Startup from sleep-slow w/ext drive connected

[HvyMtlPlyr]

Hello Everyone:

Not that this is a big deal, but I noticed that when I wake up my iMac (i5) from sleep, if my external drives are not mounted it comes up instantly and ready to go. If my drives are mounted, when I wake my iMac the display comes up, but I get the beach ball for maybe 4-5 seconds before I can do anything. While the beach ball is showing I'm assuming it's reading/loading(?) the external drives. One drive is 1.5TB configured for Time Machine, the other is a 500GB of music.

Again, it's not the end of the world but I would have assumed that being a 64-bit machine it could do both at the same time.

Thanks,

Bob

 

[product26]

try waking the computer with your ear next to the external drive. Is it spinning up during this time?

 

[HvyMtlPlyr]

The external drive is definitely spinning up. I just don't know why the iMac has to wait for it as the internal drive (that's running the OS) comes up right away. I can understand if I access that drive and it needs to spin up before it can read it, but again, why does my entire system have to wait for those after sleeping?

Thanks,

Bob

 

[MacHamster68]

hmm sounds odd , ok i only have a old core duo iMac , but attached to it are 2 externals each with 1 tb (firewire) , one with a partition for time machine the rests is music and some other personal files , the other external is movies , and it wakes up instantly without any spinning beachball
ok i suspect usb drives in your case so it takes a bit to access them , but should not beachballing

so is would say repair permissions and then repair discs with the install disc

 

[Corruptitudes]

I would say this is standard operating procedure. I have 8 external hard drives, that I have loaded up when my Imac boots. It wont do anything until it mounts these disks. This imac is a 2010 2.8ghz I5 quad core.

It did it on the Core 2 Duo Imac I had previously. It also happens on my early 2009 mini....

If you get a fix, let me know, but I think its normal...

 

[mulo]

yeah i get this too with my external, which is a real pain since it takes ~20secs to pick up speed to a point where it can read.

 

[lexvo]

I have one external drive always mounted on my 2009 Imac i5 (for Time Machine). On wake up, I have no beach ball, it takes 1-2 seconds before it reacts however. No big deal.