USB Hard drive problems after sleep/computer inactivity

Hi
I am the proud owner of a 2009 iMac after making the plunge and switching from my PC.
I am using my old Freecom 3.5" Classic 1TB external USB hard drive for extra storage and have reformatted one of the partitions to Mac OS extended (journaled) for use with time machine. i have left the other partitions in NTFS mode because I occasionally dual boot into windows. I have noticed that when I put the iMac to sleep and reactivate it or leave it unattended for a while the external drive powers down and cannot be recognised without switching it on off & on again. Sometimes the drive icons disappear from my desktop and other times they remain but without any icons inside the finder window when I open them. I also get the warning messages about not ejecting the drives properly and am worried I corrupt the data on them.
I have done a quick bit of research and have found that other people have described this problem with various brands of USB drives, however I can't find a definitive answer!
Does anyone have one? Your help would be much appreciated!
Thanks in advance!

I have the same exact problem... I know other people have the same issue; I've done research on the internet and we're not alone. Just no response from Apple or suggestions from anyone else. I find myself just mounting the disk as needed to eliminate the possibility of losing any data. I then use disk utility to remount when needed as opposed to shutting the drive down.

Similar Messages

I had backed up my I-tunes files to an external hard drive but after my computer crashed when I try to reload from the hard drive the message comes up saying I-tunes library cannot be read because it was created by a newer version. Help please!

I had backed up my I-tunes files to an external hard drive but after my computer crashed and I restored it when I try to reload from the hard drive the message comes up ""I-tunes files cannot be read because it was created by a newer version of I-tunes". Help Please

Upgrade the version of itunes on the new computer
Itunes.com for free download.
Peace

USB Hard Drive Disappears after 10.6.3 update

My Samsung S2 640 GB USB portable hard drive is missing from Desktop, Finder and Disk Utility-- but visible in System Profiler after 10.6.3 update. It was fine before the update.
Plugged directly into rear of iMac, I changed cables and slots-- no joy. Even tried a double USB cable as there is no external power supply.
Four other USB HDs work just fine in all slots om the iMac , and this Samsung S2 works fine in my MacBook SL 10.6.3
I bought an identical Samsung S2 and it had the same problems-- so it's not the drive.
Suggestions?
Message was edited by: Patrick Cleburne

Boot from your install disc & run Repair Disk from the utility menu. To use the Install Mac OS X disc, insert the disc, and restart your computer while holding down the C key as it starts up.
Select your language.
Once on the desktop, select Utility in the menu bar.
Select Disk Utility.
Select the disk or volume in the list of disks and volumes, and then click First Aid.
Click Repair Disk.
Restart your computer when done.

Early 2009 Mini's internal hard drive slow after sleep

I'm posting this in the hope that somebody else may have the same problem, and may have a fix. My Mac Mini doesn't go into full sleep, usually it just shuts off the monitor. And that doesn't bother me, because I know it's on account of my third-party mouse and keyboard.
What does bother me is that after waking from sleep, the mini is very sluggish. Anything that requires you access to the internal hard drive results in a spinning beach ball and bouncing Application icons in the dock. A quick check of the activity Monitor showed very little going on CPU–wise. If one application that might have been able to shed some light on the subject, Drive Genius, was unable to work on the internal drive because it was the boot drive. I would've had to reboot, regarding new would have solved the problem.
At that point I gave up and decided to restart the machine so I can get some work done. As soon as I selected the “restart” from the Apple menu, got a kernel panic. At this point I'm concerned about the integrity of the internal drive. The mini is only about a year old, and I have AppleCare, but I'm hoping it is not that serious. The drive checks out in Disk Utility, BTW.
Any ideas?

The keyboard is a Macally Bluetooth (full size) keyboard. I bought it because I didn't like the little Apple BT kbd. No special drivers for the kdb.
The mouse is a Targus BT mouse, and it does have a System Preferences pane because it has 2 programmable buttons on the side (besides left, right, and center/scroll).
The system is set up as a server as well as my personal machine, so it has "wake for network access" checked in Energy Saver settings. It never goes to sleep fully unless I turn off the kbd and mouse and then push the power button. Then it pulses. Otherwise, it just turns off the monitor and stays awake, I assume.
Often I leave Safari and Mail running, and I know Mail is constantly getting stuff because both accounts are IMAP accounts. But even when those apps are closed, it still doesn't fully sleep. I have it set to display sleep in 5 min, complete sleep in 10, and to put HD to sleep when idle.
Hope those answers help, thanks for taking the time to respond!
K.

EXTERNAL USB HARD DRIVE problem

I have a Toshiba external hard drive model PH3100U-1EXB.
This morning, my computer cannot see it anymore and the status light is blinking rapidly. The manual says to contact Toshiba if this occurs so can anyone give me more info on what happened and if recovery is possible?
thanks

Try following these suggestions:
How To: Fix USB Problems in Windows 8, Windows 7, and Windows Vista
- Peter

Maxtor USB hard drive problems

I cannot for the life of me configure my kernel to see my usb Maxtor hard drive correctly, I've booted into knoppix a few times to see if it works and yes it does. It registers as /dev/sda1 and I can run cfdisk on it no problem.
But on my box all dmesg says is..
usb 1-1: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
ehci_hcd 0000:00:10.3: Unlink after no-IRQ? Different ACPI or APIC settings may help.
usb 1-1: khubd timed out on ep0in
usb 1-1: khubd timed out on ep0out
usb 1-1: khubd timed out on ep0out
usb 1-1: device not accepting address 2, error -110
usb 1-1: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 3
usb 1-1: khubd timed out on ep0in
usb 1-1: khubd timed out on ep0out
usb 1-1: khubd timed out on ep0out
usb 1-1: device not accepting address 3, error -110
usb 1-1: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 4
usb 1-1: khubd timed out on ep0in
It's not the kernel version because I've downloaded 2.6.7 and installed it and it does the same thing.
I took a look at knoppix' lsmod and tried to emulate that as closely as I can on my box (allthough I build everything in.)
If anyone can help, I'd be forever greatful.

The arch default 2.6 kernel w/ udev makes /dev/sda great.
It registers it in dmesg as..
ohci_hcd: 2004 Feb 02 USB 1.1 'Open' Host Controller (OHCI) Driver (PCI)
Disabled Privacy Extensions on device c05d3c00(lo)
usb 4-1: new high speed USB device using address 2
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
scsi0 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices
Vendor: Maxtor Model: OneTouch Rev: 0200
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
SCSI device sda: 240119808 512-byte hdwr sectors (122941 MB)
sda: assuming drive cache: write through
/dev/scsi/host0/bus0/target0/lun0: p1
Attached scsi disk sda at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
USB Mass Storage device found at 2
usbcore: registered new driver usb-storage
USB Mass Storage support registered.
And the lsmod says..
Module Size Used by
nls_cp437 6016 1
vfat 15360 1
fat 46880 1 vfat
nvidia 3465564 12
usb_storage 70848 1
ohci_hcd 22660 0
via_ircc 25872 0
irda 147132 1 via_ircc
crc_ccitt 2432 1 irda
ehci_hcd 31748 0
uhci_hcd 33680 0
8139too 26368 0
mii 5632 1 8139too
crc32 4736 1 8139too
snd_ens1371 24548 3
snd_rawmidi 26276 1 snd_ens1371
snd_seq_device 8456 1 snd_rawmidi
snd_pcm 101508 2 snd_ens1371
snd_timer 27140 1 snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc 10248 1 snd_pcm
snd_ac97_codec 73808 1 snd_ens1371
snd 58980 11 snd_ens1371,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_ac97_codec
soundcore 10848 1 snd
gameport 5120 1 snd_ens1371
pci_hotplug 13060 0
tsdev 8128 0
evdev 9984 0
ntfs 156432 1
I can't figure out what's relevent to getting this working. :

T 61 - Hard Drive problem after attempt to restore laptop to ex-factory situation

Hi all
I have a T61 Type 7664-17U from 07/10 bought at a charity auction. It came with all the disks to reset to ex-factory situation. Worked nicely for almost a year the sound indicating that there was no drivers for it. Went to Lenovo site, got the correct driver and tried to install it.
A message came that only part of the request was executed, still no sound and no driver. I log off to sign up as administrator as it could be lack of "authority" so to speak, just to discover that the person that bought it for me and installed some software he had allowed himself to set up a password for "administrator".
No other passwords exist anywhere.
Because the T61 came with lots of software that I do not use and that were just slowing it down, and also because it came from other "hands" and including for security reasons I decided that it was time, to clean the entire hard drive to ex-factory situation.
Used all the disks and everything went well until after all the disks were run and inserted the "Supplemental Disk" in the end a message came up.
No AOD file found
After auto restart was made I was instructed:
"Click next to begin Recovery Process"
then
"Preparing Hard Drive"
The laptop freezed for about 3 or 4 seconds and proceeded again on its own but the hard drive was not formatted, simply no time for it.
New auto-restart
Then a message.
"No Hard Drive Present"
Now, on a 160 GB Disk, I can only see a single partition of about 6 (six) gigabytes named SERVICE 0001
Couldn't find a way around this problem.
Can anyone help me and tell me what might have happened and how to solve this problem ?
Buying another disk is simply not an option at this time.
All the best Stilicho
IBM ThinkPad T23 2647 8MU
LENOVO ThinkPad T61 Type 7664-17U - 07-10
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Hello,
Have you tried erasing or wiping the disk using whatever tool the hard disk drive manufacturer provides, and then performing a clean install from the recovery media? If so, what effect did that have?
Regards,
Aryeh Goretsky
I am a volunteer and neither a Lenovo nor a Microsoft employee. • Dexter is a good dog • Dexter je dobrý pes
S230u (3347-4HU) • X220 (4286-CTO) • W510 (4318-CTO) • W530 (2441-4R3) • X100e (3508-CTO) • X120e (0596-CTO) • T61p (6459-CTO) • T43p (2678-H7U) • T42 (2378-R4U) • T23 (2648-LU7)
Deutsche Community Comunidad en Español Русскоязычное Сообщество

External Iomega USB Hard Drive Problem?

Hi there
I have just purchased two Iomega desktop hard drives for use with my iMac.
I have the new iMac and latest version of Leopard installed.
I formatted the drives for use with the system as they were formatted for Windows use originally. However, although the partitions I setup are showing as 'Mac OS Extended' in Disk Utility, when I highlight the disk name itself, its saying that the disk is MS-DOS (FAT)! And that the Partition Map Scheme is Master Boot Record.
When I re-erase I still get this.
The drive does appear to be slow when copying to the drive.
Can anyone please help?
Kind regards,
Stuart

Works fine on mine. But I only use drives that have the Mac friendly Oxford chipset.
I'm guessing you don't have one with that?
In case you haven't seen this....
Thought you could use this info about getting FireWire to work!
First, you should always Repair Permissions in Disk Utility before and after any update; I would do that now. If you installed your update with FireWire plugged in, your Mac may not recognize it anymore.
Try resetting your FireWire ports by disconnecting all FW devices, shut down your Mac and unplug it from AC power (wall socket) for 30 minutes. plug it back in and try FW.
If that didn't work, download the 10.6.1 update from this site (yours may be corrupt), not Software Update, disconnect all firewire + USB devices except keyboard + mouse, Repair Permissions, re-install update, Repair Permissions again + try.
If that still didn't get it Zap the PRAM. While restarting Mac hold down the following key combo Command-Option-P-R. Keep holding those keys down till you hear the second start-up chime, then release.
A bad internal PRAM battery can also cause FireWire to not be recognized, so make sure it's good!
Also, here is Apple doc.#88338 on getting FireWire to work.
Here's another Fw Faq.
DALE

External hard drive problem after time machine [help!]

Hi there! Please help me.
Last week, I partition a 320 G Samsung external hard drive into a 300G volume (format: Mac OS extended (journaled)) for Time Machine, and other 20G NTFS for data exchange between Mac and Windows. At the same time, I stored 40G IMPORTANT data in the 300G volume.
However, I plugged in the drive. My MBP MC374 managed to mount the 20G NTFS while the 300G is missing!
I opened up Disk Utility, it shows:
Please help! The data matters a lot to me!!

Specifically you screen shot does not show anything.
Ciao.

External hard drive problems after latest updates

I just did some updates (listed below) and now my external drive is having a few problems.
Updates installed:
- Security update 2015 002
- Remote Desktop Client Update 3.8.2 ver 1.1
- iTunes 12.1
- Canon Inkjet Printer Software 3.2
Problems:
- Double clicking on any file type leads to a 'can't find application' error, rather than it opening in the default program (i have tried it with several different file types)
- Can no long click option + drag to copy. I get error code -8058
Any idea which update might be causing this? I'm thinking security or remove desktop client? If so, is there any way to remove the update? I've searched and can't find how.

Try a restart.
Do a backup, using either Time Machine or a cloning program, to ensure files/data can be recovered. Two backups are better than one.
Try setting up another admin user account to see if the same problem continues. If Back-to-My Mac is selected in System Preferences, the Guest account will not work. The intent is to see if it is specific to one account or a system wide problem. This account can be deleted later.
Isolating an issue by using another user account
Try booting into the Safe Mode using your normal account. Disconnect all peripherals except those needed for the test. Shut down the computer and then power it back up after waiting 10 seconds. Immediately after hearing the startup chime, hold down the shift key and continue to hold it until the gray Apple icon and a progress bar appear and again when you log in. The boot up is significantly slower than normal. This will reset some caches, forces a directory check, and disables all startup and login items, among other things. When you reboot normally, the initial reboot may be slower than normal. If the system operates normally, there may be 3rd party applications which are causing a problem. Try deleting/disabling the third party applications after a restart by using the application un-installer. For each disable/delete, you will need to restart if you don’t do them all at once.
Safe Mode - Mavericks also Yosemite
Safe Mode - About
is there any way to remove the update? I've searched and can't find how.
Restore from a backup before the updates were applied.

Big hard drive problem after 10.8.5 supplemental update

Hello, I just tried installing the 10.8.5 supplemental update, but now I can't restart my iMac at all. It keeps trying to reinstall the update, and then shuts down. I can restart from the recovery HD, but I can't reinstall the previous software as it says that both of my disks are locked, the main HD and the recovery HD. I tried disk repair, but it says the main HD can't be repaired. Is there any way to unlock the disks? Any other options? Thanks.

You will have to do internet recovery OS X: About OS X Recovery
or Mountain Lion Recovery disk assistant OS X Recovery Disk Assistant v1.0
If you have a third party utility like disk warrior or techtool DiskWarrior 4 - The Disk Utility for Mac Disk Repair, Mac Directory Repair, Mac Disk Recovery, Mac Data Recovery or Techtool Pro 7
they might be able to fix your drive, but this is unlikely.
If you can get the drive repaired and you are still game for the update, I'd use the combo installer instead. A lot of people have had problems with the supplemental installer. I just used the combo installer the other day for a problem I was having with iTunes, worked like a charm. OS X Mountain Lion Update v10.8.5 (Combo)
If the recovery partition will let you, you might have to erase the drive and reinstall ML and reinstall your documents from backups, which I hope you have.
If it won't let you, and DW or TT or Disk Utility won't fix or erase your drive, then the drive has probably failed, and you'll have to replace it.

Transfering iTunes files to new computer using external USB hard drive

Thought this could be useful:
If you want to transfer your complete iTunes library to a new computer preserving all your playlists and library information, but without using your iPod as a hard dive, or without burning a CD or DVD, you can do it by using an USB external hard drive following these easy steps:
1) Quit iTunes
2) Connect your USB external hard drive to your computer and acccess it thru My PC or Windows Explorer.
3) Create two new folders in your external hard drive (you can name them LIBRARY Backup and PLAYLISTS Backup).
4) Open the LIBRARY Backup folder.
5) Open another Windows Explorer or My PC window; open the iTunes Music folder (usually located in C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My documents\My music\iTunes).
6) Copy all of its contents (only the contents, not the whole folder) to the LIBRARY Backup folder you created in your external USB Hard Drive.
7) Close both the LIBRARY Backup folder from your USB external hard drive and the iTunes Music folder.
8) Open the PLAYLISTS Backup folder from your USB external hard drive
9) From your iTunes folder, copy the iTunes Music Library.xml to the PLAYLISTS Backup folder.
10) Close all the windows and extract your USB external hard drive from your PC ()
11) Install iTunes in your new computer.
12) Using Windows Explorer open the iTunes Music folder (usually located in C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My documents\My music\iTunes).
13) Connect the USB hard drive to your new computer and open it using another Windows Explorer window.
14) Open the LIBRARY Backup folder and copy all of its contents (only the contents, not the whole folder) to the iTunes Music folder in your new computer. After the copying is complete, close this folder.
15) Copy the PLAYLISTS Backup folder to you new computer’s desktop.
16) Close Windows Explorer and extract USB hard drive.
17) Open iTunes
18) From the File menu, choose Import. Navigate to the iTunes Music Library.xml file on the Desktop and click Choose. The imported playlist will show only songs located on the computer's hard disk or external media.
19) You can now delete the xml. file from your new computer’s desktop if you wish.
PC Windows XP Owner of 5th Generation iPod

Type "move itunes library" into the Google search bar.
Type "ipod touch not recognized by itunes" into the search bar at the top of this page by "Support"

Footage: send to a usb hard drive without using my MBP?

Footage: send to a usb hard drive without using my MacBook Pro?
Is this possible?
Imagine shooting during a voyage, reviewing the footage in camera and download it to a portable usb hard drive without using a computer in order to format the card and shoot again.
I need to be very light travelling; so no Mac if possible.
My first post around a camera.
My first two weeks new 5DMII owner ,-) and I LOVE it. Still learning how to use it...
Thanks.
Regards to all.

No. You would need to be able to plug a USB drive into your 5D and transfer the footage. Your camera can't do that. Take your MBP with you. That's what laptops are for - portability.

Lose connection to external USB hard drive after waking up from sleep

My Mac lost connection to the external USB hard drive after waking up from sleep. I can still see the folders in the hard drive in Finders, but when I double clip a folder no file within the folder is displayed. I have to reconnect the hard drive with iMac to read its contents.
May I ask how this happens and is there a solution?
I'm using Paragon NTFS for Mac OS X to read from and write to NTFS format of USB external hard drive.
Thanks!

... I un-ticked the "put hard disks to sleep when possible" option in the Energy Saver panel in the System Preferences, and it seems the problem is solved. will have to sleep and wake up my iMac to further verify if this is the solution ...
Alternative advices are always greatly appreciated!

Usb hard drive not loading after security update

usb hard drive not loading after security update
I can't seem to find any other posts about this problem.
I have three external hard rives connect by a USB hub to my iMac.
Problem is that if I turn on the hard drive(s) AFTER start up I get a message that the drive either was not recognized by the OS or that it was ejected unexpectedly.
I get the same issue but not all the time if I turn them on before I boot the iMac.
I used the disk drive utility to "repair" the drives but they always come back as "probably ok".
If I restart the iMac with the drives connected (on), it seems to work but not all the time.
A bit annoying as I am wondering if the drives are OK or not.
I don't always need the drives as they are for backing up images from my camera using Apreture.
This all began after i did the latest security update.
is the update to blame?
mahalo.

Yes, you can still use those instructions to reset the PRAM.
You said that you booted to your install disk and that your primary drive did not show up at the Select a Destination screen? That usually means that the computer is either not recognizing your partition, or it's not recognizing the hard drive itself.
Start with this article and follow all the steps even if you already tried them. I suspect that you'll get to step 4 and you'll end up having to call Applecare. If you haven't done those steps, they're most likely going to make you do them anyway, so you might as well get them done before the call.

USB Hard drive problems after sleep/computer inactivity

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for