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External HD polling?

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  External HD polling? henry999@eircom.net (Henry) - 2015-08-30 09:00 +0300
    Re: External HD polling? Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> - 2015-08-30 06:04 +0000
      Re: External HD polling? The Translucent Amoebae <thetranslucentamoebae@gmail.com> - 2015-09-08 12:14 -0700
        Re: External HD polling? Barry Margolin <barmar@alum.mit.edu> - 2015-09-08 17:03 -0400
          Re: External HD polling? nospam <nospam@nospam.invalid> - 2015-09-08 17:07 -0400
            Re: External HD polling? Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> - 2015-09-08 21:32 +0000
              Re: External HD polling? nospam <nospam@nospam.invalid> - 2015-09-08 18:38 -0400
                Re: External HD polling? dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson) - 2015-09-09 11:49 +1200
                  Re: External HD polling? nospam <nospam@nospam.invalid> - 2015-09-08 19:58 -0400
                  Re: External HD polling? Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> - 2015-09-09 00:00 +0000
        Re: External HD polling? henry999@eircom.net (Henry) - 2015-09-10 08:06 +0300
          Re: External HD polling? Jolly Roger <jollyroger@pobox.com> - 2015-09-10 06:03 +0000

#79187 — External HD polling?

I'm running the latest Yosemite on my late '14 5K iMac. I've got a 2 TB
external USB 3 with one large partition for Time Machine and one small
partition with a plain vanilla system, also 10.10.5, for (very rare)
alternative boot-up purposes.

The external drive is audible; not problematically so but you hear it
when it spins up. What I would like to know is _why_ it spins up.

Even when the iMac is booted 'normally' from its internal SSD, there are
frequent times, in-between and unrelated-to any Time Machine cycles,
when the external HD comes to life.

Is there anything I can look at in Console (or ???) that will tell me
what is causing this?

TIA.

Henry

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#79189

On 2015-08-30, Henry <henry999@eircom.net> wrote:
> I'm running the latest Yosemite on my late '14 5K iMac. I've got a 2 TB
> external USB 3 with one large partition for Time Machine and one small
> partition with a plain vanilla system, also 10.10.5, for (very rare)
> alternative boot-up purposes.
>
> The external drive is audible; not problematically so but you hear it
> when it spins up. What I would like to know is _why_ it spins up.
>
> Even when the iMac is booted 'normally' from its internal SSD, there are
> frequent times, in-between and unrelated-to any Time Machine cycles,
> when the external HD comes to life.
>
> Is there anything I can look at in Console (or ???) that will tell me
> what is causing this?

Spotlight is probably indexing the volume.

-- 
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter.
I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead.

JR

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#79680

On Saturday, August 29, 2015 at 11:04:51 PM UTC-7, Jolly Roger wrote:
> On 2015-08-30, Henry <henry999@eircom.net> wrote:
> > I'm running the latest Yosemite on my late '14 5K iMac. I've got a 2 TB
> > external USB 3 with one large partition for Time Machine and one small
> > partition with a plain vanilla system, also 10.10.5, for (very rare)
> > alternative boot-up purposes.
> >
> > The external drive is audible; not problematically so but you hear it
> > when it spins up. What I would like to know is _why_ it spins up.
> >
> > Even when the iMac is booted 'normally' from its internal SSD, there are
> > frequent times, in-between and unrelated-to any Time Machine cycles,
> > when the external HD comes to life.
> >
> > Is there anything I can look at in Console (or ???) that will tell me
> > what is causing this?
> 
> Spotlight is probably indexing the volume.
> 
> -- 
> E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter.
> I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead.
> 
> JR

it seems that the most obvious reason is that the time machine is automatically saving your most recent data, try opening it to see when it's most recent save was done the next time you notice it spinning up ?

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#79685

In article <6e94e991-23ea-4ded-905d-b466ec08964d@googlegroups.com>,
 The Translucent Amoebae <thetranslucentamoebae@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Saturday, August 29, 2015 at 11:04:51 PM UTC-7, Jolly Roger wrote:
> > On 2015-08-30, Henry <henry999@eircom.net> wrote:
> > > I'm running the latest Yosemite on my late '14 5K iMac. I've got a 2 TB
> > > external USB 3 with one large partition for Time Machine and one small
> > > partition with a plain vanilla system, also 10.10.5, for (very rare)
> > > alternative boot-up purposes.
> > >
> > > The external drive is audible; not problematically so but you hear it
> > > when it spins up. What I would like to know is _why_ it spins up.
> > >
> > > Even when the iMac is booted 'normally' from its internal SSD, there are
> > > frequent times, in-between and unrelated-to any Time Machine cycles,
> > > when the external HD comes to life.
> > >
> > > Is there anything I can look at in Console (or ???) that will tell me
> > > what is causing this?
> > 
> > Spotlight is probably indexing the volume.
> > 
> > -- 
> > E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter.
> > I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead.
> > 
> > JR
> 
> it seems that the most obvious reason is that the time machine is 
> automatically saving your most recent data, try opening it to see when it's 
> most recent save was done the next time you notice it spinning up ?

Can't you just look at the Time Machine icon in the menubar when you 
hear it spin up? If it's doing a backup the arrow in the icon rotates.

-- 
Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***

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#79686

In article <barmar-9EEB1C.17034908092015@88-209-239-213.giganet.hu>,
Barry Margolin <barmar@alum.mit.edu> wrote:

> Can't you just look at the Time Machine icon in the menubar when you 
> hear it spin up? If it's doing a backup the arrow in the icon rotates.

not anymore.

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#79687

On 2015-09-08, nospam <nospam@nospam.invalid> wrote:
> In article <barmar-9EEB1C.17034908092015@88-209-239-213.giganet.hu>,
> Barry Margolin <barmar@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
>
>> Can't you just look at the Time Machine icon in the menubar when you 
>> hear it spin up? If it's doing a backup the arrow in the icon rotates.
>
> not anymore.

You can certainly click the icon to see whether a backup is in progress,
though.

-- 
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter.
I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead.

JR

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#79692

In article <d592g7FlthoU3@mid.individual.net>, Jolly Roger
<jollyroger@pobox.com> wrote:

> >> Can't you just look at the Time Machine icon in the menubar when you 
> >> hear it spin up? If it's doing a backup the arrow in the icon rotates.
> >
> > not anymore.
> 
> You can certainly click the icon to see whether a backup is in progress,
> though.

true, but clicking it all the time to find out if a backup is in
progress gets old.

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#79693

nospam <nospam@nospam.invalid> wrote:

> In article <d592g7FlthoU3@mid.individual.net>, Jolly Roger
> <jollyroger@pobox.com> wrote:
> 
> > >> Can't you just look at the Time Machine icon in the menubar when you
> > >> hear it spin up? If it's doing a backup the arrow in the icon rotates.
> > >
> > > not anymore.
> > 
> > You can certainly click the icon to see whether a backup is in progress,
> > though.
> 
> true, but clicking it all the time to find out if a backup is in
> progress gets old.

Whichever system got rid of the spinning animation replaced it with a
static indication, which is still used in Yosemite: while a backup is
preparing or in progress, the curved arrow on the icon gains a second
arrow head (at about 7:30 on the clock face).

There is no visible indication of the post-backup cleanup phase (short
of clicking on the menu to see what it is doing).
-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz

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#79694

In article <1mahb7c.1e3i4goveht2kN%dempson@actrix.gen.nz>, David Empson
<dempson@actrix.gen.nz> wrote:

> > > >> Can't you just look at the Time Machine icon in the menubar when you
> > > >> hear it spin up? If it's doing a backup the arrow in the icon rotates.
> > > >
> > > > not anymore.
> > > 
> > > You can certainly click the icon to see whether a backup is in progress,
> > > though.
> > 
> > true, but clicking it all the time to find out if a backup is in
> > progress gets old.
> 
> Whichever system got rid of the spinning animation 

mavericks

> replaced it with a
> static indication, which is still used in Yosemite: while a backup is
> preparing or in progress, the curved arrow on the icon gains a second
> arrow head (at about 7:30 on the clock face).

which is barely noticeable.

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#79695

On 2015-09-08, David Empson <dempson@actrix.gen.nz> wrote:
> nospam <nospam@nospam.invalid> wrote:
>
>> In article <d592g7FlthoU3@mid.individual.net>, Jolly Roger
>> <jollyroger@pobox.com> wrote:
>> 
>> > >> Can't you just look at the Time Machine icon in the menubar when you
>> > >> hear it spin up? If it's doing a backup the arrow in the icon rotates.
>> > >
>> > > not anymore.
>> > 
>> > You can certainly click the icon to see whether a backup is in progress,
>> > though.
>> 
>> true, but clicking it all the time to find out if a backup is in
>> progress gets old.
>
> Whichever system got rid of the spinning animation replaced it with a
> static indication, which is still used in Yosemite: while a backup is
> preparing or in progress, the curved arrow on the icon gains a second
> arrow head (at about 7:30 on the clock face).

True. Thanks for pointing that out.

-- 
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter.
I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead.

JR

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#79764

The Translucent Amoebae <thetranslucentamoebae@gmail.com> wrote:

> > On 2015-08-30, Henry <henry999@eircom.net> wrote:

> > > I'm running the latest Yosemite on my late '14 5K iMac. I've got a 2 TB
> > > external USB 3 with one large partition for Time Machine and one small
> > > partition with a plain vanilla system, also 10.10.5, for (very rare)
> > > alternative boot-up purposes.
> > >
> > > The external drive is audible; not problematically so but you hear it
> > > when it spins up. What I would like to know is _why_ it spins up.
> > >
> > > Even when the iMac is booted 'normally' from its internal SSD, there are
> > > frequent times, in-between and unrelated-to any Time Machine cycles,
> > > when the external HD comes to life.
> > >
> > > Is there anything I can look at in Console (or ???) that will tell me
> > > what is causing this?

> it seems that the most obvious reason is that the time machine is
> automatically saving your most recent data, try opening it to see when
> it's [sic] most recent save was done the next time you notice it spinning up ?

Erm ... I know how Time Machine works, which is why in my original query
I mentioned that this happens

>> in-between and unrelated-to any Time Machine cycles

As further information, let me add this: the 'activity' light of the
external HD has just come on (steady). It is now 7:49. I look at TM
preferences and find this:

latest backup: today 7:26
next backup: today 8:25

In addition: both volumes of the external HD have been added to the
'Prevent Spotlight from searching these locations' list, so an earlier
suggested explanation that the disk was spinning up because Spotlight
was updating its index should be precluded.

So, the mystery remains ... 

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#79768

On 2015-09-10, Henry <henry999@eircom.net> wrote:
>
> As further information, let me add this: the 'activity' light of the
> external HD has just come on (steady). It is now 7:49. I look at TM
> preferences and find this:
>
> latest backup: today 7:26
> next backup: today 8:25
>
> In addition: both volumes of the external HD have been added to the
> 'Prevent Spotlight from searching these locations' list, so an earlier
> suggested explanation that the disk was spinning up because Spotlight
> was updating its index should be precluded.
>
> So, the mystery remains ... 

If you want to know what is accessing a volume, use the "lsof" command
to list all open files on that volume, like so:

sudo lsof /Volumes/nameofvolume

You need to do this in an OS X account with administrative privileges.

Do this when the drive activity light is lit. 

Feel free to post the output here for help interpreting it.

-- 
E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter.
I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead.

JR

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