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keep hard disk awake

The previous version of Ventura, I think 13.5.3, on 13.6 now, had an option in the battery System Setting had an option to select to keep hard drives awake on primary power. Version 13.6 doesn't seem to have this option. I have an external drive, with material from several computers that I added to my Time Machine backups. I believe it worked on 13.5.3, with the backup disk and this second disk connected to Thunderbolt ports (the disks have USB 3 cables and I use a USB to Thunderbolt converters).


I attempted to back up my internal and the external disk drive to my Time Machine backup. It doesn't appear to have backed up the external drive and I was given the warning that "The external drive was ejected prior to being shutdown" or something very similar.


How do I keep my external drives spinning on Ventura 13.6?


MacBook Air 13″, macOS 12.6

Posted on Sep 28, 2023 1:44 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Sep 30, 2023 6:52 AM

harrietfroma wrote:

The previous version of Ventura, I think 13.5.3, on 13.6 now, had an option in the battery System Setting had an option to select to keep hard drives awake on primary power. Version 13.6 doesn't seem to have this option.

I have an external drive, with material from several computers that I added to my Time Machine backups. I believe it worked on 13.5.3, with the backup disk and this second disk connected to Thunderbolt ports (the disks have USB 3 cables and I use a USB to Thunderbolt converters).

I attempted to back up my internal and the external disk drive to my Time Machine backup.

It doesn't appear to have backed up the external drive and I was given the warning that "The external drive was ejected prior to being shutdown" or something very similar.

How do I keep my external drives spinning on Ventura 13.6?



Time Machine can back up to an external drive connected to a USB, Thunderbolt, or FireWire port on your Mac.


Backup disks you can use with Time Machine - Apple Support



The "keep hard drives awake" was relevant to mechanical HD ... not SSD moving forward.


there are some known bugs with repeating message:

"The external drive was ejected prior to being shutdown"



I know of no straight forward resolve for your issue...

You can try— a different drive, different format, different cable, different port and compare your results.



you can file a bug report /submit your Apple Feedback here: Product Feedback - Apple



further:


Call Customer Support (800) MY–APPLE (800–692–7753)


or on line https://getsupport.apple.com/


Outside the USA—Contact Apple for support and service by phone

See a list of Apple phone numbers around the world.

Contact Apple for support and service - Apple Support






Similar questions

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 30, 2023 6:52 AM in response to harrietfroma

harrietfroma wrote:

The previous version of Ventura, I think 13.5.3, on 13.6 now, had an option in the battery System Setting had an option to select to keep hard drives awake on primary power. Version 13.6 doesn't seem to have this option.

I have an external drive, with material from several computers that I added to my Time Machine backups. I believe it worked on 13.5.3, with the backup disk and this second disk connected to Thunderbolt ports (the disks have USB 3 cables and I use a USB to Thunderbolt converters).

I attempted to back up my internal and the external disk drive to my Time Machine backup.

It doesn't appear to have backed up the external drive and I was given the warning that "The external drive was ejected prior to being shutdown" or something very similar.

How do I keep my external drives spinning on Ventura 13.6?



Time Machine can back up to an external drive connected to a USB, Thunderbolt, or FireWire port on your Mac.


Backup disks you can use with Time Machine - Apple Support



The "keep hard drives awake" was relevant to mechanical HD ... not SSD moving forward.


there are some known bugs with repeating message:

"The external drive was ejected prior to being shutdown"



I know of no straight forward resolve for your issue...

You can try— a different drive, different format, different cable, different port and compare your results.



you can file a bug report /submit your Apple Feedback here: Product Feedback - Apple



further:


Call Customer Support (800) MY–APPLE (800–692–7753)


or on line https://getsupport.apple.com/


Outside the USA—Contact Apple for support and service by phone

See a list of Apple phone numbers around the world.

Contact Apple for support and service - Apple Support






Oct 2, 2023 12:31 PM in response to HWTech

With Ventura 13.5.3, I believe, you could on the battery System Setting, you could set the option of keeping non-SSD drives spinning. I don't remember it that was retained through power cycles.


I just plugged one of my external disks, USB 3 connector to a USB to Thunderbolt converter, and the option to keep external disks spinning showed up. I will retry performing the backup by carefully connecting the disk to be backed up. Make sure the option is "don't allow disks to spin down" and see what happens. Both the disk I want to back up and my Timemachine disks are spinning, not SSD, drives.


I didn't know about "The external drive was ejected prior to being shutdown".


"You can try— a different drive, different format, different cable, different port and compare your results." I only have two external disks, both have already been formatted and contain data, likewise with the cables. My MacBook Air only has two ports, so I don't have a third or fourth to try.


Thanks for the replies. When I next backup and tell my machine to NOT ALLOW disks to be spun down, I'll let you know the results.

keep hard disk awake

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