New OWC HDD won't spin down/sleep

[LarBo]

I recently bought a new 4TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro HDD as I need more library space and the new HDD won't stop spinning even when the MBP is put to sleep and thus the HDD gets very hot (thus, I can't use the system for any period of time....). I use a "memory player" for audio (Audirvana) and thus the HDD should stop spinning once a track is loaded into memory. Although I normally disable the energy saver mode (and use the CAD script) the same problem occurs if I disable the CAD script and set the HDD to go to sleep in the energy saver preferences. I purchased two 4TB drives (one for backup) and both show the same problem.

 

This was not a problem with my prior 2TB OWC HDDs of the same model. I'm using FireWire to connect the HDD to my MBP, and the only obvious difference between the "old" and "new" drives is that I was previously using FW400 and the new drive has only FW800 connections. I contacted OWC and they had no information or solution.

 

I'm using an early 2011 i5 MBP with 8GB RAM and Mavericks (OSX 10.9.5).

 

Has anyone else had a similar problem and found a work-around? I'll appreciate any/all help. Thanks!

[Carl Mawer]

This may be related to the type of drives within the OWC enclosure. I have the same problem with a WD Blue HD in a different type of enclosure than yours.

[jumpsturdy]

Since Mavericks most firewire 800 connections will not sleep or spin down. Numerous threads online on this issue. Either have to dis-mount the drive and then turn it off or switch to another interface. I have been using the firewire interface to make large file transfers and USB most of the rest of the time for playing music. USB interface allows normal drive spin-down and sleep.

Been waiting a long time for this issue to be fixed.

[jrflanne]

OWC are very helpful. Contact them.

[jumpsturdy]

I agree that OWC are very helpful, but this is not an issue they can solve; its an OS issue and has been ongoing since Mavericks. Hundreds of threads on it and Apple has recently stated it is a 'feature' and not considered a bug. I have seen it on several brands of firewire enclosures.

[wwaldmanfan]

My music server is a 2012 MBP i5 running Mavericks 10.9.1, C.A.D. optimization script, and Audirvana Plus. When I put it to sleep by pressing the power button, the external FW800 hard drive spins down and its power LED's go out within 15 seconds. It's the same with my OWC Mercury Elite Pro dual mini 2TB RAID, or any of my three G-Technology G-Drive mini 1TB FW800 drives. No difference with or without the optimization script enabled.

 

I don't necessarily think it is a good idea for the drive to spin down after loading each track as you suggest. I think that would wear down the mechanism prematurely, however, it should power down when the computer goes to sleep.

 

As I said, I'm on Mavericks 10.9.1, and I've never experienced the problem you describe. Perhaps it is because my FW drives are bus-powered. Evidently, when the Mac goes to sleep, it cuts the power to the FW bus within several seconds. I don't have an external AC power supply for any of my drives, so I can't tell you if the default behavior on external power would be different. You could try reverting back to an older version of Mavericks, if possible, to see if that changes anything.