External HDs Unmount Randomly

I have 2 External Hard Drives...one is a 180gb FW Lacie about 2 years old, and the second is a 500gb FW Fantom Drives about 3 months old.
I upgraded to Leopard about a month ago and ever since, both HDs are randomly un-mounting from the desktop with the "(!)Device Removal" dialog coming up. I've searched other forums and haven't come up with any good answers. I haven't lost any data, and the hard drives seem to stay mounted while I'm reading/writing to them. But, while they are sitting idle they seem to unmount and then remount minutes later completely spontaneously, without any recognizable pattern. I should mention that both HDs are hooked up through a 20" apple DVI display and then to my Powerbook. I would think maybe that it was the HD if it was only one of them, but it's both.
More than anything it's an annoyance at this point because I haven't lost any data, but I don't want the problem to get any worse and cause me to lose anything.
If anyone could help me out it would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Scott

How, more precisely, is everything interconnected? For example, is the LaCie Firewired to the display, and the Fantom Firewired to the LaCie?
I'm not on Leopard, so do not know issues there. LaCie power supplies have a poor history. I can conjecture that if the LaCie power goes bad, and the other drive is daisy chained, that both could go offline, until the supply "recovers."
In other words, try removing the LaCie completely. You might also try the drives direct to the Mac, bypassing the display.

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WD MyBook or My Book unmounting randomly

I work for a Mac Support company in NYC, where we setup/teach/troubleshoot for homes or small businesses all over the city. However, I'm stumped by some recent issues with the WD 1TB My Book drives we've been purchasing for clients. In the past, WD has always been a reliable brand, so I'm wondering if anyone else is having these problems, or if someone thinks it might be Leopard related.
Running Leopard on all machines, recently 2 or 3 of the My Book 1TB drives have started unmounting randomly. But of course since Time Machine is supposed to be a "set it and forget it" solution, the client doesn't notice this until we get there (which is about once every couple weeks), and at that point they may have lost a week or more of backups (not a huge deal, but they're still not getting the full convenience and functionality of Time Machine). The drive, however, seems to be "on", and running, though not mounted (and does not show up in Disk Utility). So, to fix this, we simply turn it off and on again, and it shows up fine. Sometimes we have to do more than that, like disconnect it, turn it off, reconnect it, etc. I've had this happen on different machines, all running Leopard, but all with the WD My Book 1TB drive (though different My Book drives). Most of these drives are connected using Firewire 800, but some are using 400.
Unfortunately, after recommending these drives to numerous clients, I've since had to return 2 of them because 1 of them mounted sporadically and for the most part, not at all, and also was very hard to get to stay powered up, and the other one wouldn't turn on at all (lemon, bad power button). Had I had these problems from the outset, I may have recommended other drives. However, now, I'm hoping against hope that it's just Leopard, and not just horribly made drives! Unfortunately, I don't have a Tiger machine at most of the client homes to test it out on.
HOPEFULLY this is not a problem with the drives, which I have read only good reviews about, but rather is a problem with Leopard, which I assume will be updated in January (10.5.2) with some sort of fix. However, any advice or suggestions others have would be appreciated.
Thanks!
Ryan

Would the problem possibly be this sleep issue?
http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/popupadp.php?p_faqid=1697&pcreated=1194028789
Answer ID 1697
Question
+ An external hard drive connected via FireWire (1394a/1394b) does not resume operation after a Macintosh computer resumes from sleep or startup.+
*+ Answer+*
*+ Problem:+*
+An external hard drive connected via FireWire 400/800 (1394a/1394b) does not power on or resume operation when connected to a Macintosh computer when the computer resumes from sleep mode or when the computer is started. Cause:+
+This issue is caused by the external hard drive's built in auto on/off functionality not correctly receiving a command from the computer system to wake from a power saver mode. Resolution:+
+To resolve this issue, please follow the directions below:+
+1. Install the Macintosh Button Manager program.+
+http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp?cxml=n&swid=56+
+2. Dismount the drive by dragging the drive icon to the trashcan on the dock before powering off the computer system.+
+USB connectivity of external hard drives on Macintosh computers do not have this issue.+

I imported pics to catalogs on different external hard drives. Later renamed external HDs. I want to combine catalogs and have my source (NEF) files all together on one drive. Can I merge cats and will new path to source files be correct if when inporti

I imported different trips to different catalogs on different external hard drives. Later renamed external HDs. I want to combine catalogs and have my source (NEF) files all together on one drive. I’m not really sure how to get those source files back and get rid of the extra long path to where the source files are now located. If I re-link files to their current catalog (many different paths to files in same catalog) can I merge (import catalogs) into one master catalog? Will the new (Master catalog) have the correct link to the source file? If not, how or can this be done?
I have tried to explain my situation as clearly as I can. Do you understand my situation?
This maybe something you don’t have time to help me with. If not can you suggest somewhere I can get an answer? I really need help. PLEEEZZZ HELP ME.
Bruce Schuerman
Norman, OK
405_514-4875 (call collect)
[email protected]

I imported different trips to different catalogs on different external hard drives. Later renamed external HDs. I want to combine catalogs and have my source (NEF) files all together on one drive. I’m not really sure how to get those source files back and get rid of the extra long path to where the source files are now located. If I re-link files to their current catalog (many different paths to files in same catalog) can I merge (import catalogs) into one master catalog? Will the new (Master catalog) have the correct link to the source file? If not, how or can this be done?
I have tried to explain my situation as clearly as I can. Do you understand my situation?
This maybe something you don’t have time to help me with. If not can you suggest somewhere I can get an answer? I really need help. PLEEEZZZ HELP ME.
Bruce Schuerman
Norman, OK
405_514-4875 (call collect)
[email protected]

I imported different trips to different catalogs on different external hard drives. Later renamed external HDs. I want to combine catalogs and have my source (NEF) files all together on one drive. I'm not really sure how to get those source files back

I imported different trips to different catalogs on different external hard drives. Later renamed external HDs. I want to combine catalogs and have my source (NEF) files all together on one drive. I’m not really sure how to get those source files back and get rid of the extra long path to where the source files are now located. If I re-link files to their current catalog (many different paths to files in same catalog) can I merge (import catalogs) into one master catalog? Will the new (Master catalog) have the correct link to the source file? If not, how or can this be done?
I have tried to explain my situation as clearly as I can. Do you understand my situation?
This maybe something you don’t have time to help me with. If not can you suggest somewhere I can get an answer? I really need help. PLEEEZZZ HELP ME.
Bruce Schuerman
Norman, OK
405_514-4875 (call collect)
[email protected]

Is there any solution (other than buying
I really think 'buying' is the best solution on this one. Ideally, you would have at least five internal hard drives.
System
Projects
Cache/Scratch
Media
Exports
Use externals and network drive only for backup.

Using Multiple External HDs for your iTunes content with one Library

Hello everyone so I have used this little trick a lot in the last few months and I thought I would share it.
I am using two 250 GB external HDs for all my iTunes files. Plus the Music on my internal HD
In order to have iTunes manage my content and store it in separate locations i.e. some on the internal HD in my MacBook and some on the external HDs at home. I had to convince iTunes that it really was all in one spot. How do you do this you ask well it is simple. Symbolic Links.
Linux has a great feature that allows you to link any two directories. Since Linux is the core of OS X a simple drag and drop of files and one Terminal command and you are on your way to separate locations for all your files and iTunes thinking it is all in the "iTunes Music" folder.
The command is as follows
ls -s "the directory where the files are" ./
this command must be run in terminal from the original location of the files after you have moved them to the trash. DO NOT EMPTY THE TRASH until you have verified that the link works or your files are safe on the external.
Below is the system that I use.
The original location of my TV Shows is my external HD labeled "iTunes Media"
The New location for my TV Shows is my second external HD labeled "iTunes TV Shows"
1. Drag and Drop the folders to the new location.
2. Move the files from the original location to the Trash.
In the Terminal window
3. cd /Volumes/iTunes\ Media/TV\ Shows/ (this is the original location for my TV Show directories)
4. ln -s /Volumes/iTunes\ TV\ Shows/"name of the show" ./
5. in iTunes I play one of the files just to make sure the link worked. It is really just a test on the first one I do not do this often but you should test a few just to make sure.
If someone needs help please email me. [email protected]
If this in not clear enough let me know and I will try and explain it better.

No answer needed Just information for the masses.

External Drive UNMOUNTING On Its Own...

Hello.
I have a quite-brand new Iomega External Drive FireWire 800 2TB, bought recently to replace my old failed drive, to be a Time Machine Drive for my iMac.
For the past few days I have observed something very very strange: This TM Drive will for no reason, unmount itself from the Desktop; Sometimes I will be at the computer and that usual warning window message about not unmounting your external drive properly will appear. But sometimes when I get back to my iMac, the ext drive has already unmounted, not sure for how long since the icon is not there anymore.
I just have to turn off and on the drive again to get it mounted.
Before this strange thing, there was a couple of times when TM failed to back up, but it was nothing serious, I just back up again and it is fine. There was once prior to this, that I re-format the drive again (GUID partition) and TM all over again.
I ran Disk Utilities and it says the drive is OK and need no repairs.
So what went wrong here? I have doubts that the drive is faulty because I just got it recently as a new replacement to a previous dead drive. Could it be the iMac itself? The OS? Or the physical FW800 port itself?
Need some advice and help, thanks and cheers

Over the last few days, I have noticed this behaviour (external drive unmounting itself), but I have a 2TB Western Digital USB2 My Book Mac Edition drive that has been working fine with Apple's Backup program since I bought the drive exactly one month ago. The Backup files have now half-filled the drive, and when Backup is attempting to save a new file the drive unmounts and the backup fails. Hers is the backup log from Console for the last couple of days (Cassini is the name of the WD external drive):
2010-11-18 11:54:05.080 Backup[22672:8537] debug: unable to test mount disk image {
"image-components" = (
"/Volumes/Cassini/Backups/Phobos - 2010.11.18-00.30.22.847.backXX/Contents/Contents/Backup.sparseimage"
"shadow-file" = "(null)";
"system-entities" = "(null)";
2010-11-18 11:54:05.107 Backup[22672:8b03] unable to gzip /Volumes/Cassini/Backups/Phobos - 2010.11.18-00.30.22.847.backXX/Contents/backup.log: file does not exist
2010-11-19 08:42:53.803 Backup[22672:bb9f] debug: unable to rename disk image {
"image-components" = (
"/Volumes/Cassini/Backups/Phobos - 2010.11.19-07.36.08.399.backXX/Contents/Contents/311805478.972355.sparseimage"
"shadow-file" = "(null)";
"system-entities" = "(null)";
2010-11-19 08:42:53.848 Backup[22672:9e3f] unable to gzip /Volumes/Cassini/Backups/Phobos - 2010.11.19-07.36.08.399.backXX/Contents/backup.log: file does not exist

Over-protected external HDs-now can't see them :(

Folks
I "protected" my External HDs in 'Ownership and Permissions" whilst my grandkids were wanting to "play" on my G5, but I must have overdone it because now I can't see them on my Desktop to UN-protect them! Can anybody help get 'em back, please?
Thanks a million
Roy

If you think you changed the drive to "no access" take a look at this discussin thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2924683&#2924683
See if that helps.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

Why can't my MacPro 10.5.8 see external HDs?

Why can't my MacPro 10.5.8 see external HDs that were previously used for backup on Time Machine on the same machine?
I tried different cables and still nothing shows up in finder.
I hooked up both drives to my my Mac Air via USB and they both show up along with the backup history.

Still haven't hunted down the installastion DVD. If it is a harware issue, then all connectors, USB, Firewire 400 and FW 800 are not functioning, yet another drive I hooked up to the FW800 works.
Does it matter what version I boot to? I have installation S/W from other Macs, but not this MP. The OS has been upgraded along the way anyway, so it isn't exactly the same as the original installation, but still Leopard.

Errors when copying files to external HDs

I'm going to try to make this as uncomplicated as possible, so please bear with me.
I have two WD Elements external HDs. I use a Belkin powered 2-port USB hub to connect them to my Airport Extreme (used as a server). I started out with one of them, a 1.5 TB, and purchased the second one when the first started to get really full. I use them exclusively for storing music files. My plan was to move files from the nearly full drive to the new one. I began moving files, folder by folder (a painstaking and time-consuming process) from the one drive to the other.
The first problem that popped up was this: in the process of copying a folder to the new drive, an error message appeared saying that the "operation could not be completed because you do not have access to some of the items." I in fact have full custom access to both drives, and am the only one who uses them. Another message I would sometimes get would be, "[file name] could not be moved because its name contains too many characters."
I found this annoying but bearable until it started happening more frequently. What's more, when a folder failed to copy completely, that would leave me with an identically named but incomplete folder in the second location. An attempt to delete it would be met by another error message, "[folder name] could not be deleted because [folder or file name] is in use.
I hope this is all clear enough. Any help would be appreciated.

Simplify the system. You have a lot of components right now and it is hard to know where the error lies. If this is a one-time major transfer of files personally I could connect them directly to the computer, get it done, then reconnect to the spaghetti of wi-fi, hubs, etc..
What format drives? Are you really running a server with intervening firmware or software, or are these simply external drives?

External HDs not mounting

My OP is Lion 10.7.5. I have two external HDs: one LACIE 1T which I use for Time Machine and a IOMEGA 500M which I use for my photos. Both of them stopped mounting when I upgraded to Lion. I can see them both in Disk Utility but grayed out. They both Verify fine in Disk Utility. When I tried to mount them with disk utility it does not work. I have tried everything that I could find here including Zap the PRAM and Reset the SMC. I also tried the terminal hack with sudo and still no solution. I can't believe both drives have been damaged at the same time. Any other potential solution?

anybody?

Internal Mail works 100% external mail works randomly

First a little about our setup. We have 3 virtualized Exchange servers, 1 Client Access and 2 Mailbox servers. All are fully updated Server 2012 r2 machines, with Exchange 2013 CU 6 installed.
Internally everything works flawlessly, 0 problems on the inside.
Externally things will randomly quit working. For instance at the moment the OWA and ECP are working, however access from the Outlook client is not working. Then at times it will all quit working, then sometimes the Outlook client works
but the OWA and ECP will not be working. Keep in mind while all this is not working on the external side everything on the internal side is working 100%.
We have a CISCO firewall and have port 443 forwarded to the Client Access server.
Any ideas? I am at a loss. We have also had a local IT support company look at it and they couldn't figure it out

Hi,
Please check following KB:
Cannot send or receive e-mail messages behind a Cisco PIX or Cisco ASA firewall
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/320027
Also try to disable SMTP fixup on Cisco for testing.
If still not working, please contact Cisco Support.
Thanks
Mavis Huang
TechNet Community Support

External HDs, Digi002 suddenly not recognized by Mac Pro or G5

I have a very strange problem that I have not seen on any of the forums. Neither of my two Macs, a G5 or a newly purchased Mac Pro, recognize any of my external hard drives or Digi002, which is a controller used by Pro Tools. I have changed the ports, cables, everything. None of them will mount or be recognized by either computer. They do not show up in Disk Utilities or System Profiler.
Neither of my two Macs, a G5 or a newly purchased Mac Pro (I just purchased this today), recognize any of my external hard drives or Digi002, which is a controller used by Pro Tools. I have changed the ports, cables, everything. None of them will mount or be recognized by either computer. They do not show up in Disk Utilities or System Profiler.
All of the five external HDs I own, the external DVD burner, and Digi002 stopped mounting/being recognized on my G5. I needed to upgrade my computer anyway, so I purchased a Mac Pro. None of the above are recognized by the Mac Pro either.
I have tried FW400, FW800, and USB slots in both computers, and none of them will mount or be recognized.
Interestingly, all three of my USB drives mount in the USB ports that will not show any of my external HDs.
_*G5 (OS10.5.8, G5 PowerMac7,2, 4G RAM):*_
- None of the four external drives or Digi002 (FW400 connection) shows up. This does not matter whether it is USB, FW400, or FW800. Only USB drives show up.
_*Mac Pro (OS10.6.6, MacPro1,1, 4G RAM)*_
- None of the external drives or Digi002 (FW400 connection) shows up. This does not matter whether it is USB, FW400, or FW800. Only USB drives show up.
- I cannot get iTunes to play through the 1/8" output.
- Pro Tools 9.0.0 does not have input/output, and of course, does not recognize Digi002.
Thanks for any help you can give.
Message was edited by: elevenshadows

Your new Mac Pro, by default, boots 64-bit kernel mode; requires 64-bit drivers or you will need to switch to 32-bit mode. At least to test.
Non-system drives are best formatted with the latest OS; and use GUID rather than Apple Partition Map.
Between a new Mac, new OS and all the changes, try a very simple approach.
Also, hope that you didn't migrate / import or use Setup to bring applications over to the Mac Pro; and don't use the G5 drives until you can reformat those to GUID.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=435350
http://macperformanceguide.com/SettingUp-Kernel64.html

Time machine fails, now can't eject any external HDs

A series of backup related problems have occurred:
Upgraded to Lion and then TM failed to backup: " Error while copying to backup disk" (using Lacie d2 Quadra HD that has been performing well for 2 years)
I also have a second Iomega MiniMaxHD with a carbon copy clone of my Snow Leopard mac on one partition and a second partition with other iphoto/.itunes/ document backup and now I cannot copy my iphoto library to this HD for a backup: " Operation could not be completed because the item "iphoto Library" is in use", even though all applications are off. Tried multiple times and the transfer of the iphoto library always fails midway through.
I have spent ~8 hours websearching and troubleshooting, including just about all of the TM Troubleshooting steps listed by Pondini
(pondini.org/TM/Troubleshooting) and just need some advice on what to do now because now I am afraid that i have lost both my TM backup and my ability to backup to other drives because a new problem has arisen: everytime I try to load an external HD I can't eject it: can't eject because error message says that the "Finder is using" the external HD and then I have to Force Eject, risking data loss.
I have so far tried: restart mac, reset PRAM, unplug/verify and repair disk multiple times for all of the external HDs as well as my Macintosh HD; I have erased the Lacie HD and reformatted it while rebooting from Lion Recovery HD and then TM still failed; I have also tried deleting from the Library my TM plist as well as my iphoto p.list. I even tried using a brand new Iomega Minimax HD and TM still failed
I have Lion 10.7.4, 2.66 GHz Intel Core i5, 8 gb RAM
Thanks for any help you can give me!

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It’s unlikely to solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
The purpose of this exercise is to determine whether the problem is caused by third-party system modifications that load automatically at startup or login. Disconnect all wired peripherals except those needed for the test, and remove all aftermarket expansion cards. Boot in safe mode and log in to the account with the problem. 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).
Note: If FileVault is enabled under Mac OS X 10.7 or later, you can’t boot in safe mode.
Safe mode is much slower to boot and run than normal, and some things won’t work at all, including wireless networking on certain Macs.
The login screen appears even if you usually 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.
Test while in safe mode. Same problem(s)?
After testing, reboot as usual (i.e., not in safe mode) and verify that you still have the problem. Post the results of the test.

Use 2 external HDs with Time MAchine

Hi all
Would appreciate a bit of advice on using Time Machine with OSX 10.6.8
I decided a few months ago to use two external hard drives for my time machine backups - the idea being that every weekend I would swap them over and keep one at work rather than at my home - so that if my home burns down or I get burgled and the HD is stolen, I only lose a weeks worth of data at worse.
I'm using 2 x 2TB external HDs, each partitioned into 2 equal spaces, to take backups off my iMac and my Macbook Pro.
My question is: is there anything I should be concerned about with this approach? Will it result in watertight backups?
It seems to be working alright but two things concern me a bit:
1/ Every time I swap the disks over I get a warning message "The identity of the backup disk has changed since previoius backup"
2/ The amount backed up every week seems a lot more than I would have expected to have changed in a week ... this week about 80GB on the Macbook and 7GB on the iMac ... but maybe I don't fully appreciate the amount of data changes that occur over a week long period?
Any advice or thoughts much appreciated

cjexpat,
Check out this link for Pondini's site, he is the resident guru on TM, under Gory Details> FAQ's check out #4, #9, #27, #27...
Tons of info here.Also check the trouble shooting.
http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html
Hope this will help

I have two external HDs, I plugged both in my iMac. I can open both but I can't copy or move from one to the other any help?

I have two external HDs, I plugged both in my iMac. I can open both, I cn move files to my mac. but I can't copy or move files from one EHD to the other EHD any help?

I assume your External HDDs are formatted in NTFS. With this format OSX can see files and copy from but cant copy or move to those devices. You need to install any third party software to enable both way copy/move feature. You can use TUXERA NTFS in OSX. It is fantastic software to solve your problem.

External HDs Unmount Randomly

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