Force hard disk spin down

stevegongrui

My HD is loud and I want the option to spin it down when I'm doing nothing but typing.



is there a spin down hard disk command for applescript?



I remember being able to do this in 9. The option in energy saver to spin down whenever possible takes a long time to actually do it.



Thanks.

randycat99

I think you'll find a variety of ways to spin it down, but keeping it off may be the real problem (as various background things inevitably call on the HD or make the computer think it needs to call the HD even though the necessary data is sitting in RAM). Essentially you'll hit "the button" to spin it down, and maybe 10 seconds later it is spinning up again even though you personally did not ask for that. You could hit "the button" again, but that amount of frequent on/off cycling might not be such a good thing for a HD. It might be altogether impossible on an OSX system due to its dedicated reliance on virtual memory.



Perhaps, an effective different approach would be for you to consider replacing your HD altogether with a quieter one. Look for something moderate to high price, but not extravagant (i.e., not bargain basement and not 15,000 rpms, for instance) and look for features such as "fluid bearings", "low noise", and such. They can make HD's as quiet as to be barely audible over your case fan these days, but you would never expect that given the HD's that are typically chucked in your computer stock.



[ 01-19-2003: Message edited by: Randycat99 ]</p>