Ejecting external harddisks - a stupid question..

epoxy5 · 23 Dec 2008 at 08:58

Well I have a few external harddisks attached to my iMac. From time to time I eject those as they seem to be more quiet that way.

But how do I attach it again after such a reject? Do I really have to turn the harddisk off and the on?

Are your harddisks always attached?

Stupid question I am sure...

Merry Christmas to all OC'ers

Matthew.M · 23 Dec 2008 at 09:53

In the energy saver preferences there's an option to spin the drives down when they're not in use. This will mean they're quiet and still mounted in Finder for when you need them!

epoxy5 · 23 Dec 2008 at 09:59

Matthew.M said:
In the energy saver preferences there's an option to spin the drives down when they're not in use. This will mean they're quiet and still mounted in Finder for when you need them!

Cheers... I had a look though and I had that one marked.. Does it affect external drives as well? It only seems to be working with my internal drive...

Will try and see what happens.

Thanks

Will_3rd · 23 Dec 2008 at 10:40

To get them back after ejecting the drives is either unplugging them and then back in.

or restarting your Mac.

Matthew.M · 23 Dec 2008 at 11:00

epoxy5 said:
Cheers... I had a look though and I had that one marked.. Does it affect external drives as well? It only seems to be working with my internal drive...

Will try and see what happens.

Thanks

It definitely spins down both my external drives too so it should work!

likwid · 23 Dec 2008 at 11:49

Depending on the drive OS power saving may not work too well .

I have a western digital mybook which has its own firmware power saving that you cannot disable. This does not work well at all and the drive wakes itself up frequently for no reason whatsoever.

If you are clicking on the icon next to the device in the side bar of Finder, you are actually unmounting the drive rather than ejecting it, in which case you can remount in disk utility. If you are in fact ejecting from Disk utility, try unmounting instead.

electric ant · 23 Dec 2008 at 12:55

Matthew.M said:
It definitely spins down both my external drives too so it should work!

Yup same here. I just tend to leave them connected, only eject them if im moving my laptop.

I use the Eject dockable in my dock for easy one click ejecting of all external disks. (I also use the sleep display dockable as well to easily turn off screen when im away)

Doug · 23 Dec 2008 at 21:29

likwid said:
the drive wakes itself up frequently for no reason whatsoever.

Mine used to wake up exactly every ten minutes. Annoyed the hell out of me.

FreeStream · 23 Dec 2008 at 23:44

Disk Utility.

Click the HD (it will be greyed out compared to the mounted HD) and click mount.

Jobs a good'un!