Ejecting External HD

I am using Time Machine with a 160 GB Maxtor USB 2.0 external hard drive. I frequently eject my computer from the external so I can take my MacBook places other than my room. When I plug the external back into my computer, I have been needing to manually reconfigure time machine every time. Is there a way for TM to automatically detect the external and reconfigure itself automatically?

You shouldn't have to reconfigure Time Machine every time you plug it back in. It could be a problem with the specific external hard drive your using. TM should detect your hard drive right when you plug it in, though sometimes TM detects that it's not yet time to do a backup.
Quick question as well, though I'm sure it's a silly one. When you eject your hard drive, do you drag the icon down to the trash can? It's a good idea to let it eject, then unplug it from your computer.
I have a Western Digital external hard drive, and I haven't had this problem before. I know Apple did release some external hard drive compatibility updates.

Similar Messages

  • Auto-ejecting external discs and noisy fan on Mountain Lion

    After upgrading to OS X 10.8 my MacBook Pro (late 2010) started to auto-eject external discs (flashdisk, camera memory card, MyBook) - what to do to sto stop it?
    Sama after upgrade fan started to be very noisy without reason. I tried to reset SMC but it is still same

    MrHoffman, thank you for your response to my challenge to get the new test server working.  This is a migration from Snow Leopard Server to Mountain Lion Server.
    Here is the "checkhostname" test results:
    blue:~ admin$ sudo changeip -checkhostname
    Password:
    Primary address     = 96.231.165.211
    Current HostName    = blue.pderby.com
    DNS HostName        = blue.pderby.com
    The names match. There is nothing to change.
    dirserv:success = "success"
    blue:~ admin$
    Here is the response from postconf -n
    blue:~ admin$ postconf -n
    biff = no
    command_directory = /usr/sbin
    config_directory = /etc/postfix
    daemon_directory = /usr/libexec/postfix
    data_directory = /var/lib/postfix
    debug_peer_level = 2
    debugger_command = PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin xxgdb $daemon_directory/$process_name $process_id & sleep 5
    dovecot_destination_recipient_limit = 1
    html_directory = /usr/share/doc/postfix/html
    imap_submit_cred_file = /Library/Server/Mail/Config/postfix/submit.cred
    inet_interfaces = loopback-only
    inet_protocols = all
    mail_owner = _postfix
    mailbox_size_limit = 0
    mailq_path = /usr/bin/mailq
    manpage_directory = /usr/share/man
    message_size_limit = 10485760
    mydomain_fallback = localhost
    newaliases_path = /usr/bin/newaliases
    queue_directory = /Library/Server/Mail/Data/spool
    readme_directory = /usr/share/doc/postfix
    recipient_delimiter = +
    sample_directory = /usr/share/doc/postfix/examples
    sendmail_path = /usr/sbin/sendmail
    setgid_group = _postdrop
    smtpd_tls_ciphers = medium
    smtpd_tls_exclude_ciphers = SSLv2, aNULL, ADH, eNULL
    tls_random_source = dev:/dev/urandom
    unknown_local_recipient_reject_code = 550
    use_sacl_cache = yes
    blue:~ admin$
    I agree that I should change the LAN domain from .local to something like .internal or whatever.   I've been running with .local for 5 years  on snow leopard server and never had any problems so that was a low priority.
    I hope I'm just not seeing some obvious setting in main.cf

  • Cannot eject external devices from Macbook Air.

    For the past few months I have been unable to eject external drives, and volumes from my Air. I click on the eject (pyramid) icon, and nothing happens 100% of the time. I need to go to disk utility to be able to eject. Rather annoying.
    Does anyone have a suggestion, and hopefully something less drastic than a complete os reinstall?

    Hi, an example if this behaviour for me is when iTunes is running and playing music from my NAS, it will not allow ejection of that share. This might be the same with cable-connected external drives. Try making sure that any app that uses files on the drive is shut down and then retry the eject from Finder.

  • Is it safe to eject external hard drive while Macbook Pro is on sleep?

    Hi guys. This is the external hard drive I use for Time Machine. When in sleep mode, the external hard drive is off, but wakes up periodically when Macbook Pro Retina does its Power Sleep features including periodic back up. So...is it ok to eject external hard drive while on sleep?
    Thanks.

    Oh. Normally I leave my external hard drive connected to Macbook Pro and rarely eject it. But once in a while, I need to get that hard drive to connect to other computer for file transfer. So the question was when I need to do this (eject hard drive) while Macbook is on sleep, do I need to wake it up and log in and eject? I thought you were saying that I should always eject before the machine goes to sleep. I think I misunderstood you.
    So, I need to wake it up, log in and eject before disconnecting it?

  • Unable to eject External HD, ipod, or Digital Cam

    Hello,
    Since I switch on Tiger, I'm unabale to eject my external HD, ipod....
    The only way is to reboot... Not really useful to loose time like this...
    I saw problem on this board about people unable to eject their cd but no HD problem... Any tips will be welcome
    Best,
    Jeffrey

    Jeffrey,
    What error message are you getting when you try to eject external disks?
    Brian

  • Eject external HDD

    I accidentally hit the 'eject external HDD' symbol. How can I recover the connection without restarting the computer?

    On the forum web page you wrote your post on look in the upper right, you will see Your Stuff. It looks like:
    Click that link and you will see the Preferences link.

  • Can't eject external HD running OS X server 10.3

    Can't eject external HD, which has previously been mounted and disconnected.
    No apps running no windows open.....
    Have checked what processes are running but not sure what I am looking for that may be causing the problem ??

    Hi freybergham-
    Which model hard drive? Do you have more than one?
    What happens when you try to eject it? Have you tried dragging it to the trash?
    Luck-
    -DaddyPaycheck

  • Safely eject external hard drive

    Anyone know of a good way to safely eject external hard drives shared over a network with a Time Capsule? It seems to me like you'd need to unplug the Time Capsule,  as that is the only way to power it off, before disconnecting an external hard drive. This interrupts the network connection at home, though, so if there's some way to do this in Finder on a connected Mac, I'd like to know!

    Sorry but I am a bit unclear..
    The drive is plugged into a Mac and the share is from this Mac to the network?? Or is the external drive plugged into the Time Capsule?
    You should be able to eject the hard disk if mounted simply by clicking the arrow in the normal way. That will not stop it showing up in the client computer.. simply dismount it when mounted. As a network shared disk.. the share will still be active..
    To dismount the disk from the computer it is shared on, will have to be done from that computer.
    Unless you use Remote Access of some sort to take over the local computer you really cannot control shares that are offered from another computer.
    I am not sure I have answered your question though.
    What are you trying to achieve.

  • Finder closes after ejecting external flash

    Has anyone else experienced this?
    Often (but not always), when I eject external flash drives, the finder window automatically closes.
    I then re-open a finder window and see that the eject worked fine. Its just that the finder auto-closes some times when ejecting flash drives.
    I have other external media (hard drives) that when ejected, the finder never auto-closes. It only seems to happen with external flash drives.
    Any ideas?
    I'm running SL 10.6.2.
    Thanks
    -Mike

    Wow, its funny that I never made this connection before.
    Yup, I just tried it and the finder does NOT close if the finder is viewing some other folder or drive when ejecting media, but ALWAYS closes if viewing the external media and ejecting that media. Makes sense. Interesting :^D
    Thanks!
    -Mike

  • What's the best way to safely eject external backup drive

    I just bought a new Seagate external drive and made my first backup. Their website said the best way to disconnect it is to drag the desktop icon to the trash. I apparently ruined my previous backup drive (Adata) by right-clicking and selecting "Eject" from the context menu. This same "Eject" option is available for the Seagate drive and I read on this forum that it's a safe way to disconnect the drive. However, after using my Adata drive for a couple of years and getting frequent warnings saying the it hadn't been ejected properly after the previous backup, last week it just wouldn't work anymore and backups simply failed. So I'm not feeling confident about how to safely disconnect my new hard drive... Thanks for any advice.

    Things can happen to drives after a few years of year of use, even if the hardware itself is OK. The directory structure can get corrupted, etc. Choosing "eject" rather than dragging the icon to the trash isn't going to make a difference. I think Seagate tells users to do it because it's perhaps the simplest, most obvious method. Disk Utility can usually fix minor problems with your directory structure or volume info.
    One problem with external drives is that some external enclosures are a lot better than others. So a drive can seem to be failing when in fact the enclosure itself has a problem. It's a good idea to have a spare dock or enclosure on hand to test for this possibility. A spare known-good cable is something else to keep in your "toolkit".

  • MacBook Pro refuses to eject external disk - How do I make this stop?

    So I have an issue that's been bugging me for a couple weeks, now (from even before I upgraded to Mountain Lion), that I, really, need a solution to.  I have a 1TB external drive divided into 3 partitions.  I eject it whenever I wish to remove it from my computer, but, lately, there is 1 partition that, constantly, refuses to be ejected.  I get the usual warning in this instance:
    The disk [volume name] wasn't ejected because one or more programs may be using it.
    I click "Try Again" and it doesn't work.  It works with "Force Eject", but I don't want to cause any unnecessary damage to the contents of the drive.  The next time it happened, I ran the following in Terminal:
    sudo lsof -xf +d "/Volumes/[volume name]"
    This told me that the "mds" process was accessing the disk, which means Spotlight was using it.  I clicked the "Spotlight" icon in the menu bar and Spotlight didn't appear to be doing anything.  I can't quit the "mds" process in Activity Monitor, because the process just starts again.  The only thing that worked was logging out, then, logging back in, then, I could, immediately eject the volume.
    Of course, the next time I plugged the disk in, the same thing happened.
    How do I stop this from happening?  How can I stop Spotlight from, constantly, holding this disk captive?  I shouldn't have to log out to eject a disk.
    Please advise.

    Cerebro,
    I am in the same boat but I think you could help me and many others by telling us what what in the folders that were keeping your G-Raid or HARD DRIVE from UNMOUNTING?
    I can force quit.......and even force quit to get the DiskUtility to treat that like a unmount.....
    but in my case I may have installed software from AUTODESK that uses WIRETAPPING on the EXTERNAL DRIVE because that is the AUTHORIZATION method and also the CONTENT method they use to allow me to use their software for FREE as a STUDENT or EDU.
    But I tried to kill these processes in the Activity Monitor and it just comes back or creates new numbers..
    so I am not sure if that is the culprit...
    I had read other culprits....like other 3rd party BACKUP SOFTWARE (not Time MACHINE) that was hanging the computer......
    I am wondering why you had APPLE CARE help you and they couldn't even find the solution....
    so without you sharing with me even in a private email as you didn't share what the FOLDER was for software.
    I would be much appreciated as if this is the similar case then I can contact them and just ask them the workaround if it is not an APPLE thing......
    Most POWER USERS that understand MOUNTAIN LION or SNOW LEOPARD  and UNIX for that matter know the TERMINAL like a second language...
    I wish I did but I don't yet.....
    I really need to take a class or just read these ADMINISTRATION BOOKS for APPLE CERTIFICATION to understand such things.....
    Please let me know anyone else reading this if you have some good ideas? or IRC CHAT or other FORUMS that strictly deal and discuss APPLE OSX and UNIX PROGRAMMING as well as NETWORKING without the FILE SYSTEM.....most of this is ADMINISTRATION LEVEL or root level knowledge, and should be offered as a MANUAL when you buy the COMPUTER........or at least a FREE PDF instead of having to pay the 50 or 60 dollars for the current flavor of OSX.....
    I paid a 3 dollars for SNOW LEOPARD was happy updating school MAC LABS in LAUSD with that knowledge...but now I am MOUNTAIN LION 10.8 so I am wondering is it really worth the upgrade BOOK is that SYSTEM that much DIFFERENT than SNOW LEOPARD? can anyone tell me?
    thanks so much
    singleton
    PS- - my problem is the same I have a G-RAID that will not EJECT unless I FORCE QUIT the DRIVE.....
    I can't figure out what is causing it to hang......how should I go about finding out exactly what it is?
    thanks

  • Can't Eject external HD when emptying trash

    This is more of an observation than a question. I am preparing my fruit (Macbook Pro) for a windows install and wanted to get rid of some extra files after I did a time machine backup. I forgot to eject the external HD before I moved a few large files to the trash and told it to empty securely. While it was trying to empty the trash, I couldn't eject the external HD, with the error that it couldn't because it was in use. When I aborted the trash emptying, the external HD ejected fine. And I tried both kinds of "ejections," i.e. moving the HD icon to the trash, and right clicking it to bring up the menu and selecting eject.

    I've had this same problem, it's really irritating.
    It doesn't matter what you're deleting or what you are trying to eject; as long as you are securely emptying the trash and want to eject a device you just can't. I always have to remember to eject first before emptying the trash.
    It's not a big problem but it seems kinda weird that it hasn't been addressed yet, every update I've had so far it's been happening.

  • Forgot to eject external hard drive-won't mount, doesn't show

    Hello,
    I just bought a great running G-Technology (500GB) firewire/usb portable hard drive to replace an older much less stable drive. I wanted to copy the files from one to another when the imac disc just stated spinning forever. Having experienced this before I tried shutting off the old drive, but to no avail. So I panicked and shut everything down. Obviously, I didn't eject the new hard drive. After restarting I was able to get the old drive to appear on the desktop but not the new one. It doesn't show in Disk Utility and I've tried going to Go/Go To Folder/type:/volumes and where the icon of the new drive doesn't show up. I've unplugged it, restarted the computer with and without the new drive plugged in. The new drive light is on and power seems to be going to it when plugged in. What to do? I hope I didn't ruin the drive. It's less than a week old. Thanks for any help! Kris

    If you are trying yo use the drive's USB connectivity, "portable" could be the key word. Some drives that must get their power from the computer's USB port ("bus-powered drives") may not get enough power under some circumstances. Their counterpart is the desktop or "self-powered" external drive that comes with its own power brick.
    There are workabouts for your existing drive if it lacks its own power supply:
    1) Try a different USB port. Not all USB ports provide the same level of power. Ports on the keyboard should be avoided--they can seldom power even a thumb drive
    2) Get a self-powered USB hub. It  adds to the power feed for the drive and usually fixes the issue
    3) Get a USB "Y" cable like this:
    1 Meter USB 2.0 A to 5 Pin Mini B Cable - Auxiliary USB "Y" Power Design for external hard drives.
    It uses two of the comptuer's ports for extra power.
    If you are connecting with FireWire, then the drive is likely faulty.

  • Improperly ejected external hard drive is not displaying on computer...not even in Disk Utility

    My external hard drive has been repeatedly ejected improperly and now it is not displaying on my computer, not even in disk utility.  How do I re-mount this external hard drive?  In the past when this has happened, all I had to do was go to Disk Utility or use DiskWarrior to fix the issue but now it won't even show up in either of these apps.
    Any help would be appreciated
    2008 MacBook Pro 10.9.3, WD My Studio 1 TB External HD

    From the menu bar, select
     ▹ System Preferences ▹ Energy Saver ▹ Power Adapter  
    and uncheck the box labeled Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible, if it's checked.
    If the drive has more than one interface (USB, FireWire, Thunderbolt, eSATA), try one of the other interfaces.
    Check that the data cable is securely inserted at both ends.
    Try a different cable.
    If you're connecting the drive through a hub, connect it directly to a built-in port on the Mac.
    If you're connecting it directly, try a different port.
    Disconnect all other devices on the bus, or as many as possible.
    Test the drive with another Mac. Test another drive with this Mac.
    If the drive is bus-powered, but has an AC adapter, connect the adapter.
    Start up in Recovery mode and launch Disk Utility. Is the drive recognized?
    Start up in Safe Mode and test.
    Reset the NVRAM.
    Reset the System Management Controller.
    If the drive doesn't work under any of the above conditions, and if another drive does work with the same Mac, then the drive has failed. You may be able to salvage the mechanism by removing it from the enclosure and installing it in another one, or in a drive dock.

  • Mountain lion ejects external hard disks

    After upgrading to Mountainlion (March 5, 2013), my LaCie external hard disk (500 GB, used for TimeMachine) was spontaneously and improperly ejected, presumably by the OS.
    (1) The disk had worked without problems under OS 10.7.
    (2) The disk mounts properly on an older Mac (OS 10.3.2).
    (3) The disk would not mount on a newer Mac also running OS 10.8.2.
    I am currently reparing the disk using Disk Utility on the old Mac, but I hesitate to attempt mounting it again on my iMac (June 2008) running OS 10.8.3.  Can anyone shed light on this problem? I know I am not the only one with this difficulty, so is Apple doing something about it?

    It is very probably dying (I just had to replace a Lacie disk 250GB form 2008).
    This disk has originally been formatted on the 10.3 and then never again?
    You can format it again on 10.8, but you will loose the TM backup, so if you do that you have to make a new TM on another disk.
    I would no longer trust this disk, and buy another (5 years is not bad at all). Take all you want to preserve off the Lacie on the old machine and copy it to the ML machine.

  • Eject external HD before shutdown? Conflicting advice.

    Hi all. My first post. Hooray!
    Anyway, having searched this forum and other websites there seems to be conflicting advice as to whether one should eject an external HD before the computer is shutdown or not. I have a Western Digital My Passport Essential and according to WD's knowledgebase I am supposed to eject my external HD before I shut down:-
    Knowledgebase Answer ID 976 ( http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/stdadp.php?pfaqid=976 )
    "Question:
    What is the recommended shutdown procedure for a Mac with a USB or FireWire drive installed?
    Answer:
    In some cases, shutting down the system without properly unmounting the drive results in data corruption. If the OS stops the device while data remains in the drive cache, data can be lost or file system damage can occur. To avoid possible data corruption, Western Digital recommends that FireWire and USB drives be properly unmounted from the Mac OS prior to turning off the system.
    To properly unmount the drive, simply drag the drive icon to the trash. This will assure that all data is properly cleared from the drive cache before the drive is removed. At this point the FireWire or USB data cable can be safely removed and the drive and Mac system can be powered off."
    I really do not want to jeopardise my backed up data on the external HD, so which advice should I follow?
    Many thanks.
    Resali

    Welcome to Discussions! What took you so long???
    I have always dragged the hard drive icon to the trash, then shut it off, before shutting my computer down. I have received too many warnings that "a device was improperly removed, data corruption may have occurred" or something similar, to ignore the advice.
    In addition, updating your system with a firewire drive attached can cause problems, I remove all peripherals before any update.
    So, in short - eject the external before doing anything with the internal computer, such as shutting down or updating.

Maybe you are looking for