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Leave storage connected?

Ifti

Ifti

macrumors 601
Original poster
Dec 14, 2010
4,597
3,321
UK
I have several external SSD drives/encosures that I use depending on the work I am doing. Rarely do I have them all connected simultaneously. Nevertheless, I have the habit of ejecting and unplugging any connected drive before I leave or place my computer to sleep (I rarely shut down). I then just plug the drive back in when I return and want to continue. I never really leave the drive connected when it's not being used at all.

Just interested to see if others are the same, or whether you just leave any external devices connected 'permanently'?
 
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I wouldn't say permanently, but my two are plugged in most of the time to my MBP in clamshell, often days and weeks at a time.

An external drive is designed to stay powered up as much as an internal. You're not extending their lives by doing that, and as mentioned above, you're certainly putting more wear and tear on the ports.
 
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Never considered that TBH. I leave the cables connected to the back of my Studio permanently, and then plug/unplug from the actual drive itself.
Once I get an OWC StudioStack I may use that to leave my drives connected in that case.......!
 
5 ssd's in 3 enclosures. Other than backups, mostly use 1. Use auto shutdown and boot. Also use Jettison to manage remounting rules. If you’re sleeping your Mac, you may find it useful. 2 (4 ssd's) of the 3 enclosures have their own external power supplies, wish the other did as well. I’d rather replace a $10 adapter than a Mac's power supply. Never unplug even though we’re away 4-6 months each year. Don’t see the purpose.
 
I leave mine connected all of the time and put my systems to sleep (only reboot after updates or in rare instances when an app or process goes haywire).

One of the three is a 14 TB external enclosure that is used for backups. I power it on / off (unmounted first) using a smart plug.
 
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OP:

I've always done things pretty much the way you do.

That is, all drives are normally disconnected.
When I need to use an external drive, I connect it, do what I need to do, and then DISconnect it.

That's worked for me for just about 40 years now.
Never had a problem with a connection port on the back of the Mac.

I do shut down my Macs every night, and then reboot in the morning.
That will never change here.
 
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I have usb to usb cables attached permanently to my Mac, so I mount usb drives as needed. yes I have the added cost of the cables but it saves wear and tear on the usb ports of the Mac, and limits the hours on the portable drives. I have worn out a usb port on a mbp before I started using the usb to usb cables
 
I have four drives connected to my Mac Mini. They are connected all the time. I see no advantage to disconnecting them when not in active use.
 
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I have 3 SSDs connected to my Studio, all the time, never disconnect them, for 3 years now. I only shut my Studio down when I'm out of town for 2 days or more which doesn't happen often. Can't bother to disconnect them ... and I have not a single time experienced a "drive not ejected properly" or whatever message. Rock solid, for me
 
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My data drive is largely permenantly connected to my Mac, as is the time machine volume
 
People can have whatever routines makes them happy, but don't pretend it serves any practical function. I can see cycling between different drives that serve different functional or work/project purposes, but ejecting everything at EOD doesn't serve any purpose on a desktop. If they were internal drives in a tower PC case, would you open the side and yank the drives out of their sleds? Of course not.

Obviously, laptop would be a different story. I can see freeing it of docked storage when you're done working in case you need or want to use it in a different location first thing the next day. Makes it easy to grab and go.
 
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My Mac Studio only ever sleeps, rarely gets restarted.
Two external (powered) LaCie drives stay permanently connected… ;)
 
I have my two external SSD drives are connected all the time, and I've set my Studio (M4 Max) never to sleep because I've been having Keychain issues when I return back to my Studio (while still logged into my user account). When I enter my password to continue I get multiple keychain issues. My User account is on an Acasis TBU405Pro (TB4) enclosure with a Samsung 990 PRO 4TB SSD, and my ZikeDrive Z666 (USB4) enclosure has a 2TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2TB for gaming files. My internal SSD is 1TB.

I've been trying to problem solve it for weeks. What I believe is happening is my external User SSD isn't coming online fast enough and therefore Keychain has a fit. I came cross this command today which might sort it finally. It brings external drives online from boot and doesn't require a user login to mount them.
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/autodiskmount AutomountDisksWithoutUserLogin -bool true

Anyone else having this issue and have some other thoughts/ideas on how to fix it? It's such a nuisance having to restart after Keychain panics.
 
JedNZ said:
I have my two external SSD drives are connected all the time, and I've set my Studio (M4 Max) never to sleep because I've been having Keychain issues when I return back to my Studio (while still logged into my user account). When I enter my password to continue I get multiple keychain issues. My User account is on an Acasis TBU405Pro (TB4) enclosure with a Samsung 990 PRO 4TB SSD, and my ZikeDrive Z666 (USB4) enclosure has a 2TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2TB for gaming files. My internal SSD is 1TB.

I've been trying to problem solve it for weeks. What I believe is happening is my external User SSD isn't coming online fast enough and therefore Keychain has a fit. I came cross this command today which might sort it finally. It brings external drives online from boot and doesn't require a user login to mount them.
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/autodiskmount AutomountDisksWithoutUserLogin -bool true

Anyone else having this issue and have some other thoughts/ideas on how to fix it? It's such a nuisance having to restart after Keychain panics.
Click to expand...
Why not put your user account back onto the Studio SSD…?
A 1TB drive is not going to notice that.

You can still save all your photos/music/docs etc to external.
 
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MarkC426 said:
Why not put your user account back onto the Studio SSD…?
A 1TB drive is not going to notice that.

You can still save all your photos/music/docs etc to external.
Click to expand...
I have 2.4TB of data in my User account, hence why I had it sit all on my external Acasis. I'm thinking of moving my User account back onto my internal SSD and then simlinking Documents, Downloads, Movies and Pictures on the Acasis. Keen to hear thoughts on this.
 
JedNZ said:
I have 2.4TB of data in my User account, hence why I had it sit all on my external Acasis. I'm thinking of moving my User account back onto my internal SSD and then simlinking Documents, Downloads, Movies and Pictures on the Acasis. Keen to hear thoughts on this.
Click to expand...
Photos/movies/downloads can be placed anywhere you want, with the new location set in each application.
No need to have your ‘user account’ external, just the data.

I have never messed with my user account location.
I just save all data to external.
 
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