Energy Saver Options

[msw123307]

1 "Put the computer to sleep when it is inactive for.."

2 "Put display to sleep after..."

3 "Put Hard Disks to sleep when possible..."


I'm guessing that #1 won't spin down the Hard Disks unless #3 is checked? Is that right?

I'm also guessing that if I'm downloading a file or securely deleting the trash my iMac won't go to sleep? The reason I ask is because it seems like if I'm deleting the trash and my display goes to sleep, when I come back to the computer i really don't see any progress.

What options do you guys typically use? I keep my iMac on 24/7, but didn't know about the first sleep option.

 

[BlueRevolution]

I'm guessing that #1 won't spin down the Hard Disks unless #3 is checked? Is that right?

No, everything sleeps when the computer sleeps, including the internal hard drive. The computer has no control over any external drives that might be connected.

I'm also guessing that if I'm downloading a file or securely deleting the trash my iMac won't go to sleep? The reason I ask is because it seems like if I'm deleting the trash and my display goes to sleep, when I come back to the computer i really don't see any progress.

I'm actually not sure about that one. I wouldn't think it would sleep, but I could be wrong.

 

[msw123307]

No, everything sleeps when the computer sleeps, including the internal hard drive. The computer has no control over any external drives that might be connected.



I'm actually not sure about that one. I wouldn't think it would sleep, but I could be wrong.

Ok - but what would be the point of having the 3rd option in the list, (Put hard disks to sleep when possible) if the first option will spin everything down? This does seem to be correct though, because if I have my computer set to sleep and then come back to access it, I have lost my wireless connection, the time sometimes shows the prior time before jumping back to the current time, etc.

 

[BlueRevolution]

Ok - but what would be the point of having the 3rd option in the list, (Put hard disks to sleep when possible) if the first option will spin everything down?

The third option only spins down the hard drives. That means that when your computer is running but not accessing the hard drives, they will sleep after a while to conserve energy. There's a slight lag when they spin up again, but it's not a big deal. This will happen even while you're using the computer. For example, if you're writing a document in Pages, the drive may spin down because it isn't needed – everything important is in memory.