External HDD slowing down boot... How do I fix this?

[Fishrrman]

[[ Unhappy.

Gonna try and replace the hard drive with another model and hope that the Mac doesn't throw another hissy fit. ]]

Suggestion.

Re-initialize the external drive to HFS+, journaling enabled.
Try again.

I realize that earlier you had posted that you had the drive formatted in "PC format" for "interchangeability" with your other computer(s).
BAD IDEA.
If you are going to keep a drive continually-connected to the Mac, keep it in "Mac format".
Use a DIFFERENT DRIVE (could even be a flash drive) for cross-platform transfers.

Mac drive for Mac stuff.
PC drive for PC stuff.
Third drive for cross-platform stuff.

You may buy another drive, and find that using it the way you're trying to use it now, causes the same problems all over again.

Actually, you might buy another drive in any case.
Initialize the _new drive_ to HFS+ (leave the existing drive "as is").
Move the files you want to use with the Mac to this drive.
See if running it that way works any better.

 

[Nirurin]

[[ Unhappy.

Gonna try and replace the hard drive with another model and hope that the Mac doesn't throw another hissy fit. ]]

Suggestion.

Re-initialize the external drive to HFS+, journaling enabled.
Try again.

I realize that earlier you had posted that you had the drive formatted in "PC format" for "interchangeability" with your other computer(s).
BAD IDEA.
If you are going to keep a drive continually-connected to the Mac, keep it in "Mac format".
Use a DIFFERENT DRIVE (could even be a flash drive) for cross-platform transfers.

Mac drive for Mac stuff.
PC drive for PC stuff.
Third drive for cross-platform stuff.

You may buy another drive, and find that using it the way you're trying to use it now, causes the same problems all over again.

Actually, you might buy another drive in any case.
Initialize the _new drive_ to HFS+ (leave the existing drive "as is").
Move the files you want to use with the Mac to this drive.
See if running it that way works any better.

I had already considered this, but unfortunately the drive is long past the 'point of no return' storage-wise. I dont have enough space to copy all of the data off of it.

I have now ordered a Drivestation DDR, which I have heard very good things about (including a thread on this forum). So what I'll do is run tests when I have both drives, for both HFS and ExFat (which is what this one is).

Unfortunately running the drive as pure HFS isnt really and option in the long run, as the data on it needs to be accessible in both windows and OSX.

Besides, there is another HDD I have here, a bus-powered portable 500gb seagate one, which is ExFat formatted and always plugged in, and this one doesnt cause any bootup delays (I have tested this). Seems to be something specific to the powered 3tb desktop drive.

The new drive should turn up in the next day or so, so I will be able to do more testing then. Once I have figured it out, I will then return one of the drives back to amazon.

If they both fail the tests, I will have to find a 3tb bus-powered portable drive, as these dont seem to cause any problems.

 

[Nirurin]

Well that solves that issue then.

New drive turned up today, I formatted it to ExFat, and ran the usual restart tests... and boot up times were very very slow.

Reformatted to MacOS Extended Journaled, and boot up times are normal.

So it seems that while the mac has no problems with a 500GB hdd formatted to ExFat during boot, it can not handle a 3tb drive formatted as ExFat.

Wierd, and stupid, but oh well. I shall keep the new drive (its pretty fast, the drivestation DDR) and keep it formatted as Journaled. I will have to find a way to make windows capable of reading and writing to it. I believe theres a program available for that.

 

[DarwinOSX]

No they haven't. PeeCees have had issues like this and worse since forever. BIOS is far more of an issue than EFI.

Apparently an unfixable problem on macs. Strange seeing as PCs have solved this problem decades ago.
/end

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My drives (3) are all Extended journaled and I have the issue.

Well that solves that issue then.

New drive turned up today, I formatted it to ExFat, and ran the usual restart tests... and boot up times were very very slow.

Reformatted to MacOS Extended Journaled, and boot up times are normal.

So it seems that while the mac has no problems with a 500GB hdd formatted to ExFat during boot, it can not handle a 3tb drive formatted as ExFat.

Wierd, and stupid, but oh well. I shall keep the new drive (its pretty fast, the drivestation DDR) and keep it formatted as Journaled. I will have to find a way to make windows capable of reading and writing to it. I believe theres a program available for that.

 

[yiasou]

Bump! Getting the same on Mac Mini

Hi all
Getting the same on my Mini.

Just bought and upgraded my Mac Mini with SSD and decided to do some timings.

- Freshly wiped the drive and installed fresh Mavericks from USB.
- Drive is primary boot drive (selected in System Preferences > Startup Drive)
- Have reset NVRAM / PRAM

Timings:
30 second boot time - when External HDD (Seagate 2TB USB3) is plugged in.
15 second boot time - no External HDD is plugged in.

Basically when I boot with the HDD plugged up - there is a long white screen (20 seconds) before the grey Apple logo shows. At this time when the Apple logo shows I can hear the external HDD spin up.

Question is - why is the Mac searching for other HDD's when I have it set to the SSD?


*** Have plugged the same HDD into my rMBP and that still boots in the 15seconds.

 

[Bruno09]

- Drive is primary boot drive (selected in System Preferences > Startup Drive)
- Have reset NVRAM / PRAM

there is a long white screen (20 seconds) before the grey Apple logo shows.

Hi,

if you reseted the NVRAM after selecting the SSD as boot drive in Pref Syst / Startup disk, you have deleted this choice.
(because this info is hold in the NVRAM)

A "long white screen (20 seconds) before the grey Apple logo shows" means there is no startup disk selected.
So, check again that your SSD is selected as boot drive.

 

[Sakyant]

I don't know if this is relevant at all, but I've seen some odd things with boot times as well on my Mac Pro in a similar situation.

I have a Mac Pro connected to a Lacie DVD-R drive via Firewire 400 (FW, by the way, is the only connection available for this drive... I didn't want to use up another USB port, it's faster anyway, and it was on sale). If I power off the drive at its switch but leave the cable connected, upon start up my Mac Pro sits there for maybe one to five minutes (never officially timed it) with a gray screen. There is no hard drive activity sounds to be heard. Disconnecting the FW cable jogs the computer out of its stupor and starts normally. Because I don't frequently use the external DVD drive I normally leave it turned off at its power switch with the FW cable unplugged, although I have forgotten this procedure already and the start up peculiarity leads one to panic.

I've never brought this up with the folks at the Apple Store as it's an avoidable situation and not critical to normal functions. However, I have wondered at this behavior. I know it's not the exact same hardware as the OP, but the symptoms are awfully similar.

That is strange because i also have a LaCie 4 TB Porsche Design drive, and have the same problem. When my Mac starts the LaCie begins spinning loudly and wont stop, and the computer only comes out of its stupor if i leave it for 5 minutes or more to load the desktop icons. But if i pull the LaCie cable out during start up it comes out of its stupor immediately. I have set spotlight to not index that drive, but it seems that external drives are a problem with Macs (definitely, i have 6 years of Mac + external drive to confirm this)
If you have an external drive, Mac slows down
If its a LaCie, it slows down even more.

 

[LieinKing]

Hi,

try this :

In System Preferences / System / Startup Disk, check that the internal disk (the SSD) is selected (no only present, but selected).

Reboot.

Example : https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1655428/

Brilliant! This worked for me. Spot on!

I basically set up Mac OS High Sierra on an external HDD for another Mac. After successfully installing the new OS on the external HDD My main Macbook pro started booting up very slowly, pausing on the black screen as described by the original post. So I assumed it may be trying to load the ex HDD first. This solved it.

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

Two questions. If used as Boot Drive, is the external selected as Startup Disk in System Preferences? Is it essential for a drive used solely as a back up to be hooked up all the time?