Auto-Disconnecting Drives on iMac w/ Lion

I'm also having the issue of drives disconnecting. (similar post found here, but on MacMini: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2643206?start=0&tstart=0)
It happened today (first time) with my ipad 1st gen when i was moving files to it. It has been happening with my WD drive serving as my Backup for quite a while now (not sure when it started, but I haven't been able to keep my drive connected for more than a few minutes at best. But I do have another WD drive that is connected just fine and has never disconnected.
I tried Keep Drive Spinning tonight, and shortly after I set it up to keep my Backup drive active, my drive crashed. I have also tried swapping USB and power cords with no success. Does anyone else have an idea of what's going on or how I may be able to get it to work sooner rather than later?

Agree about the WD drive probably being the problem. Unfortunately External WD drives tend to have a lot of problems with Macs. If you can I'd recommend exchanging it out for a higher quality drive. I'd recommend any of the following:
G-Tech G-DRIVE series
LaCie d2 Quadra series
OWC Mercury Elite Pro series
If these are out of your price range then navigate to www.macsales.com (OWC) and choose any of their external HD's you will find their quality and service to be very good. Also because they specialize in Macs you know what they sell works.

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How do I install snow leopard on an external drive so I can update imac to lion

Hi, I have only one software program for which I need to keep using snow leopard. I would like to make a second start up on an external drive, and also put this software there, and then update my Imac to Lion. As I am not computer savvy, I would really appreciate step by step directions. so far, I have installed Lion once, found out the problem, uninstalled it , reinstalled 10.6.8, and restored all from back up. Now I need to figure out how to have both OS"s . I only need to use this software about once a month. I have also heard of something that makes a second machine as a virtual machine on the imac, but I don't know anything about it. Thanks,

Simply clone your system drive to the external drive:
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes. Upon completion proceed to the cloning.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
Clone Lion using Restore Option of Disk Utility
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
To startup from the external clone restart the computer and at the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager appears. Select the icon for the external drive then click on the arrow button below it.

I have an iMac running Lion and W7 with boot camp . It has been operating flawlessly until I went to reboot into Mac tonight. Screen went black, and system is unresponsive. I've tried force quitting and turning power off. Hard drive starts but that's it..

I have a 5 month old iMac running Lion and W7 with the latest version of boot camp . It has been operating flawlessly until I went to reboot into Mac tonight. Screen went black, and system is unresponsive. I've tried force quitting and turning power off. Hard drive starts, there's a small amount of drive activity and that's it.

Hi Jane, your info may still be there, look in the Users folder at root of the drive, how many users are there there?
It sounds like this may have happened...
Return to default desktop, apparent "loss" of home directory, (it can happen spontaneously too)...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107854

If I were to drag and drop files from an OSX 9 onto an external hard drive (1 TB), assuming there is still plenty of space left, will I be able to use this same external hard drive to back up my iMac (Mountain Lion)?

If I were to drag and drop files from an OSX 9 onto an external hard drive (1 TB), assuming there is still plenty of space left, will I be able to use this same external hard drive to back up my iMac (Mountain Lion)? And would it ask me if I want to initialize (thus erasing it) or eject the hard drive like the OSX 9 did?

I was trying to follow this thread because I was curious about the OS 9 installation - until I realized you have another thread going about the very same subject, albeit with a different subject line.
FWIW: it is best not to double post - things get far too confusing after a while.
@ Kappy (in case you hadn't seen the other one):
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5054178?tstart=0

New iMac running lion 10.7.2...partitioned drive for windows xp pro ...successfully installed...up and running(duel boot) but no internet connection on windows side...need drivers?.....please help

new imac running lion 10.7.2 partitioned HD for duel boot and successfully installed windows xp pro (sp2)....have internet through eithernet cable on the mac side but no internet connection on the windows side....need drivers???? please help

I too am running xp spiii on my mac with lion. However I installed xp while running snow leopard then upgraded to lion and both are running fine. If you have the support disc that came with the imac all the relevant drivers are on there. The only other thing i would suggest is that you get spiii and upgrade to that.
Hope that helps

White screen of death - iMac OSX Lion

I upgraded my 2007 iMac to Lion and after a few days of perfect running the think locked up. When I forced the power off and back on it seemed to be booting fine (chimes, apple logo, disk spinning up and I could hear the drive head seeking) but then it froze up in the "White Screen of death" (WSOD). It was complete lockd up again, and nothing would bring it back. I had to reboot again. And again. Everytime it seems to be ok, but then locks up after it the screen goes white. . I did command option , p r keys with three chimes. I have unplugged it and let it sit. I disconnected all periferals. I reset the SMC. I booted into Single User mode and used unix commands to check the HD. No errors found. I disconnected my wireless Time Capsule.
Note that it appears to be booting fine at first with the useaul Apple Logo. And when I boot into the Single User mode all the text indicates no faults. The display and HD appear fine.
I inserted my original OSX Leopard disk and and tried to boot from it, using the "C" boot process and the Option boot method to manuualy select the DVD. No good. It just went into the WSOD again.
I have no idea what to try next!

RATS!
After ersing (and zeroing) out the HD nothing changed. I still could not completely boot up the install disk. I tried the original Leopard disk, and the Apple Lion USB thumbdrive. Both started the boot process, and gave me the grey Apple logo. But then after a minute or two jumped into the White Screen of Death.
I then replace both RAM chips. No change.
Now I have a brick. A very large and heavy brick.
But the computer will woerk as Target Disk Mode, and it actually goes through a normal boot cycle. That is, I can go into the Single Ud=ser mode and all UNIX command work fine.
Does anyone have any additional ideas of what can cause this?
Peter

New iMac w/ Lion: MP Navigator software won't scan on my PIXMA MP780

Bought the iMac w/ Lion, and now my MP Navigator 2.0 software won't scan on my PIXMA MP780. Tried installing MP Navigator 3.0, but it gives me the "The scanner driver supported by this software is not installed. Install it and retry". Any help?
I know that there have been similar answers (https://discussions.apple.com/message/15333807#15333807), but I'm curious to know if these answers will work with Lion.
Many thanks!
Dave
P.S. For those of you with similar issues, I did find a workaround; I found I could use the printer driver from within system prefs as a scanner. Here's what you might try to do if you're having the same trouble I am:
Open system preferences
Select "Hardware -> Print and Scan"
Click on the icon for your installed printer on the left side of the screen
After doing so, you might see buttons for Print and Scan above the data that then shows on the right side of that window.
Click on "Scan" and see if this particualr utility works.
It worked for my MP780. Not ideal (I'm used to the MP Navigator software), but it'll do.
Dave

Be sure to do some homework before trying again. There is plenty of advice on the internet, for example:
http://www.macworld.com/article/1161087/install_lion_over_leopard.html
As gumsie says, it is important atleast to backup your own data, photos, music etc on another disk. I would get Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) and make a bootable clone of your existing Snow Leopard. Then copy the new Lion installer to this clone as well. With this, you can keep functional (and ask for help here) while you get the Lion installation working and your apps updated.

How do I create a bootable Snow Leopard partition on my iMac running Lion?

Hi.
I have recently bought an iMac running Lion. I also have software such as Office 2004 and CS2 which I believe I can run using Rosetta, however I think I need Snow Leopard for this. If I purchase Snow Leopard from the Online Store, how do I install this 2nd OS within another partition on my iMac (yet to be created) and how do I switch between Snow Leopard and Lion on start up? Will my Lion software and data remain intact as I don't have any Lion disks should I need to reload this? Can anyone help with a step-by-step instructions as I'm not incredibly confident with the repartitioning of my nice new iMac?

To resize the drive do the following:
1. Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
After the main menu appears select Disk Utility and click on the Continue button. Select the hard drive's main entry then click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
2. You should see the graphical sizing window showing the existing partitions. A portion may appear as a blue rectangle representing the used space on a partition.
3. In the lower right corner of the sizing rectangle for each partition is a resizing gadget. Select it with the mouse and move the bottom of the rectangle upwards until you have reduced the existing partition enough to create the desired new volume's size. The space below the resized partition will appear gray. Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed. (Note: You can only make a partition smaller in order to create new free space.)
4. Click on the [+] button below the sizing window to add a new partition in the gray space you freed up. Give the new volume a name, if you wish, then click on the Apply button. Wait until the process has completed.
You should now have a new volume on the drive.
It would be wise to have a backup of your current system as resizing is not necessarily free of risk for data loss. Your drive must have sufficient contiguous free space for this process to work.
Boot From The Snow Leopard Installer Disc and Install:
Insert OS X Installer Disc into the optical drive.
Restart the computer.
Immediately after the chime press and hold down the "C" key.
Release the key when the spinning gear below the dark gray Apple logo appears.
Wait for installer to finish loading.
Install Snow Leopard on the newly created partition.

How do I get out of kernel panic? kernel panic upon boot. I did that hard drive cleanup and reinstalled Lion. What about memory? Anyone think I need to upgrade my memory? I have 8gig.

I get kernel paic upon boot. I did that hard drive cleanup and reinstalled Lion. What about memory? Anyone think I need to upgrade my memory? I have 8 G of upgraded RAM. (20 inch iMac core 2 duo)

If you're able to boot, launch the Console application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ If you’re running Mac OS X 10.7 or later, open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the page that opens.
Select the most recent panic log under System Diagnostic Reports. Post the contents — the text, please, not a screenshot. For privacy’s sake, I suggest you edit out the “Anonymous UUID,” a long string of letters, numbers, and dashes in the header and body of the report, if it’s present (it may not be.) Please don't post "shutdownStall" or "hang" reports.
If you can't boot in the usual way, try a safe boot. The instructions provided by Apple are as follows:
Be sure your Mac is shut down.
Press the power button.
Immediately after you hear the startup tone, hold the Shift key. The Shift key should be held as soon as possible after the startup tone, but not before the tone.
Release the Shift key when you see the gray Apple icon and the progress indicator (looks like a spinning gear).
During startup, you’ll see a progress bar, and then the login screen, which appears even if you normally log in automatically. You must know your login password in order to log in. If you’ve forgotten the password, you will need to reset it before you begin.
Safe mode is slower than normal, and some things won’t work at all.
Note: If FileVault is enabled under Mac OS X 10.7 or later, you can’t boot in safe mode.

I have 2T imac running lion Can I re-partition and use one half as a back up disk?

Bought a new mac in November and it is refused to start up yesterday. Spoke with Apple and they said I should make sure I do regular back ups in case I l ose my hard drive?!?! I did a clean install of the Operating software but was advised to erase and install.
I have taken all my important stuff off and can reinstall my programs once I get to the next stage so what I am wondering is
I have 2T imac running lion Can I re-partition and use one half as a back up disk for use with time machine so that I do not have to buy an external HD?
Cheers J

You could partition the drive, I read that Time Machine will work on if you HD partition.
BUT, it will do you no good if you HD fails.
Usually, if a HD fails it's the entire drive that is dead not just a partition.
So your time machine back would be on a dead disk, useless!

What is the best external hard drive for iMac time machine?

I need to purchase 1TB external hard drive to use as a backup drive for iMac (lion) Time Machine. I currently have the Lacie little disk but I need more storage. All I need is a simple USB connection.

I've been happy with my silver FW Western Digital drives, I use two daisy chainned together (1TB, 2TB). These were the ones sold for mac's so they have a aluminum look to them. Only a bit more expensive than their black USB brothers.

How do you transfer from mini to imac with fire wire if iMac has Lion and mini has snow leopard

My logic board has gone on my mini(intel) and I need to transfer this machine to an iMac(with Lion) how do I do this as it doesn't seem to be working with my disc.My update to Lion was purchased as a download and the only disc I have is snow leopard to reboot.

If your Mac mini has a dead logic board then you will not be able to boot it at all, not even in Target Disk Mode. You would either have to get the logic board repaired, or remove the hard disk and either put it in a disk enclosure or connect it in some other way to the iMac.
The fact that the two Macs ran different versions of OS X is irrelevant, once you have the drive connected to the iMac you can run the Migration utility to migrate the user account and data.

How do i create a usb boot drive for OS X Lion 10.7.5

How do I create a bootable USB drive on a working iMac with OS X Lion 10.7.5? I'm fairly new to the MAC world...

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
If you want to create a bootable USB drive with the Mountain Lion installer, follow these steps:
1. Open App Store > Purchases, and download OS X Lion.
2. After downloading Lion, close the Lion installer and use Lion Diskmaker to create a bootable Mountain Lion flash drive > http://blog.gete.net/lion-diskmaker-us/
When you want to start from this OS X Mountain Lion USB drive, press Option key while your Mac is starting and select the USB drive

Has anyone had any luck returning there iMac w/ Lion? I couldn't even reconnect back to the iternet tonight w/o restarting my new iMac.... Looks like folks have been having this problem for months

Has anyone had any luck returning their iMac w/ Lion? I couldn't even reconnect back to the iternet tonight w/o restarting my new iMac.... Looks like folks have been having this problem for months & months .. The Apple tech told me that all I could do is wait for Apple to come up with a fix... Got a new router this week so that isnt' it. Would I be better off w/o this until Apple gets their act together? I downloaded the combo update 10.7.3 & it helped for about a day... yesterday I still had to manually reset the connection but now it's resorting back to disconnectiong w/o fully going into sleep mode first. Sorry to say this is a major lemon. Help!

Seems unfair... I thought I was probalby having a router problem... got a new router this week. Thst's when we realized we have a computer problem. My next door nieghbor got zero sleep staying up all night while trying to help us figure out what the problem could be. He said if it were him he would have returned the iMac / Lion. Got the new iMac w/ Lion for Christmas but didn't realize until this week that Apple is the problem.... Hard to believe that Apple just has kept on selling this like ... oh No problem! Can't stay on the internet... but will sell you another one today! I'm getting mad... It's not every day we spend that kind of money on a computer . & ALL they can give us is that LOUSY Lion combo update. I can't even stay connected long enough to make a vitamin order with Puritan's Pride... & then the disconnection wipes out my cart... so I have to start over. When are they going to fix this! 'Not feeling very positive'. I feel like Apple KNOWINGLY sold my husband a defective... system. 14 days... oh please...

Why is Time machine saying backup disk disconnected? Using MBP 17" Lion 10.7

Why is Time machine saying backup disk disconnected? Using MBP 17" Lion 10.7

Do you have an external drive connected?
If you do has it gone into sleep mode? There is a setting in the OS to put drives to sleep if they aren't being used. Energy Saver "Put the hard disk to sleep when possible".
Also most external drives have a built in sleep function that if they aren't being accessed for a period of time they go to sleep by themselves.

Auto-Disconnecting Drives on iMac w/ Lion

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