User Guide

Using Your Drive 25
3
Using Power Management
This feature is only supported using the FireWire interface.
To minimize the power consumption of your drive while your
computer is on, you can take advantage of the power
management feature supported on the FireWire interface and
Windows 2000, XP, and Mac OS. Table 1 shows where to find
the power management feature in each operating system
version.
The power management feature sets the drive to automatically
use less power after a predetermined period of time of
inactivity. This is sometimes referred to as
spin down since the
drive’s internal mechanical disks stop spinning. When the drive
is in the spin down mode, the green power light will remain on
and the amber activity light will be off.
When your computer is powered off, you can choose to do
one of the following:
• Leave the drive plugged in all the time. The device is
designed to run with the power on at all times.
• Plug the drive’s power supply into a power strip with an on/
off switch so you can turn your drive’s power off to further
conserve power.
Make sure you remove the drive from your computer
through the operating system before you disconnect it or
turn off the drive’s power. Shutting off the drive’s power
while your computer is running can cause the loss or
corruption of data.
Table 1: Accessing the Power Management Feature
OS Do the following:
Windows XP
Windows 2000
Select Start ➔ Settings ➔ Control Panel .
Select
Power Options .
Windows Me
Windows 98SE
Power management of external hard drives not
supported.
Mac OS X From the Apple Menu, select
System
Preferences
➔ Energy Saver .
Mac OS 9 Power management of external hard drives not
supported.