macjohnmcc

That did it. Thanks! Still not sure why the drive when plugged in via it's thunderbolt connection doesn't behave this way. Same drive different connection.

I recently switched from a thunderbolt connection for my external drive to usb 3.0. Not sure if that is the cause of the behavior change but now when I do the keyboard sequence to open the Alfred window I have to wait for the external drive to spin up. If there is an option I can disable/enable that will stop this behavior (even at a loss of some functionality) I would be happy. Any suggestions?