OS X accessing external drive

Question

I noticed that when I plug in an external NTFS HDD something is reading it and it doesn't stop for a long time... I checked with fs_usage and saw this:

23:26:54.189404  read              F=5    B=0x28                                                                                                                                                  0.000048 W tuxera_ntfs.242048
23:26:54.189465  writev            F=5    B=0x80                                                                                                                                                  0.000007   tuxera_ntfs.242048
23:26:54.189476  getattrlist                            /Volumes/REDSTAR/Kindle/Kindle books/Dean R. Koontz/Shadowfires (880)                                                                         0.000093 W mds.242039
23:26:54.189490  getattrlist                                 /Volumes/REDSTAR/Kindle/Kindle books/Dean R. Koontz/Shadowfires (880)                                                                       0.000008   mds.242039
23:26:54.189511  read              F=5    B=0x28                                                                                                                                                  0.000046 W tuxera_ntfs.242048
23:26:54.189540  writev            F=5    B=0x80                                                                                                                                                  0.000006   tuxera_ntfs.242048
23:26:54.189549  getattrlist                            /Volumes/REDSTAR/Kindle                                                                                                                   0.000054 W mds.242039
23:26:54.189579  read              F=5    B=0x28                                                                                                                                                  0.000038 W tuxera_ntfs.242048
23:26:54.189616  writev            F=5    B=0x80                                                                                                                                                  0.000006   tuxera_ntfs.242048
23:26:54.189626  getattrlist                            /Volumes/REDSTAR/Kindle/Kindle books                                                                                                      0.000066 W mds.242039
23:26:54.189656  read              F=5    B=0x28      

etc.

So the Tuxera driver is scanning the drive each time. Why? Is this normal?

UPDATE: it's not Tuxera's fault... it's Spotlight indexing the drive via a Tuxera NTFS driver

Answer 1

Based on your screen shot it is reading/writing the same thing over and over = Kindle!

For some reason Spotlight thinks the Kindle has made changes to the drive and it is re-indexing it.

To find out if that is the problem disable Spotlight and check.

Disable Spotlight

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

and

Enable Spotlight

sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

To disable the External drive indexing by Spotlight:

1. Connect the volume or drive you want excluded to your Mac.
2. Open the System Preferences application.
3. Click on Spotlight, then click on the Privacy tab.

4. Drag your volume or drive into the Privacy menu to exclude them from Spotlight's indexing.

   

Answer 2

That it's spotlight's fault, has been established. But just in case you want to let the culprit live, use mdutil -i off-d /Volumes/REDSTAR - this way you don't have to kill/disable spotlight, but just disable the indexing on that particular external drive. This will also enable you to re-enable indexing in the same way, without going through the preferences/privacy, etc.

Answer 3

In System Preferences and Spotlight (Privacy tab), you can configure Spotlight to prevent accessing certain drives or paths.