I have an iMac (2009 late and now OS 10.13.6) with an external GDrive (4T, USB 3.0, S/N PCJK0J7B), it has always run when it feels like it, mounted and unmounted. It also runs with the light flashing or not flashing. It has done this with older mac OS’s and older internal drives (now with new SSD). Backup is by CCC (carbon copy cloner) in the middle of the night - so it’s not doing that.
I have just accepted that this drive has never worked correctly but I had another look today, and finally just moving the drive (as it was slightly off level) it stopped running and was quiet. It is well ventilated etc.The other WD ‘my book studio’ older drives all operate correctly. Any ideas?
It is possible the drive just needs to be replaced at this point due to age.
Thanks for the diagnosis. I don’t think the drive has a fan so it would make it a software incompatibility with Mac hardware and/or Mac OS’s.
As it has always played up and still is doing so it seems the bug never got fixed?
I forgot to say It is only used for backup and CCC mounts and unmounts the drive after backup, so it is not mounted when the iMac is in use.
Moving the drive seemed to fix the drive activity when unmounted. It was purchased as a 4T usb WD My Book studio was not available in Australia at the time, will go back to WD My Books in the future.
