External Drive Randomly Ejecting

For some reason, starting yesterday, my computer keeps randomly saying "You have not properly ejected this device" and my external hard drive disappears off the screen. This happens about every 7 minutes, and I don't even eject it...
It is not a real problem, since I checked and all the files are still there and intact, and it always comes back after about 5 minutes. The problem is that it's really, really, really annoying. Also, I think eventually the files are going to start to disappear. Could someone tell me what the heck is going on?

Is it a USB drive?
And does it take power from the computer or does it have its own power supply?
Whatever it is, it's not a good idea to let it happen. You will eventually corrupt the file system on the disk.
Message was edited by: nerowolfe

Similar Messages

WD My Passport 1TB USB external drive randomly ejects from my iMac and MacBook Pro. I have tried two separate USB cords. I have updated the firmware. I have tried it on my MacBook, two different Macbook Pro's, and my iMac. All give the

WD My Passport 1TB USB external drive randomly ejects from my iMac and MacBook Pro.
The drive is approximately 4 years old. When the drive is plugged in, I can see the data. It appears to be working properly. The only problem is that everyone of my Apple Machines are ejecting it. Several years ago, this drive connected to Mac machines with no problems. I have tried two separate USB cords. I have updated the firmware. I have tried it on my MacBook, two different Macbook Pro's, and my iMac.
All give the same result of random ejection of the drive and the error message of:
Disk Not Ejected Properly
Eject "1TB Passport HD" before disconnecting or turning......
Searching through the web, it seems this is an common/known problem. Does anyone know the solution?
Thanks,

Send Apple feedback. They won't answer, but at least will know there is a problem. If enough people send feedback, it may get the problem solved sooner.
Feedback

I have a Seagate Freeagent 1TB external drive that ejects it's self in the middle of the time machine backup, then disappears and can't be found unless I turn it off and back on again

I have a Seagate Freeagent 1TB external drive that ejects it's self in the middle of the time machine backup, then disappears and can't be found unless I turn it off and back on again. Any ideas?

Hmmm.. sorry to jump in but...
I Wish I had seen this before I got mine.
Mine has been doing this auto eject stuff too.
I think I just plugged it in and TM let me select it but is it possible
I should have reformatted it with DU first, like with all the WD drive problems ?
Is it too late for that ?
Or just try to return it or get rid of it ?
TIA

External Drives sometimes eject themselves

I've had an issue with some of my external hard drives where they will randomly eject themselves but then just as quickly remount itself. I thought perhaps it had something to do with the USB hub, but I've plugged it in directly to the computer and it will still randomly do this. I've noticed this with 3 or my 4 drives. It did this is 10.5 and still doing it in 10.6. Any other ideas?

I'm having this problem on a Mac Pro running 10.5.8.
Here's an excerpt of my syslog:
9/24/09 4:40:19 PM mds[35] (/Volumes/TOM'S DRIVE/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/55A8E770-6A1C-44DD-B127-95FB46EB6177)(Err or) IndexCI in indexCommitShadow:fturncate err: 22
9/24/09 4:40:19 PM mds[35] (/Volumes/TOM'S DRIVE/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/55A8E770-6A1C-44DD-B127-95FB46EB6177)(Err or) IndexCI in CIMetaInfoSync:sync err: 22
9/24/09 4:40:19 PM kernel jnl: disk5s1: writejournalheader: 0 [Level 3] [ReadUID 0] [Facility com.apple.system.fs] [ErrType IO] [ErrNo 13] [IOType Read] [PBlkNum 9220920] [LBlkNum 89824] [FSLogMsgID 338152298] [FSLogMsgOrder First]
9/24/09 4:40:19 PM kernel error writing the journal header!
9/24/09 4:40:19 PM kernel disk5s1: media is not present.
9/24/09 4:40:20 PM kernel jnl: disk5s1: close: journal 0x8183c18, is invalid. aborting outstanding transactions
9/24/09 4:40:24 PM kernel USBF: 1084.621 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:40:24 PM kernel USBF: 1084.652 [0x7ff7100] The IOUSBFamily is having trouble enumerating a USB device that has been plugged in. It will keep retrying. (Port 2 of hub @ location: 0xfd000000)
9/24/09 4:40:24 PM kernel USBF: 1084.652 [0x7ff7100] The IOUSBFamily is having trouble enumerating a USB device that has been plugged in. It will keep retrying. (Port 2 of hub @ location: 0xfd000000)
9/24/09 4:40:24 PM kernel USBF: 1084.652 [0x7ff7100] The IOUSBFamily is having trouble enumerating a USB device that has been plugged in. It will keep retrying. (Port 2 of hub @ location: 0xfd000000)
9/24/09 4:40:30 PM kernel USBF: 1090.621 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:40:30 PM kernel USBF: 1090.621 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:40:36 PM kernel USBF: 1096.621 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:40:36 PM kernel USBF: 1096.621 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:40:42 PM kernel USBF: 1102.621 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:40:42 PM kernel USBF: 1102.621 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:40:48 PM kernel USBF: 1108.621 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:40:48 PM kernel USBF: 1108.621 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:40:54 PM kernel USBF: 1114.621 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:40:54 PM kernel USBF: 1114.621 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:41:00 PM kernel USBF: 1120.622 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:41:00 PM kernel USBF: 1120.622 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:41:05 PM kernel USBF: 1126.622 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:41:05 PM mDNSResponder[16] ERROR: mDNSPlatformWriteTCP - send Broken pipe
9/24/09 4:41:05 PM mDNSResponder[16] tcpConnectionCallback: error writing
9/24/09 4:41:05 PM mDNSResponder[16] tcpConnectionCallback: error writing
9/24/09 4:41:12 PM kernel USBF: 1132.622 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:41:12 PM kernel USBF: 1132.622 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:41:18 PM kernel USBF: 1138.622 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:41:18 PM kernel USBF: 1138.622 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:41:24 PM kernel USBF: 1144.622 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:41:24 PM kernel USBF: 1144.622 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
9/24/09 4:41:30 PM kernel USBF: 1150.622 AppleUSBEHCI[0x7dd2000]::Found a transaction which hasn't moved in 5 seconds on bus 0xfd, timing out! (Addr: 0, EP: 0)
The USB device is a Cruiser Micro 16gb thumb drive.
Thanks for any help.

External drives not ejecting properly

I'm using my macbook as a desktop system and a portable - I'm running two drives off of a powered USB 2.0 hub when it's set up at home. I eject the drives properly, but when I wake the machine up I get device removal errors. Wondering if there's an issue with running the drives off a hub or if anyone has had this issue running an external drive straight off the ports in the macbook.

Worked with the nice folks at my local genius bar... there was issue with the way the drive powers itself that was causing it to re-mount, thus the error. If you're having this problem either shut down your system completely before you disconnect or disconnect immediately after you unmount the drive.

Time Machine reverts to Macintosh HD after external drive is ejected

I've seeing a problem with Time Machine with one of my external drives. Here's my setup:
MBP 15"
OSX 10.7.4
Work external drive - Seagate GoFlex, via USB
Home external drive - Western Digital Green, via USB
I had been using both home and work drives as Time Machine backups, and things were working fine. I would have to re-designate the appropriate Time Machine backup drive when I changed locations, but everything was working.
The problem:
When I attach the work drive and point Time Machine to the drive, it works. When I eject the work drive, the Time Machine prefs panel shows "Time Machine - work" in greyed out text as the target drive, reflecting that the drive is not available.
When I attach the home drive and point Time Machine to the drive, it works. But when I eject the home drive, the Time Machine prefs panel shows "Macintosh HD" in normal text as the target drive. Worse, I think it actually attempts to back up to the internal drive, because at the next Time Machine backup interval, I get a "The identity of the backup disk has changed" error from Time Machine.
I've tried a full reset of Time Machine by deleting the prefs file. I've also tried verifying the home external disk. The problem persists. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

stevekim wrote:
I did indeed have the /Backups.backupdb folder, but deleting it did not solve the problem. I thought that was the local backup folder (disabled by executing "tmutil disablelocal")?
No, Local Snapshots are in a hidden .MobileBackups folder. The /Backups.backupdb folder was created by Time Machine trying to make actual backups to the internal HD.
EDIT: See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #30 for the gory details.
Reformatting the WD Time Machine partitiion and resetting Time Machine (turning off TM, deleting the prefs file, restarting) seems to have fixed the problem, though.
Curious. Keep an eye on it, especially when the backup drive isn't available, and a backup is scheduled. That seems to be when the trouble starts.
From your first post:
I had been using both home and work drives as Time Machine backups, and things were working fine. I would have to re-designate the appropriate Time Machine backup drive when I changed locations
Stay tuned on that one. The rumor sites say that can be automated in Mountain Lion. See the last point in the How it Works section here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Machine_(Mac_OS)
Message was edited by: Pondini

Is there a way to have external drives automatically eject on shutdown?

Hello. First post. I've owned this laptop for about eight months now. I just purchased a second external firewire drive, and today I forgot to eject either drive before shutting down. The Mac froze up, and I had to use Applejack (which I had luckily just installed) to bring it back. I'm worried I'll do this again, and with a videography business, this could result in a possible loss of data. I've googled and looked around here a bit...but as the post title says...is there a way to add this functionality to a Mac to avoid this in the future? Thanks.

Hi Alex Matson-
Greetings and welcome to the Apple Discussion boards
As mentioned, selecting "shutdown" should gracefully close the drives.
As an aside, I have a video business, and I find that 3 backups of all of my data has saved my rear more than once. One backup sits on my desktop, one is in a fireproof safe, and one is stored at a different location entirely.
Should something catastrophic happen, like a flood, you will still have all of your data available on the off-site drive.
You should also power your drives from the same UPS as your Mac.
Luck-
-DaddyPaycheck

Device removal error: why does external HD randomly eject?

I just picked up leopard, and a vantex enclosure and a 500 gb hitatchi enclosure. Whenever I try to run time machine, the external hard drive unmounts but the hard drive is still running. When formatted it coupe times over as a mac OS Extended (Journaled) with a GUID Partition Table. But its still giving me problems. Also when I try to verify or repair the disk it does the same thing. It seems like when its spinning up really fast it doesn't work right.
please help!!

I have the exact same problem (but I'm not using time machine)
Checkout my thread here:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=7074847#7074847

OT: Thunderbolt drive not ejected properly error message

Hello all: I've got a MBPro 17 and a less than a month old LaCie 2T Rugged Thunderbolt/USB3.0 drive that I've started using. The drive randomly ejects itself and of course at the worst times. It could either be in use or nothing going and it just ejects.
I've replaced the drive once at the Apple Store, but I think it's the OSX or ??? Any ideas?
Thanks,
Tolbert

this may be an issue with my USB hub...its USB 3.0 with two "extra" powered all the time....one HD is just a normal non powred travel drive (seagate) and had a FIT with the powered port just now. I have moved ALL external drives to the "normal" spots on the hub and see if its just the hub acting up

Lion time machine - external drive spin up causing apps to crash

I have a 1TB external drive set up for time machine backups on my 27" iMac running Lion 10.7.3 that seems to be causing my Adobe CS 5.5 suite of apps (photoshop in partiucular) to crash as the drive spins up. If an adobe application or lion/time machine is asking the drive to spin up I have no idea, but it seems random, and when it does, the adobe app(s) freeze and the beach ball from **** just spins. All other applications remain uneffected which leads me to believe it's related to a scratch disk function of some sort. I've googled high and low to find an scrap on insight into this issue and have found nothing...
Few questions:
• Why does the time machine external drive randomly spin up even though there are no backup processes running?
• Why would an adobe app would need to access an external drive?
Before anyone says it, I know I can always just eject the drives, but I'd rather keep my backups running for obvious reasons. If a complete wipe and install is the only solution recommended by the doctor, I will. It's just maddening to regularly loose work. Any help is greatly appreciated!
iMac: Mid 2010 27"
Processor 2.8 GHz Intel Core i5
Memory 8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
Graphics ATI Radeon HD 5750 1024 MB
Software Mac OS X Lion 10.7.3 (11D50)
Adobe CS 5.5
Photoshop CS5 / v12.1 x64
Illustrator CS5 / v15.1.0
InDesign CS5.5 / v7.5.2
External Drives
Firewire800: 2TB Hitachi G-Drive: http://www.g-technology.com/products/g-drive.cfm
USB: 1TB Western Digital MyPassport 0730

Set the TM drive not to spin down, I think there is a setting in the system preferences.
Could be the G drive feature,
consider making option key bootable clone drives
Most commonly used backup methods explained

Removed flash drive while ejecting and will no longer show - Help?

Not in Finder or any directory or Disk Utility or anywhere. Should be able to get at Console logs. Any chance of recovering data? This is not urgent as I should be able to source the most important files from elsewhere. It's merely a cheap little Paris St-Germain 4GB souvenier. Thanks in advance and apologies if this is in the wrong place.

Sounds like the directory got badly corrupt. That can happen any time you disconnect an external drive without ejecting it first.
Unfortunately, if it's not showing up in Disk Utility, repairing it may not be possible. You could try using DiskWarrior to repair it, or could try using something like Data Rescue to recover the data. In the latter case, you'll lose all the filenames and folder organization.

10.8.5 Supplemental Update causing external drive error?

I'm seeing a lot of discussion about 10.8.5 having a bug that caused some external drives to eject improperly. I have never had this issue, but just did the software update -- which *I believe* was the 10.8.5 Supplemental Update, because I remember it saying this:
"Fixes an issue that may cause external drives to be ejected after the computer goes to sleep"
... and now I AM getting that error message sometimes after my computer is woken from sleep! So, for me, the Supplemental Update caused the problem that others had been having, but that I'd never had, with the previous update!
I'm assuming I'm fully up to date with my software updates because, when I check, there are no updates to be found.
It's frustrating because I never had this issue, and the update that was supposed to fix it for everyone else, cause it to start happening to me.
Any help or thoughts on this would be appreciated!

Try running the combo update.
10.8.5 Combo Update

Finder crashes with External Drive on Sleep Mode

I purchased my new iMac 21,5" less than a week ago, and I haven't had a problem with it except for one that it's been bugging me a lot.
I have a LaCie 1TB Quadra d2 external drive that I use to store footage (since it's HD, the filesize won't fit in my 500TB internal hard drive), but I noticed that sometimes when LaCie external drive enters in Sleep Mode, the Finder freezes and the only two ways around this, is to force reboot, because the Finder won't answer and won't open again, or unplugging the external drive without ejecting him first, which it's not safe for me to do, because I'm afraid of hurting the device, and the files in it are pretty important.
This happens almost everytime, especially after a long time on sleep mode. I usually leave Final Cut Pro transferring files all night (since it takes a long time) so I kinda need the sleep mode, but when I wake up, Finder and Final Cut Pro won't answer.
I updated to Snow Leopard 10.6.8 on day one. Is there a way to fix this? Is it normal? I read somewhere that some users were having trouble with external drives on Sleep Mode, but I can't seem to find any further information about this problem.
Thanks!

I've got a MacBook Pro 13.3" that's a little over a month old, with a LaCie 1TB LaCie d2 Quadra with USB 3.0, #301542U and I'm suffering the same problems and a few others with it. I've got a partition on it set up as my Time Machine backup drive. I've turned off the Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible in the Energy Saver preferences but I'm still having the sleep problem with it. According to the LaCie Manual:
By default, your drive will enter Eco Mode after 30 minutes of inactivity in order to conserve energy. To exit Eco Mode, simply access data on the drive and the disk will automatically restart. You can manage this feature using LaCie Desktop Manager. Click the Eco tab.
The LaCie Desktop Manager (in my case) only takes me to the Energy Saver Preferences in OS X to adjust the time there. Turning off Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible doesn't seem to make any difference, the drive still goes to sleep after 30 minutes. However, after 15 minutes the drive seems to wake back up, but then during the next 15 minutes goes comatose (no power light). Sometimes it will go through multiples of these sleep wake cycles without going into a coma, but eventually it does go into a coma. This happens in between hourly Time Machine backups.
After locking up Finder, Disk Utility and Time Machine multiple times trying to access the drive in this state I figured out that I could cycle the power switch to regain use of it (with a Finder warning of course) but this will only lead to file corruption eventually and I shouldn't have to resort to this. I've also dismounted it, expecting it to turn off and instead it goes into an extended spin down cycle (rapidly flashing light) and never turns off (or goes to sleep or what ever it's supposed to do) and once again requires turning the power switch off.
This is just too unpredictible and unrelable for me and as soon as I get the opportunity to do a 7 pass erase I'll be returning to the place of purchase. Based on the reviews of other external hard drives a drive from another company doesn't look to be much better of a prospect so I'm not sure what I'm going to do.

External Drive HELP ASAP

Hey my western digital mybook 500gb external drive randomly when i came back to my macbook pro it said it was removed and i look its plugged in. i tried unplugging and plugging back in and ther drive wont show on my mac. also ive tried restarting my mac and a few other little things. Why wont my hard drive show? did it crash? or can i recover it.? it is still on warrenty.

Hi demarial;
Maybe in the future you will backup important data!
If your use of Tech Tool Pro does yield the results you need, you might consider download a demo copy of FileSalvage. After running the demo it will tell you what it can recover then you have to pay for it to actually recover the files for you.
Allan

External drives not dismounting/mounting

For the past few days I've been having issues with external drives. One in particular, mounted via a eSata card in my MBP, or via FW800 has the icon gray out when I eject it, but it never dismounts. After disconnecting it it won't remount until I restart the computer. Just tried to mount all my external drives after ejecting the one drive, and none of them are mounting.
This has only been a problem for a few days. No major updates to system software. I did install MS Office 2011.
ANy thoughts?

Mine take a very very long time to mount then they will not sleep even when unmounted. The firewire driver in Mavericks needs some work. If at all possible, I would use USB until the driver get's resolved.

External Drive Randomly Ejecting

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for