External HD drops after an hour

rriley · 11-24-2007, 09:11 AM

I'm a new Mac user, one week. I have a Mac MINI, Leopard 10.5.1 with a USB EXT 320 gig drive. After and hour or so the drive disappears from the desktop. I suspect it is because the MAXTOR drive powers down after an idle period. Does anyone know of a way to have the system periodically query the drive to keep it from going into sleep mode? I thought maybe an Apple script but have no idea where to begin on that. Thanks

clairejr · 11-24-2007, 12:34 PM

Hi and congratulations on getting your first Mac

.

There are some problems with Mac OS X 10.5 and USB devices, so that might be the problem. Does your Maxtor drive also have a FW 400 port? If it does, connecting it with FW should solve the problem. I have a Maxtor One Touch II connected via FW 400 and it's working fine on my Mini with Leopard.

The other solution is to set the hard drives to not go to sleep. Open System Preferences and click the Energy Saver button. Make sure you do not have a check in the box that says "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible."

Hope one of those solutions works.

Claire

rriley · 11-24-2007, 02:02 PM

Thanks Claire,

I do have the "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible." block un-checked. No firewire, it does have an esata, but thats not much help either. I ordered a different enclosure with firewire port, hopefully that will work.

Rick
"Knowledge is most powerful when shared!"

11-24-2007, 09:11 AM	#1
rriley Registered User Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 1	External HD drops after an hour I'm a new Mac user, one week. I have a Mac MINI, Leopard 10.5.1 with a USB EXT 320 gig drive. After and hour or so the drive disappears from the desktop. I suspect it is because the MAXTOR drive powers down after an idle period. Does anyone know of a way to have the system periodically query the drive to keep it from going into sleep mode? I thought maybe an Apple script but have no idea where to begin on that. Thanks

11-24-2007, 12:34 PM	#2
clairejr Triple-A Player Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Israel Posts: 66	Hi and congratulations on getting your first Mac . There are some problems with Mac OS X 10.5 and USB devices, so that might be the problem. Does your Maxtor drive also have a FW 400 port? If it does, connecting it with FW should solve the problem. I have a Maxtor One Touch II connected via FW 400 and it's working fine on my Mini with Leopard. The other solution is to set the hard drives to not go to sleep. Open System Preferences and click the Energy Saver button. Make sure you do not have a check in the box that says "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible." Hope one of those solutions works. Claire __________________ Claire Rottenberg Homepage: Mac Tips and More Follow me on Twitter

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11-24-2007, 02:02 PM	#3
rriley Registered User Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 1	Thanks Claire, I do have the "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible." block un-checked. No firewire, it does have an esata, but thats not much help either. I ordered a different enclosure with firewire port, hopefully that will work. Rick "Knowledge is most powerful when shared!"