Summary: In this blog, we’ll share a variety of D-I-Y methods on how to resolve external hard drive sleep problems on Mac.
The 7 useful methods you will learn are listed down as:
1. Reconnect the External Hard Drive
2. Reboot Your Mac
3. Tweak macOS Sleep Setting
4. Reinstall Hard Drive Software
5. Install the Latest Version of macOS
6. Repair the External Hard Drive
7. Erase the External Hard Drive
And don’t worry about your data stored on Mac external hard drive having the ‘sleep problem’. Download the free trial of Stellar Data Recovery Professional for Mac. Recover the data from hard drives on Mac systems running on macOS Big Sur and Catalina.
Eject external drive properly. External drive is easy to be corrupted if you eject the external drive improperly. If you remove external drive from the computer when being in use, it can also be corrupted. So you must safely remove your external drive from the Mac by clicking 'Safely Remove Hardware' option. Back up important data. Same issues with me. I have a Seagate Backup plus for Mac. I copied files to it just one day before upgrading to El Capitan. Now after the update, the drive shows up as 'read only' and I am unable to copy anything to it. Step 2: Format and wipe the USB flash drive/external hard drive on macOS Catalina. Choose mode “Wipe Hard Drive”, then choose the targeted device and click on “Wipe Now” button. Then the selected USB flash drive or external hard drive will be formatted and all data.
Activate your sleeping external hard drive by reconnecting it to your Mac. The drive will now be visible in Finder, and you can access the storage medium for read-write operation.
With the external hard drive connected, reboot your Mac to fix any system misconfiguration, error, or otherwise. It’ll revive the inactive external storage drive, and you can use it as usual.
To resolve Mac external hard drive sleep issue, correct the default sleep setting from the Energy Saver window. Steps are as follows:
2. From the Energy Saver window, deselect “Put hard disks to sleep when possible” checkbox in Battery and Power Adapter panel.
Now, your external hard disk will remain active. This setting won’t affect SSD, as it doesn’t have any moving component. https://truenfiles159.weebly.com/pse-bow-serial-number-lookup.html.
Incompatible hard drive software can prevent macOS from performing correctly. So, uninstall the driver from your Mac. Next, visit the manufacturer’s website and download the latest, compatible driver. Now, install the driver to fix the external hard drive sleep problem.
Bugs in Mac OS X or macOS may also result in the external hard drive sleep problem. Update or upgrade the operating system to the latest version to patch up the issue. Steps are as follows:
For macOS High Sierra, Sierra, El Captain, or an earlier version, perform the following:
Free pc audio editing software. If you have Mac OS X Lion or Snow Leopard, execute the following:
To fix any unknown hard drive issues, try repairing the Mac storage drive. Download python 2 7 for mac. Steps are as follows:
Or else, use file system consistency check (fsck) command in Single User Mode as explained next:
Read More: Should you trust Disk Utility’s First Aid or fsck?
Create a backup of your external hard drive before performing this fix. Once you have backed up all your valuable data, perform the following steps:
We hope this post will help you resolve your external hard drive sleep problem. Troubleshoot by reconnecting the external hard drive or rebooting your Mac. Go to Energy Saver window from System Preferences and ensure you deselect “Put hard disk to sleep when possible” checkbox. If the issue persists, try reinstalling hard drive software. Also, install the latest version of macOS.
In case the issue is with your external storage drive, repair the drive by using First Aid or fsck command. As a last resort, back up the drive, erase, then restore the backed up data. In any accidental data loss scenario, use the best Mac data recovery software to salvage your lost data.