External hard drive "improper eject" after shutdown or sleeping

I have a 27", late 2012 iMac running OS X 10.8.3. I just changed my Time Machine external disk from a LaCie D2 (Lightning to Firewire 800 adaptor) to a larger Fantom GForce/3 (USB 3 directly into iMac. Not a hub.) No problems with the LaCie, it was just too small. The Fantom drive is working fine as my Time Machine, BUT...every time the iMac sleeps or is shut down, when restarted it show the incorrectly ejected warning and the drive is gone from my desktop and disk utility app. The drive is still on, but I have to turn it off and back on to have it reappear. If I eject the drive before it sleeps or is shut down, it reappers on startup as it should. I see on some forums that users have been having this problem with some drives since at least 2009. I find it hard to believe that Apple and the hard drive suppliers haven't solved this problem. I don't think I did anything wrong in reformatting the drive. There was no new driver or software with this drive. I did notice that the format is listed in the drive info as "Mac OS Extended (Case Sensitive, Journaled)". I never noticed the "Case Sensitive" before this. Is this a problem? Ejecting the drive before the machine sleeps is a pain, hard to remember and shouldn't be neccessary. I sure could use some help.

The next thing I would Suggest trying is a Safe Restart. This will clear some caches, it is possible one or more is corrupt. To restart in Safe Mode hold down the Shift key when you hear the startup tone until you see a progress bar appear. Let the machine fully boot then restart normally and test.
If that does not do it there are more things to try. Next would be creating another user account (call it TEST) and log into that acct. if the problem disappears the. You know it's a software issue related to your user account.

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External hard drive waking computer after shutdown

Hello everyone,
So I have WOL configured and working. Running kernel 3.18.2-2 on a Rampage IV Extreme motherboard. My system has been working as it should for weeks now and I decided to pick myself up a Seagate 4TB Backup Plus external hard drive. After plugging it in, my computer will not shut down and stay down from Arch whether I shutdown from the terminal or the desktop. If I boot to windows it shuts down fine. Both Wake on LAN and Power on by PCIE are enabled in bios or WOL will not work.
If I disable Power on by PCIE the system shuts down normally and stays down(but WOL will not work). If I pull the power on the Seagate hard drive and/or unplug the usb from the computer it will also shutdown and stay down. It does not matter which usb port on the computer I use they all exhibit the same behavior. I do have 3 other Western Digital external hard drives that do not cause any issues. I am completely stumped as to how to fix this.
Any input is much appreciated.
Thanks.

The next thing I would Suggest trying is a Safe Restart. This will clear some caches, it is possible one or more is corrupt. To restart in Safe Mode hold down the Shift key when you hear the startup tone until you see a progress bar appear. Let the machine fully boot then restart normally and test.
If that does not do it there are more things to try. Next would be creating another user account (call it TEST) and log into that acct. if the problem disappears the. You know it's a software issue related to your user account.

Why do my two external hard drives require "ejection" prior to shutdown?

Why do my two external hard drives require "ejection" upon shutdown?

Problem solved. I had plugged in my external hard drives into a USB card. I switched my two printers to the USB card and plugged in the two hard drives into the computer's USB outlets and now NO improper eject messages. What a relief!!! Thanks again.

WD external hard drive not recognized after improper eject

I have a WD Passport external hard drive that I've been using for a while with my MacBook Pro. The cord got yanked, causing the drive to improperly eject. Now my computer isn't recognizing the HD. Help! Of course EVERYTHING important is on this drive!
I tried plugging it into a Mac desktop, which also did not recognize the drive.
I plugged a different Passport into my MacBook Pro, and it was recognized, so I know it's not the USB Port that's causing the problem.
I used the cord from the HD that mounted with the problem HD. Didn't mount with the new cord. So I know it's the passport that's causing the problem, not the MacBook, not the USB port, not the cord.
I ran the disk utility, and the HD does not appear...It is powering up though- the light on the HD is lighting up. Oh please help!
Did I kill my disk? Of course I just moved my entire iPhoto library to this location, and I haven't backed it up yet....

No. It may just require a 00 Phillips driver depending upon the enclosure. Do the swap on a towel so that the little screws don't bounce away from you. You will have to pull the HDD out from the connecting plug. Do it in a straight line,don't bend it, and you may have to slowly increase pressure to get it out of the connecting plug.
It's not rocket science.
Ciao.

External hard drive not ejected properly?

Hi.
I've just bought a 1 Tb Hitachi external hard drive, to use for Time machine back up.
It's connected using the supplied USB 2 cable.
It installed OK but whenever my mac goes to sleep and I reawaken it, the message appears that the disk was not ejected properly and that next time I should go to finder etc etc.
Could I be damaging the data on the drive? Maybe even - Heaven forbid - lose it?
Thanks

Jim586 wrote:
Hi.
I've just bought a 1 Tb Hitachi external hard drive, to use for Time machine back up.
It's connected using the supplied USB 2 cable.
It installed OK but whenever my mac goes to sleep and I reawaken it, the message appears that the disk was not ejected properly and that next time I should go to finder etc etc.
Could I be damaging the data on the drive? Maybe even - Heaven forbid - lose it?
Hi, and welcome to the forums.
Yes, an improper disconnect can damage the directory structure on the disk. Do a +*Repair Disk+* per #A5 in the Time Machine - Troubleshooting *User Tip,* also at the top of this forum.
I'd start by checking with Hitachi's web site: see if there are updated drivers and/or firmware for Snow Leopard. Even though you just bought it, it may have been in stock somewhere for a while and not have the latest goodies.
Also see if there's an automatic sleep or "spin down" feature on the drive that you can adjust or disable.

Thunderbolt external hard drives unexpectedly eject

Aloha, This is my first post to the community and I would greatly appreciate any help.
I run two thunderbolt external hard drives: 3 TB Seagate Backup Plus and a 2 TB LaCie lessee drive.
For several months, both drives will eject for no apparent reason. Recently, the 3 TB Seagate drive will only periodically mount. I can feel the drive spin and a light will go on, but it does not mount. This is a partitioned drive and on one partitions is a very large Aperture library, and being able to have access to these assets is becoming a concern.
Additionally, I have been able to get the Seagate drive to boot, but was only able to see one of its partitions. When I ran Disk Utility, the drive unexpectedly ejected.
Steps taken to address the issue
I have done numerous shutdowns to include unplugging the power cord from the computer, depressing the start button for 15 seconds, plugging in the power cord and waiting 30 seconds before powering up the machine, then plugging in the power cord to the hard drive, and then the thunderbolt cord to the computer, and have used two different thunderbolt cords, in addition to resetting system preferences and cleaning cachet's.
Computer:
27 inch iMac (three years old)
OS 10.9.5
3.4 GHz, Intel Core i7
16 GB 1333 MHz DDR 3
External Hard Drive
Vendor Name: Seagate
Device Name: GoFlex Desk Adapter Thunderbolt
Route String: 3
Firmware Version: 26.0
Port (Upstream):
Status: Device connected
Link Status: 0x2
Port Micro Firmware Version: 0.2.5
Cable Firmware Version: 0.1.22
Port:
Status: No device connected
Link Status: 0x7
Port Micro Firmware Version: 0.2.5
I am no expert: essentially I know enough to get into trouble. Might the issue be the iMac thunderbolt connection, given both drives sporadically eject? or might it be the thunderbolt connector that the drive sits in, given that I can occasionally get the drive to mount?
Any and all thoughts are greatly appreciated!
Mahalo nui loa (Thank you very much)

Aloha,
It was a long week. Here is an update.
Had the opportunity to go to the Apple Store yesterday and purchase new thunderbolt cables, and hooked everything up this morning.
I disconnected the Seagate drive from the sled, and brushed the contacts.
The Seagate hard drive did not boot on my iMac and Disk Utility could not see it. That said, when booted to my wife's iMac, Disk Utility could see the drive, but I could not verify or repair it. The data from my wife's iMac is attached.
Also, I tried to run Data Rescue 4. It would not see the drive. I do have Disk Warrior, if that is a reasonable option to try.
Additionally, the LaCie (now connected to my iMac with a new thunderbolt cable) has not yet been ejected. The computer has gone to sleep several times and I have awakened it.
I very much appreciate your thoughts and time, And I look forward to your thoughts, To include any experience in getting the data off of the Seagate. It contains seven years worth of photographs, which I would hate to lose. I also got the message about redundant backups. There may be some of the backup in Crash Plan.
Mahalo nui loa
WRL

My External hard drive keeps ejecting randomly in Snow Leopard. How do I stop this, and prevent it from happening?

I'm currently running a clean install of Snow Leopard version 10.6.8, and I have done nothing but attempt to mount my external hard drive, which is a Fantom 2 TB Greendrive connected via eSATA through an ExpressCard.
It performed flawlessly in Leopard, and I had no issues with it whatsoever. Then, I performed a clean install of Snow Leopard (erased the drive, and installed via DVD), and when everything had finished, I brought up a finder window, mounted my External Hard drive, and attempted to drag a folder to the desktop. It got to about 15%, and froze. Then, a few seconds later, it told me that I had removed it without ejecting it safely.
It continues to do this every time I try to move a large file to my cleanly installed internal hard drive. It varies on the amount of time it takes to 'eject'. Sometimes the file will get almost halfway there, and then the progress freezes, the 'eject' error is thrown, and my drive dismounts.
The file is about 6.2 GB, and it's vitally important to my livelihood to get this drive working reliably. (It contains CS5 (legitimate copy), as well as extremely important personal files, and i'm a freelance Web Designer and Developer, as well as writer and blogger.)
Short Version:
OS: 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard, clean install)
External: 2TB Fantom Greendrive (eSATA through ExpressCard)
Issue: Randomly ejects drive while transferring larger files.
Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks so much!
Taylor Daughtry

I have the same issues, The drivers are not great for eSATA right now. I think apple is puting all there effort into Thunderbolt. Ther should be a Thunderbolt to eSATA adaptor soon, untiull then you might want to get a firewire enclosure for you drive as I have had to do.
Maybe you can blog about my app? www.BeautifulClockRadio.com
Mark

External hard drive not recognized after power outage

After a power outage last night my WD external hard drive is not showing up. The power light is on on the drive, the DVR is working normally, except my external drive is not showing up. I unplugged power from the DVR and restarted it, but no change.

I have a 2G Samsung drive in Rosewell external encloser running for over a year. Two times have lost power and DVR would not recongize external drive. The procedure I used was to reboot twice via menu>settings>customer support>in home agent>reboot STB. Mine required two resets, the first reboot looks like DVR recongizes drive but does show as available but second reboot shows disc activity during last part boot up of box then external would show with all recordings and normal operation. I have not lost any recordings.

Lacie External Hard Drive Not Recognized After It Previously Was

I have a 1 Tb Lacie Big Disk External Hard Drive that I have used for a couple years now. I have a Mac Pro, an iMac and a G5 computer that I have previously used with it. After I transferred it between computers yesterday suddenly it will not show up on any of the computers. I have tried different cables and inputs, computers, other hard drives with the same cables (they worked), restarting the computers, etc. The hard drives powers on like normal and you can hear it running, the blue light comes on in the front, but it never gets the disk loaded on the computer. There is a "auto/on/off" button on the back that I have tried switching between but nothing seems to work. Please let me know if this is a common problem and any way to get it to work as I would prefer not to lose the information on the hard drive, especially when it seems to be functioning just fine aside from not appearing on the computer.

Even backups need backups too.
And a 'good' case is one where you can pulll the drive out and pop it into your Mac pro drive bay.
power supply bricks are known issue.
Mac OS updates that affect those models.
LaCie almost by their own invented the term and idea "reset firewire bus" routine after all.
Years and you can assume not forever but eventually it could and will fail.
I'd pick up a "spare" or replacement unit, one with eSATA/FW800/USB3
http://www.macsales.com/firewire
CallDigit 2 x SATA plus 2 x USB3 $139 - USB3 card and interface works better even on legacy (how long and old is USB2 now?) USB drives.

External Hard Drive not working after installing mavericks

After installing mavericks, I hooked up my external hard drive,
and it would not show up on the computer. Tried checking if
it showed in utilities, also a no show.
Should I uninstall the ntfs software which is a few years
old and instal a newer version?
Looking for a solution which doesn't involve reformatting my nearly full
1TB EHD, please :)

I think I have version 10.8.6 of mavericks, not 10.9.

External Hard Drive not recognised after horrible crash and reformat.

There's yet another problem with my MBP.
First of all this happened: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=969838&tstart=0
Since I got it fixed I bought a 500GB Freecom external Hard-drive and used it to back up all my stuff. It was a case of plugging it into the USB port and it mounted on the desktop. I've had it for about a month.
I've only just got my MBP back from getting the keyboard replaced, then on Saturday night it crashed. And kept crashing. Then it wouldn't boot. Then it crashed when booting. Then it took me to a command prompt. I reset all the parameters laid out in the troubleshooting guide. I managed to boot in safe mode, but my Freecom drive wouldn't mount anymore. But it kept crashing and crashing. I finally managed to boot from the installation CD and I reformatted the drive and installed OS X (Tiger) afresh. But now my Freecom drive won't show up on the desktop at all!
I ran a Hard Ware test after the reformat, and the code 4MEM/2/40000000 came up, then again, 1FCA8574, then 41530574.
When I had the Freecom plugged in it would show in System profiler but not mounted on the desktop.
What is wrong? I am really annoyed because my Warranty ran out yesterday and I'm only after getting it back from Apple to get the keyboard replaced!
Please help!
(PS - I have Leopard on its way to me, would installing this help?)

(PS - I have Leopard on its way to me, would installing this help?)
Not likely with all the bugs and issues going on with it...

ITunes on Macbook Air doesn't recognise external hard drive once ejected

I just bought MacBook Air less than two weeks ago and I'm loving it and I successfully mapped my iTunes to my music library, which is stored on an external hard drive. Howeve, whenever I eject the external hard drive to use the MacBook Air in a mobile setting and then reconnect it, my iTunes doesnt remap to the library. This never happened on my PC so I was wondering if there was a work-around/solution and if this is a common problem?

Think ive just found the problem.
It seems as though I needed to "unlock" the hard drive by useing the unlock icon in the WD icon on the desktop.
I forgot I had made a password for it and also didnt realise I had to enter the WD software that comes with the hard drive which automatically appears on the desktop when you turn it on or plug it in.

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?

Time achine. Each time I wake up my Mac. it says that I did not eject the disk properly. Do I have to eject the external hard drive before putting the Mac. to sleep?

Time Machine. Each time I wake up my Mac. it says that I did not eject the disk properly. Do I have to eject the external hard drive each time I put the Mac. to sleep?

If you do eject or disconnect that external drive before sleep, do you ever get that message?
Some Drives & chipsets will not work right with sleep, what brand/model is it?

External hard drive not recognized after time machine locked up

I was backing up to an external hard drive (300GB Western Digital) and time machine locked up. I had to shut down the computer and restart. Now the external hard drive does not show up on the desktop?
I can see it in disk utility but I am not able to mount or unmount the disk, I keep getting an error that the disk is in use. I tried to erase/reformat the disk and no luck.
Any suggestions?
Thanks for the help

KTM450rider wrote:
Do I need to boot from the install DVD?
this is often the easiest and eliminates any "busy drive" problems. what's wrong with booting from the install DVD? takes a couple of minutes.
My main hard drive is OK... the drive that I am having problems with is an external hard drive that I was using to back up my lap top. I just want to get the external drive reformatted, but disk utility will not erase it. I get an error that disk utility shut down, "please check the drive and make sure that the drive is not in use or programs are still running"
Is their a way to do a hard or forced reformatting of an external hard drive, I don't care about the information on the drive
I also tried disk warrior to recover the info on the disk and all it does is crash my mac pro????
Thanks again for the help

External hard drive "improper eject" after shutdown or sleeping

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