It's simple. Heat comes from the drive motors spinning - so more heat implies more time spinning. (And since these drives spin at constant rates - it's more the duty cycle that the motors are on, then how the motors are being controlled that affects heat generation.)
I will assume you have selected "Put hard disk(s) to sleep when possible." in energy saver since that needs to be checked for Mac OS X to tell the drives they are no longer needed. When they are idled the heat generation is less.
If you asked to idle the drives by selecting the choice above, then you need to find what process is polling the drives which keeps them in a non-idle status. The fs_usage command would be a great place to start to monitor what writes/reads are happening.
Once you know what processes are responsible, you have a chance to change things.
Alternatively, you can use Disk Utility to unmount the drives. They should sleep well but at the cost of not being mounted.
Boot script
The best thing I can come up with, is a script that will run at boot, and will check whether each Apple_HFS TYPE of volume (disk*s*) is mounted. When the volume isn't mounted, try to repair and mount the volume.
Script commands explained
List local HFS volumes
The diskutil list command is used to retrieve all local volumes that contain an Apple HFS file system. For example:
$ diskutil list | grep ": Apple_HFS" | awk '{ print $NF }'
disk0s2
disk1s1
disk2s1
Is volume mounted?
The df -lnh command is used to check whether that volume is mounted. When the volume is not mounted, the command returns no (empty) output. And when the volume is mounted, the output is like:
$ df -lnh | grep /dev/disk1s1
/dev/disk1s1 3.6Ti 13Mi 3.6Ti 1% /Volumes/L
Step by step installation
Create bash script (version #2)
$ sudo nano /Library/Scripts/BootRepairMount.sh
Paste this text into the editor and save it.
#!/bin/bash
TRIES=0
MAXTRIES=60
until diskutil list > /dev/null;do
TRIES=$(($TRIES+1))
if [ $TRIES -gt $MAXTRIES ]; then
exit $?
fi
sleep 1
done
TRIES=0
MAXTRIES=3
for OUTPUT in $(diskutil list | grep ': Apple_HFS' | awk '{ print $NF }')
do
if [[ -z $(df -lnh | grep /dev/$OUTPUT) ]]; then
echo "$OUTPUT is not mounted, repair and mount"
until diskutil repairVolume $OUTPUT; do
TRIES=$(($TRIES+1))
if [ $TRIES -gt $MAXTRIES ]; then
break
else
sleep 1
fi
done
TRIES=0
until diskutil mount $OUTPUT; do
TRIES=$(($TRIES+1))
if [ $TRIES -gt $MAXTRIES ]; then
break
else
sleep 1
fi
done
TRIES=0
fi
done
Set the permissions of the script for root access only
$ sudo chown -R root:admin /Library/Scripts/BootRepairMount.sh
Make the script readable and executable for all users
$ sudo chmod a=rx /Library/Scripts/BootRepairMount.sh
Make the script admin writeable and executable
$ sudo chmod u=rwx /Library/Scripts/BootRepairMount.sh
Test run the script
$ /Library/Scripts/BootRepairMount.sh
Create a .plist file for launchd to run on boot
$ sudo nano /Library/LaunchDaemons/nl.probackup.bootrepairmount.plist
And paste this text into the editor window.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>nl.probackup.bootrepairmount</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/Library/Scripts/BootRepairMount.sh</string>
</array>
<key>UserName</key>
<string>root</string>
<key>UserGroup</key>
<string>wheel</string>
<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<true></true>
<key>Debug</key>
<true></true>
</dict>
</plist>
Change launchd plist permissions
$ sudo chown -R root:wheel /Library/LaunchDaemons/nl.probackup.bootrepairmount.plist
Load the plist into launchd
$ sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/nl.probackup.bootrepairmount.plist
Confirm that the plist is loaded
$ sudo launchctl list | grep .bootrepairmount
If the plist name appears, like:
851 - nl.probackup.bootrepairmount
it’s installed.
Stop running script on boot
To remove the .plist, in other words stop the script from being run at boot, type the following:
$ sudo launchctl unload -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/nl.probackup.bootrepairmount.plist
All in one line - copy and paste - installation
file=/Library/Scripts/BootRepairMount.sh;{ echo \#\!/bin/bash; echo TRIES=0; echo MAXTRIES=60; echo until\ diskutil\ list\ \>\ /dev/null\;do; echo $'\t'TRIES=\$\(\(\$TRIES+1\)\); echo $'\t'if\ \[\ \$TRIES\ -gt\ \$MAXTRIES\ \]\;\ then; echo $'\t'$'\t'exit\ \$\?; echo $'\t'fi; echo $'\t'sleep\ 1; echo done; echo TRIES=0; echo MAXTRIES=3; echo for\ OUTPUT\ in\ \$\(diskutil\ list\ \|\ grep\ \':\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Apple_HFS\'\ \|\ awk\ \'\{\ print\ \$NF\ \}\'\); echo do; echo $'\t'if\ \[\[\ -z\ \$\(df\ -lnh\ \|\ grep\ /dev/\$OUTPUT\)\ \]\]\;\ then; echo $'\t'$'\t'echo\ \"\$OUTPUT\ is\ not\ mounted,\ repair\ and\ mount\"; echo $'\t'$'\t'until\ diskutil\ repairVolume\ \$OUTPUT\;\ do; echo $'\t'$'\t'$'\t'TRIES=\$\(\(\$TRIES+1\)\); echo $'\t'$'\t'$'\t'if\ \[\ \$TRIES\ -gt\ \$MAXTRIES\ \]\;\ then; echo $'\t'$'\t'$'\t'$'\t'break; echo $'\t'$'\t'$'\t'else; echo $'\t'$'\t'$'\t'$'\t'sleep\ 1; echo $'\t'$'\t'$'\t'fi; echo $'\t'$'\t'done; echo $'\t'$'\t'TRIES=0; echo $'\t'$'\t'until\ diskutil\ mount\ \$OUTPUT\;\ do; echo $'\t'$'\t'$'\t'TRIES=\$\(\(\$TRIES+1\)\); echo $'\t'$'\t'$'\t'if\ \[\ \$TRIES\ -gt\ \$MAXTRIES\ \]\;\ then; echo $'\t'$'\t'$'\t'$'\t'break; echo $'\t'$'\t'$'\t'else; echo $'\t'$'\t'$'\t'$'\t'sleep\ 1; echo $'\t'$'\t'$'\t'fi; echo $'\t'$'\t'done; echo $'\t'$'\t'TRIES=0; echo $'\t'fi; echo done; } > ~/out_file;cat ~/out_file | sudo tee $file;rm ~/out_file;sudo chown -R root:admin $file;ls -l $file;sudo chmod a=rx $file;sudo chmod u=rwx /$file;file=/Library/LaunchDaemons/nl.probackup.bootrepairmount.plist;sudo launchctl unload -w $file &>/dev/null;{ echo \<\?xml\ version=\"1.0\"\ encoding=\"UTF-8\"\?\>; echo \<\!DOCTYPE\ plist\ PUBLIC\ \"-//Apple//DTD\ PLIST\ 1.0//EN\"\ \"http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd\"\>; echo \<plist\ version=\"1.0\"\>; echo \<dict\>; echo \<key\>Label\</key\>; echo \<string\>nl.probackup.bootrepairmount\</string\>; echo \<key\>ProgramArguments\</key\>; echo \<array\>; echo \<string\>/Library/Scripts/BootRepairMount.sh\</string\>; echo \</array\>; echo \<key\>UserName\</key\>; echo \<string\>root\</string\>; echo \<key\>UserGroup\</key\>; echo \<string\>wheel\</string\>; echo \<key\>RunAtLoad\</key\>; echo \<true\>\</true\>; echo \<key\>Debug\</key\>; echo \<true\>\</true\>; echo \</dict\>; echo \</plist\>; } > ~/out_file;cat ~/out_file | sudo tee /$file;rm ~/out_file;sudo chown -R root:wheel $file;sudo launchctl load -w -F $file;sudo launchctl list | grep .bootrepairmount
Best Answer
Natively, Mac OS X cannot write to NTFS formatted volumes. There are downloads like NTFS-3G which can enable you to read/write to NTFS partitions, but I've had mixed success with them.
If you want to format the drive so you can perform read/write operations and want to boot from it, please follow this link. The format you want drives in is HFS+ (Mac OS X Extended Journaled).