AN OPEN POST TO SEAGATE ENGINEERING
Enough already. I have seen this issue discussed from time to time within various Threads and if I recall there was never any resolution to this problem, but rather allot of dancing around. I want answers.
Let's first establish some facts so we can at least (I hope) agree that I have some handle on what I speak of from a technological standpoint. I have been in Information Technolgoy since 1983. That is 26 years for those Engineers who cannot locate their HP Scientific calculator. Over this period of time I have been in the employ of three Fortune-500 Corporations, one with >90,000 employees. Over the span of my career I have built and deployed thousands of Desktop and Server systems.
In my last position I was part of a NOC team that monitored >4,000 Servers Worldwide on a 24/7/365 basis.
Amongst other systems I have at home, one is an Apple G5 using OS-X 10.4.11. Of the many disks attached to this system are two FreeAgent drives: a 1TB and a 1.5TB disk. (Yes, on their own Bus). My aggravation is stemming from the fact that when these disks go into a sleep mode they dismount. If I recall I have seen comments from the Moderator stating that this is not the case. The 'FreeAgent Desktop Software' (File Version: FreeAgent-DT-WW.zip) as found here does NOT - repeat NOT - provide "...an interface to adjust the built-in sleep timer on the drive...". If so, if I have overlooked something by all means do let me know. But spare me, please...the fact that my OS is v10.4.11 rather than within your range of "(10.4.7 – 10.4.10)" is neither here nor there. That rev would in NO manner impact the alleged functionality of being able to adjust the sleep timer.
I am not slamming Seagate products. Indeed, I have been purchasing them both professionally and personally for over twenty-five years. But I am to the point where I can not and will not recommend them. There's always WD as well as a pluthera of other manufacturers. And financially Seagate is not positioned to lose revenue from so much as one consumer.
This needs to be resolved. As I write this the aforementioned FreeAgent 1.5TB just went to sleep and vanished from the Desktop. Boink. Gone. Time again to either reboot the system or remove/apply power to the disk. This is patently absurd.
Twenty years ago this should have been a problem. But not in 2009.
FIX THIS ISSUE.
Cordially,
SW
