External hard drive keeps disconnecting and then reconnecting

External hard drive on Time Machine, running via USB keeps disconnecting. Get the pop us that the drive wasn't disconnected properly. This Mac is brand new as is the hard drive. It is a Seagate 1T Free Agent.
After a minute or two it reconnects. I've run Seagate diagnostics and it says the drive is fine.
Any suggestions?

See #A1 in [Time Machine - Troubleshooting|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/Troubleshooting.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum), for a handy widget that will display the backup messages from your logs.
See what that shows; there may be a problem with the backup, which results in TM ejecting the drive. If so, the disconnect may be a symptom, not a cause. If so, see #C2 there. If not, or if you're not sure, copy and post them here.
Also, to rule out other USB problems, disconnect everything but keyboard and mouse; connect the drive directly to your Mac (no hub).
Make sure all connections are snug and secure.
Try other ports, cables, and combinations of the two (a plug that works fine in one port may not make good contact in another one, and throw intermittent errors).

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My iphone external hard drive keeps disconnecting so it tells me I disconnected improperly. I have changed electric cord directly to outlet and usb also direct, and it still happens.

I store ALL my photos (400 events) on an external 1T hard drive. The hard drive keeps disconnecting so it get a msg telling me I disconnected improperly basically which is a serious no no. I then have to re-start. I have tried connecting directly to the wall outlet, to a super duper surge protector and also have connected the usb (was on a usb port) directly to the computer. But it continues to happen a total nusance. What do I do?

I would first contact Seagate's tech support for a possible solution. If that doesn't prove successful then I would try a different product or consider building your own.
Basic Backup
Get an external drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
Carbon Copy Cloner
Data Backup
Deja Vu
Silver Keeper
Retrospect
Super Flexible File Synchronizer
SuperDuper!
Synchronize Pro! X
Synk Pro
Synk Standard
Tri-Backup
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
Although you can buy a complete external drive system, you can also put one together if you are so inclined. It's relatively easy and only requires a Phillips head screwdriver (typically.) You can purchase hard drives separately. This gives you an opportunity to shop for the best prices on a hard drive of your choice. Reliable brands include Seagate, Hitachi, Western Digital, Toshiba, and Fujitsu. You can find reviews and benchmarks on many drives at Storage Review.
Enclosures for FireWire and USB are readily available. You can find only FireWire enclosures, only USB enclosures, and enclosures that feature multiple ports. I would stress getting enclosures that use the Oxford chipsets especially for Firewire drives (911, 921, 922, for example.) You can find enclosures at places such as;
Cool Drives
OWC
WiebeTech
Firewire Direct
California Drives
NewEgg
All you need do is remove a case cover, mount the hard drive in the enclosure and connect the cables, then re-attach the case cover. Usually the only tool required is a small or medium Phillips screwdriver.

External Hard Drive Keeps Disconnecting on its own

Ive been working on a rather large project on Final Cut Pro for some time now and my SeaGate 1tb FreeAgent external hard drive im using keeps disconnecting on me, this makes it impossible to export large files because it will disconnect before they have enough time to finish the export. Some times the hard drive will stay connected for almost an hour, but usually it will disconnect at around 30 minutes.
Ive tried setting the Energy Saver setting so neither my computer or my display will go to sleep, ever. Ive checked the external harddrive itself with disk utility several times and its always fine. Ive tried different cables, unpluging other unused usb and firewire cables, Ive upgraded my ram, just about everything i can find it the forums, and still no luck. I have other hard drives that i use that work fine. What solutions are out there? Please help.
Im using a Intel Imac 24th 2.16 Core 2 Duo with 2.5 GB of Ram.

I would first contact Seagate's tech support for a possible solution. If that doesn't prove successful then I would try a different product or consider building your own.
Basic Backup
Get an external drive at least equal in size to the internal hard drive and make (and maintain) a bootable clone/backup. You can make a bootable clone using the Restore option of Disk Utility. You can also make and maintain clones with good backup software. My personal recommendations are (order is not significant):
Carbon Copy Cloner
Data Backup
Deja Vu
Silver Keeper
Retrospect
Super Flexible File Synchronizer
SuperDuper!
Synchronize Pro! X
Synk Pro
Synk Standard
Tri-Backup
Visit The XLab FAQs and read the FAQ on backup and restore. Also read How to Back Up and Restore Your Files.
Although you can buy a complete external drive system, you can also put one together if you are so inclined. It's relatively easy and only requires a Phillips head screwdriver (typically.) You can purchase hard drives separately. This gives you an opportunity to shop for the best prices on a hard drive of your choice. Reliable brands include Seagate, Hitachi, Western Digital, Toshiba, and Fujitsu. You can find reviews and benchmarks on many drives at Storage Review.
Enclosures for FireWire and USB are readily available. You can find only FireWire enclosures, only USB enclosures, and enclosures that feature multiple ports. I would stress getting enclosures that use the Oxford chipsets especially for Firewire drives (911, 921, 922, for example.) You can find enclosures at places such as;
Cool Drives
OWC
WiebeTech
Firewire Direct
California Drives
NewEgg
All you need do is remove a case cover, mount the hard drive in the enclosure and connect the cables, then re-attach the case cover. Usually the only tool required is a small or medium Phillips screwdriver.

3 different external hard drives keep disconnecting every day -HELP

I have 3 external hard drives on my 2.7GHz Core i5 iMac. It's got 16 gigs of memory. One external drive is in a basic external case and 2 are exposed on my desk using an Adapter Converter Cable. I've never had this kind of problem with these hookups in the past. And it's completely random. They work for a day or 2 at most and then suddenly when I wake the machine 1-2 or all 3 have dropped out and I have to unplug and restart the drive. The internal drive has never done this - it has 2 partitions. It rarely happens WHEN I'm actually using the machine and it's never happened when the computer was reading or writing to the drive and caused any corruption that I know of.
It started when I first hooked them up right after I got the iMac and has been the same every day since. I can't remember if it happened with SnowLeopard or if it started when I installed Lion a day or two after I got the machine. I have not tried booting into Leopard to test that.
2 of the drives came from my old G5 and one is new - all Seagate
1T
1.5T
and 2T
Thank you for any help with this,
Jay

Jay,
No where did you mention how the EHD's are connected. Is it USB, Firewire, FW800 and if so are they connected directly to the back of the computer or via a hub. If they're USB are they bus powered or powered with external power? You need to be specific so we can begin helping.
If they're USB drives with external power and are connected directly to the back of the computer then try doing a SMC reset 2-3X.
SMC RESET
Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord and all peripherals.
Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.
Release the power button.
Attach the computers power cable.
Press the power button to turn on the computer.

USB Drives Randomly Disconnect and then Reconnect

On my laptop I have a USB drive where I keep all of my data. It is always plugged in while the laptop is in use. However a number of times the USB drive disconnects itself and then immediately reconnects. I get the notification that my Y drive has been connected. This causes problems for my synchronization application that constantly monitors changes on my C drive. I have changed all of the Power options that prevent the drive from powering down when not in use but the problem still happens. This problem happens on all of my USB ports. The external drive is a Western Digital My Passport 2 TB drive. This problem is getting to be a real nuisance. I have only had the laptop for 5 months. In searching the internet there seems to be a lot of people that have been having this problem but I couldn't find a suitable solution. I never had this problem with any previous laptops that used this external drive. The laptop is running Windows 8.1 with 12 GB RAM and a 1 TB hard drive. This is the operating system that was installed on the laptop when I purchased it. Has anyone found a fix for this type of problem? Thanks,Joyce

This is a known bug and Microsoft are working on a fix. They plan to fix this before Firefox 4 reaches release candidate phase.
A workaround is to change a preference in Firefox:
# Type '''about:config''' into the location bar and press enter
# Accept the warning message that appears, you will be taken to a list of preferences
# Locate the preference '''html5.enable''' and double-click on it to change its value to '''false'''
If you do this, remember to set the preference back to true by double-clicking on it again when Firefox 4 release candidate is made available, the bug should be fixed by then.

Is there a way to get automator to turn off dropbox if my external drive is disconnected and possibly reconnect drive and restart dropbox?

I am using my Time capsule to contain my iPhoto and some larger image folders as I have a 128gb macbook air.
I use dropbox to backup these folders using a program called MacFropAny to create links to these folders on the ext drive.
All works well until the drive is not there and dropbox has a fit and starts to delete all my folders (75gb worth)
This gets quite frustrating... I have an automator script that runs on log in to make sure that the drive is connected, this is cool, but I would like something that says something like:
if drive is disconnected > close dropbox if open > attempt to reconnect drive > if drive is reconnected restart dropbox
Is this possible to have an automator script that "listens" for a drive being disconnected and then run?
Many thanks in advance.

Yes. Sign in to the iTunes store, click below Quick Links where it says Purchased and start downloading your previous purchases.
If you have content on an iPod then this is an alternative approach:
Recover media from iPod
See this post from forum regular Zevoneer for options on moving your iPod data back to your computer.
tt2

How can I edit lightroom 5 smart previews on mac book pro (mbp) when the lightroom 5 master image files are on my external hard drive is disconnected from the mbp

How can I edit lightroom 5 smart previews on mac book pro (mbp) when the lightroom 5 master image files are on my external hard drive is disconnected from the mbp? So far when I try to disconnect the external HD from the mbp, I get the following pop up window: The disk "external hard drive A" couldn't be ejected because "Lightroom" is using it. Quit that application and try to eject this disk again. When I do that and restart Lightroom 5, the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom - Select Catalog screen pops up but doesn't list my external hard drive A as a choice.
I've reviewed Adobe's Lightroom Help | Smart Previews Lightroom 5 web page and still haven't been able to figure what I'm doing wrong. Any help would be appreciated.

Your internal HDD. by default, is named 'Macintosh HD'. From what information you supplied, it looks like there is already a Lightroom catalog installed on you local (internal) HDD using the standard naming convention Adobe uses as well as a Lightroom catalog on your external drive which you created. To be sure of which catalog Lightroom is loading when it starts up, To do this, start Lightroom as you normally would. After it starts, select the Lightroom menu item, then select the Catalog Preferences item and finally, navigate to the General tab. The Location information will tell you exactly what catalog Lightroom is opening by default. This will likely be the Photography Mac Book Pro Versions catalog on your external HDD. Once that is confirmed, you are ready to proceed. As an additional test/verification, you can shut down Lightroom and, this time, start Lightroom while holding down the ALT/OPTION key. This will cause Lightroom to pause and display a screen which will allow you to chose a different catalog to open. Navigate to the /Users/[user name]/Pictures/Lightroom folder and select the Lightroom 5 Catalog.lrcat file. When Lightroom comes up, there should be no previews or folders as this catalog should be empty. Now you can be certain which catalog is being used and which catalog has all your data and you are ready to migrate your current catalog. Shut down Lightroom.
To migrate your current catalog, use Finder to locate your Photography Mac Book Pro Versions folder on your external drive. Select the folder and select COPY from the context menu. Next, use Finder to navigate to the /Users/[user name]/Pictures/Lightroom folder on you internal HDD. You can start at the Macintosh HD level and work your way down by opening each level (Macintosh HD/Users/[user name]/Pictures). Select the /Pictures folder and then select PASTE... from the context menu. When the COPY/PASTE is complete, you should see the following files on the Macintosh HD:
Macintosh HD/Users/[user name]/Pictures/Lightroom/ and
Macintosh HD/Users/[user name]/Pictures/Photography Mac Book Pro Versions
The Macintosh HD/Users/[user name]/Pictures/Lightroom folder will contain the empty default catalog the Adobe created when Lightroom was installed and Macintosh HD/Users/[user name]/Pictures/Photography Mac Book Pro Versions will contain a copy of the catalog you created on your external HDD.
You are almost done now. Make sure your external drive is still attached for this step. Restart Lightroom using the ALT/OPTION key again. When the Select Catalog screen appears, select the Choose a Different Catalog button (lower left side). When you do, a Finder window will open to allow you to navigate to a catalog of your choosing. Navigate to Macintosh HD/Users/[user name]/Pictures/Photography Mac Book Pro Versions and select the file Photography Mac Book Pro Version.lrcat. This is the copy you just created. Select the Open button and Lightroom should start. You should see all of your previews and settings just as before. Also, in the left hand panel, all of your folder should show up and none of them should be dimmed and none of your previews should display a small exclamation point badge. Either a dimmed folder name or an exclamation point badge indicates that Lightroom can't find the associated image file. If everything looks good, go to the Lightroom menu, select Preferences and then select the General tab. Under Default Catalog, select an option to either load the LAST catalog opened or select the Users/[user name]/Pictures/Photography Mac Book Pro Versions catalog from the drop down. Shut down Lightroom and then restart it normally. This time, when Lightroom starts, you should be viewing the new copy of your catalog. You can confirm this by looking at the General tab on the Catalog Preferences screen (Lightroom/Catalog Preferences menu items). Shut down Lightroom once again and this time, eject your external drive before restarting. This time, your folders in the left hand panel will be dimmed but you should be able to work with your smart previews. If Lightroom should display a Select Catalog screen with the external drive detached, double check your settings as it indicates Lightroom is still looking at the copy of the catalog on the external drive rather than the new copy you made.
Finally, if you are seeing dimmed folders and/or exclamation point badges with the external drive attached, this indicates a problem. You can select any folder and select Update Folder Location from the context menu. This will allow you to navigate to the copy on the external drive and select it. Lightroom will then update the catalog (select to synchronize the content). This will not only clear the dimmed folder problem but also remove the exclamation point badges for all photos in that missing folder. However, it may indicate that not all went well with the copy of the catalog so make sure to verify all went well. You can use the Get Info option on the two folders. You should see the same number of files/folders for both the copy on the internal drive as well as on the external drive but you can't rely on the byte count because of the possibility of differences between the geometry of the two drives. Hope this all helps!

How do I transfer iphoto library to external hard drive keeping events intact?

Had a one to one session but forgot how to do this. I would like to transfer my iphoto library to an external hard drive keeping the folders and events intact. I figured out how to send all my photos to the hard drive but they all transfer in single images, if that makes sense, and then i have to go thru all of the 15,000 images by hand and sort them into folders. Ahhhhhhh!
When they showed me how to do this at apple I am able to open my external hard drive and see a folder labled 'iphotolibrary" and I am able to click it open and then all my events show up just like in iphoto library.
Also does your iphoto library "Trash" take up space on your HD? Forgve me if thats a dumb question but I am kind of a computer "dummy".
thanks so much. My hard drive has VERY little space left on it so I need to transfer ASAP.

I just posted this to another topic, but it applies here as well. Hopefully there's no prohibition on cross-posting on this board, my apologies to all if there is:
"I haven't read the whole thread, so someone could have already mentioned this, but I did the same thing, move my music library to an external drive. The Help articles are helpful, but only up to a point. When that didn't work, I called up AppleCare support up, and they took me through all the standard steps, and got stumped at the same point I did. Finally she suggested trying something, and that ended up doing the trick. So here in brief is what you do:
1) Copy over your "iTunes Music" folder to the external hard drive
2) Go into Advanced preferences to have iTunes look for the "iTunes Music" folder in the new location. If you're like me, your music won't appear in the Library.
3) In iTunes, go to the Library window (which is probably blank), then in a Finder window, find the icon for the "iTunes Music" folder in the new location. Drag that icon onto the Library window.
You should now see a progress window pop up showing all the songs that it's populating the Library window with."
20" Intel iMac 14" iBook G4, 233 MHz Beige G3 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

I use only two channels, have plenty of memory in my hard disk, and external hard drive, no effects, and still having problems with Garage band. Giving messages as you have too many live channels

I'm frustrated, I am doing everything you recommend, I use only two channels, have plenty of memory in my hard disk, and external hard drive, no effects, and still having problems with Garage band. Giving messages as you ave too many live channels, the disk is slow prepare...can you help?

Quote from: Richard on 15-November-07, 20:33:05
tornado2003,
What you need to do is boot into Safe Mode. Then delete the VGA Drivers.
After that boot normally and install the latest nVidia ForceWare Drivers
Take Care,
Richard
i guess you missed that:
Quote from: tornado2003 on 15-November-07, 17:26:52
ive tryed booting xp in safe mode but it just freezes after it loads up a couple of needed files .
ive even formatted my hard drive and tryed installing a fresh xp on it but it just keeps locking up when it gets to the "starting windows setup" .(this is just after it loads all the drivers from the xp cd)

Can I use an external hard drive to download and store my iTunes library?

Can I use an external hard drive to download and store my iTunes library?

Yes - in most cases you can just copy your entire library (by default C:\Users\username\Music\iTunes) to your external drive, with the result being a iTunes folder in the root of that drive with a structure like this:
Then hold down SHIFT when you start iTunes, and when you see this prompt:
click on Choose Library..., navigate to the iTunes folder on your external drive, and click Open. See turingtest2's user tip on Make a split library portable for more information, including steps you may need to take to align your library structure before moving it to an external drive - this applies if you currently have some/all of the media in your library stored outside the standard iTunes Media folders.

External hard drive gone wrong and copied everything to Imac HDD filling it completely

I have had my iMac backed up to an external hard drive for years and randomly the External hard drive is now not readable and it has seemed to copy everything to my imac hard drive filling it completely.
any ideas how to firstly fix the external drive without losing everything on there and second why it would have copied everything to the Imac?
I cant even do a restore from a back up as its all backed up to external drive and its saying its not readable.

If they're still in two folders (iTunes app and Music) on your external, can you not just copy those two back to the internal drive and expect it to work properly again? It's my understanding that music you wish to be active in iTunes must be on your internal drive.

My laptop and external hard drive both failed and got corrupter.

My laptop and external hard drive both failed and got corrupter. I've lost my quick time pro 7 and all my music, I still have my Ipod with the music on, How can I get it back on to Itunes and quick time pro back on to my PC? Many thanks.

Since your current editing workflow is based around Virtual Copies there are no actual files containing the edit data. Therefore, you'll need to use the 'Import from another catalog' option ( see File menu).

When I open firefox before connecting (via 56k modem) or if I leave a previous section open, disconnect and then reconnect, firfox does not work, it remains offline, even though internet is connected. I have to close firefox and reopen

When I open firefox before connecting (via 56k modem) or if I leave a previous section open, disconnect and then reconnect, firfox does not work, it remains offline, even though internet is connected. I have to close firefox and reopen

Thanks for the reply. I never get the option to "Restore Previous History" from History. I don't even have the box checked that asks to delete the history when Firefox closes. I don't know what's wrong, no matter what, I always lose everything. I have the box marked "Show my windows and tabs from last time" for when I open Firefox, but it never shows that, just my homepage. Also, when I check my History, it only shows the pages that I opened since I started Firefox, nothing from before. Even if I were to open up 10 pages now, close Firefox, and open it, the history would only show the homepage that opened this time, not any of the 10 pages that I opened 5 minutes ago.

On installing Maverick, should external hard drive be disconnected?

O
When I install maverick! should the external hard drive be disconnected?

You should have a current backup of your system before the upgrade.
Theoretically no you do not need to disconnect,
but I would highly recommend it since you do not want to risk anything going wrong.

Aperture and external Hard drive issue (disconnected drive)

I'm a Macbook Pro user so I work off of my external hard drive (firewire).
Whenever I start aperture w/ out the drive connected aperture auto changes the library settings. I now have my photos as referenced but yesterday I started aperture w/out the drive connected (whoops) and closed the application - a dialog popped up saying it was updating the library.
Aperture had given each referenced image (Thousands) a new 'fake' location on my laptop - it didn't copy anything tho.
So my question is:
How to stop aperture from auto changing this stuff (if we can) and how can I put back my library w/ out having to go through each image (impossible).
Thanks

I'll give it a try!
I use Aperture without connecting to my external drive all the time and no problems.
My setup is like yours, except I use USB external drive. All of my images are referenced to the external drive and my Library is on MBP drive - with previews.
Every time I quit Aperture, it updates my Library for some reason but nothing is changed. Early on, when I started using Aperture, I found that the referenced files lost connection with where the files are stored on external drive. What I did to fix it was to go to the all images on library and selected all. Then I located one of the files and chose reconnect all button. It reconnected all of my images (~10,000) quickly. This happened to me twice with version 1.5 (and maybe 1.5.1), but not since 1.5.2 release. I think this might have been a bug that Apple fixed.
Not sure what happened to your case. If this does not work, then try rebuilding the library (cmd+option and double click the library file, I think...). If that too does not solve the problem, restore library from Vault (assuming that you have one).
Good luck.
MBP Mac OS X (10.4.8) Boot Camp/XP Pro

External hard drive keeps disconnecting and then reconnecting

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