This particular quirk in OS X has been bothering me for months. I have an intel imac with two firewire drives plugged in. When OS X spins the drives, they stay spinning for quite a long time and they are just a little annoying (WD MyBooks premiums with HFS journaled partitions).
I'm sure there are others who are familiar with events that will activate external drives: invoking Spotlight, volume search during application install, launching of applications, etc. The drives continue to spin long after you have completed one of these tasks. I'm also sure this will only get worse when Time Machine comes out.
Anyway, I'm taking a guess that they stay spinning in case they are going to be used again shortly to reduce wear and tear in the motor. My question is this: is there a way to change how long the drive is spinning after using it, or turn it off without ejecting it? I've unfortunatley gotten into the habit of ejecting my spinning hard drives before I go to bed. Any ideas or help is appreciated.
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