
Status:
Offline
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prbably a dumb question, but how do i know if my drive has spun down?
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Professional Poster
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: brooklyn ny
Status:
Offline
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Originally posted by reemas:
prbably a dumb question, but how do i know if my drive has spun down?
put your ear to it, then put your mac to sleep...you will hear it's sound change, sounding like...a drive spinning down.
most drives i've seen spin down at sleep; guess it's good to be sure.
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"At first, there was Nothing. Then Nothing inverted itself and became Something.
And that is what you all are: inverted Nothings...with potential" (Sun Ra)
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