iPhabio

Q: Disk not ejected properly

Hi I'm having this issue since I upgraded to Mavericks where almost every time I put my computers to sleep I get the "Disk not ejected propoerly" message and every disk but the system one is not mounted and cannot be found by Disk Utility.

 

I have a Mac Mini late 2009 and a Macbook Pro 15 mid 2009 and I'm having this issue in both machines. Never had any issues before in any of my machines, not in Leopard, Snow Leopard or Lion.

 

On my Mini I have two external USB drives and on my MBP I have a SSD, where the system is installed, and a HD (I replaced my optical drive with a bay to install the extra disk).

 

I researched the issue and found a couple of threads where people sugested to buy a 3rd party app that would unmount the disks at sleep and remount them at wake, but I think this shouldn't be a issue, since it never happened with any version of OSX I had used before.

 

Is anybody else having this issue as well? Is there any word from Apple on this subject? Can I hope for a fix?

 

Thanks

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Oct 28, 2013 9:55 AM

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Q: Disk not ejected properly

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  • by alpshiker,

    alpshiker alpshiker Dec 17, 2014 9:37 PM in response to Appeltjehehe
    Level 2 (445 points)
    Dec 17, 2014 9:37 PM in response to Appeltjehehe

    Appeltjehehe wrote:

     

    You mean that the blue button sometimes flashes like it's doing some work. I've experienced that as well. But it shouldn't be a problem.

     

    I don't own the Thunderbolt version but many older FW "blue button" now occasionally used with a Thunderbolt to FW adapter, and 4 newer USB3 P9230. What I notice with the USB3 drives is that when they are not switched off via the button after they are ejected, when the MBP is put to sleep (ML), they will launch for a few seconds and then go back to sleep. They may wake up on their own once in a while while the computer is asleep, run for ten seconds or so and shut off. This means probably that something was sent to the drive or more likely that the connection was lost while the computer was asleep.

     

    I agree that *having to perform a complete eject prior to every break is a nuisance*, even if with SSD's inside, the apps launch now so much faster. I wished it were like in the past, with Snow Leopard.

  • by Appeltjehehe,

    Appeltjehehe Appeltjehehe Dec 18, 2014 12:38 AM in response to alpshiker
    Level 2 (286 points)
    Dec 18, 2014 12:38 AM in response to alpshiker

    If the blue light is constantly on but the external drive is not in use and it sometimes seems to be running for a few seconds with flashing blue light, there is no message that the drive was removed improperly, and the blue light afterwards is again constantly on, and there was no loss of connection. It's just that for some reason the drive is doing something. No idea what.

  • by TheWildRover,

    TheWildRover TheWildRover Dec 27, 2014 12:27 AM in response to iPhabio
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Dec 27, 2014 12:27 AM in response to iPhabio

    I can't believe we're still discussing this issue.

     

    I've seen this problem since I got my iMac (late 2013 model) last year. Having a bunch of older FW drives connected to my old MacMini, I tried to switch to USB3 on the new iMac I got. Sadly I immediately suffered with the Incorrectly Disconnected messages. I also found that some drives (older Seagates FWIW) also suffered with more serious issues, such as my main LightRoom photo collection would not allow me to write to the drive from LR at random intervals. I also found my Time Machine backup drive became corrupt after a couple of days use, with indications the drive had failed.

     

    Most of my drives are in a four drive enclosure, so none are 'boxed' external drives. It does seem to be worse with Seagate drives though, as other brands seem to work much better. I tried a variety of solutions, from connecting direct to the iMac, and trying a couple of different powered hubs, and changing the cables (despite all being brand new). All to no avail.

     

    In the end I gave up and bought the Thunderbolt to FW800 adapter (luckily the enclosure I bought had multiple connection options), and have had no issues at all, all drives have performed fine since (the only thing is the TB adapter is a little wiggly in the socket, and slight movement can cause a disconnect).

     

    One or two things to try have perhaps come up in this thread, but I'm not sure how much trouble it's worth going too now I have a working solution. I spotted a few things that might relate to my setup, such as the Seagate drives, and using an APC BackUPS power unit, switching off sleep modes, and using Jettison etc. However, none of these seem to offer a genuine fix, nor do they all seem to offer a guarantee to work, and in some cases attempting to fix things could be expensive (replacing drives, hubs, cables and enclosures), but finding the right combination that *might* work is obviously pretty tricky.

     

    There definitely seems to be something screwy with Apple's implementation of USB3 somewhere, and it does extend to more than just sleeping drives too. I found that my iMac was waking up randomly during the night, and mostly within a few seconds of putting it to sleep manually. I eventually found this was coming from a hub that I'd connected using a USB3 cable, although everything plugged in was USB2. Even an empty hub caused the wake up. I changed it to a USB2 cable on the same hub, and now all is well.

     

    My only solution that works satisfactorily was to switch back to FW800 using the Thunderbolt adapter and abandon USB3 altogether.

     

    I would switch to Thunderbolt drives, but the cost of these is so prohibitive to an enthusiastic home user.

     

    Just one final FWIW, I did a bit of searching on this problem in the past, and it's not unique to Macs, but also affects Windows users too, so it would suggest an underlying problem with the USB3 protocol that's been difficult to work around, rather than a muck up by Apple. There have been historic precidences for this too, such as whether to use certain chipsets in PCi cards, or making sure you get Oxford chips in FW devices.

  • by s_w_i_t_t_e_r_s,

    s_w_i_t_t_e_r_s s_w_i_t_t_e_r_s Dec 27, 2014 7:52 AM in response to TheWildRover
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Desktops
    Dec 27, 2014 7:52 AM in response to TheWildRover

    I've given up on Apple ever addressing this. I bit the bullet and bought two LaCie D2 thunderbolt drives to replace my two OWC Mercury Elite Pro USB3 drives. I have a LaCie Big thunderbolt drive and I never get the "disk not ejected properly" error with it. For me, at least, the problem seems to be limited to USB.

  • by Appeltjehehe,

    Appeltjehehe Appeltjehehe Dec 27, 2014 9:02 AM in response to s_w_i_t_t_e_r_s
    Level 2 (286 points)
    Dec 27, 2014 9:02 AM in response to s_w_i_t_t_e_r_s

    The error message does not appear if you don't put the mac to sleep. The instructions of LaCie are: whenever you want to put drives to sleep remove them from the desktop first.

    The trouble also happens with a thunderbolt connection. Maybe there are different types of macs that react differently.

  • by s_w_i_t_t_e_r_s,

    s_w_i_t_t_e_r_s s_w_i_t_t_e_r_s Dec 27, 2014 9:23 AM in response to Appeltjehehe
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Desktops
    Dec 27, 2014 9:23 AM in response to Appeltjehehe

    Guess I've been lucky, then, because I've never had the problem with Thunderbolt drives.

  • by Appeltjehehe,

    Appeltjehehe Appeltjehehe Dec 27, 2014 10:04 AM in response to s_w_i_t_t_e_r_s
    Level 2 (286 points)
    Dec 27, 2014 10:04 AM in response to s_w_i_t_t_e_r_s

    Yes, you are. Maybe it's a matter of AC or DC. LaCie told me that the Mac Pro is so good in energy saving that sometimes the drives 'think' the power is off, which causes this kind of problem.

    The instructions from LaCie are: for putting the drives to sleep remove the disks from the desktop and push the blue button for one second, to shut it down push 4 seconds. Before, the thunderbolt first version and the firewire drives there was no such problem. You could simply put the mac to sleep and the drives would follow suit.

    There is in fact no reason at all to put a Mac Pro with an SSD HD to sleep. Putting it to sleep will cause the mac to heat up somewhat as the fan stops working. So unless you want the mac to shut down completely, simply leave it 'running' and put the other devices to sleep (monitor, external drives).

    It's not an elegant solution, but Apple and LaCie and other brands should have a technical talk about all this.

  • by s_w_i_t_t_e_r_s,

    s_w_i_t_t_e_r_s s_w_i_t_t_e_r_s Dec 27, 2014 11:25 AM in response to Appeltjehehe
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Desktops
    Dec 27, 2014 11:25 AM in response to Appeltjehehe

    I do have a reason, unfortunately, to put my iMac to sleep: I do audio recording in my home office, and sometimes that requires a completely silent environment. The iMac is very quiet (it has a 512 GB SSD), but not completely silent.

     

    I've been using Jettison for a while. It works flawlessly with the thunderbolt drives, not so much with the USB3. Once I get the LaCie D2s, I will try uninstalling Jettison because I don't recall ever getting the error message with the TB drives. I'll report back.

  • by TheWildRover,

    TheWildRover TheWildRover Dec 27, 2014 11:55 PM in response to s_w_i_t_t_e_r_s
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Dec 27, 2014 11:55 PM in response to s_w_i_t_t_e_r_s

    Yeah, not putting my Mac to sleep is not an ideal option really. I don't have an SSD in mine, and it is clear that this issue is only with USB3 attached drives. The same drives attached using a USB2 cable work perfectly. My enclosure has four bays, each with its own set of ports - USB3, FW800 and eSATA - I can use FW800 (using the TB-FW adapter from Apple), or connect using a USB2 cable and I have no issues whatsoever. If I use a USB3 cable, then it all kicks off. Same drives, same enclosure, same adapter cards, the only constant that causes issues is USB3.

     

    Cheers

     

    Andy

  • by Appeltjehehe,

    Appeltjehehe Appeltjehehe Dec 28, 2014 1:11 AM in response to TheWildRover
    Level 2 (286 points)
    Dec 28, 2014 1:11 AM in response to TheWildRover

    Causing issues are USB3 and Thunderbolt2.

  • by TheWildRover,

    TheWildRover TheWildRover Dec 28, 2014 2:19 AM in response to Appeltjehehe
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Dec 28, 2014 2:19 AM in response to Appeltjehehe

    Yes, that's understandable, as always the old YMMV applies.

     

    However the overall factor that is consistent in all the threads about this is USB3. There are of course always going to be the odd case where something different happens too. There are also a large proportion of users that have no trouble at all, if you compare the total number of OS X users to those complaining of issues.

     

    You are probably right with your original statement, although I'd extend that to certain types of Mac and certain types of external drives, and the various combinations of each that are possible. In the main most seem to have no trouble with Thunderbolt drives, and not all USB3 drives are causing trouble. All we can do is observe what seems to be the most common factors.

     

    In your case, being one of the very few with Thunderbolt trouble, I'd suspect it's more likely you have a Thunderbolt unit that is slightly off tolerances somewhere, or the drive fitted to it it possibly causing the problem. It's reasonably common to see the Seagate drive units being the more usual suspect in all of these troubles.

     

    If you also check comments regarding the Thunderbolt adapters, it's very common to see these becoming disconnected physically. My experience of the TB-FW800 adapter is that it's a little wobbly in the socket, and the weight of the adapter and attached cable makes it quite prone to movement and a disconnect. On my iMac I found it definitely helps to route the cables through the hole in the stand, which prevents the movement more. If you're using a Laptop, or MacMini, where you can't secure the adapter properly, then I'd suspect the Thunderbolt issues you're having are more likely to do with that, rather than a similar problem to the USB3 issues.

     

    Just suggestions mind, none of this is very certain.

  • by Appeltjehehe,

    Appeltjehehe Appeltjehehe Dec 28, 2014 3:25 AM in response to TheWildRover
    Level 2 (286 points)
    Dec 28, 2014 3:25 AM in response to TheWildRover

    Well, the situation is that the Mac Pro and the Thunderbolt2 LaCie drives are just out on the market. Not so many people have them. Fact is that LaCie advises everyone in their instructions to put the drives to sleep by removing them from the desktop, which is something completely new as far as LaCie drives is concerned. There must be a reason for that, and I assume it's this problem.

  • by alpshiker,

    alpshiker alpshiker Dec 28, 2014 4:49 AM in response to iPhabio
    Level 2 (445 points)
    Dec 28, 2014 4:49 AM in response to iPhabio

    Hi I'm having this issue since I upgraded to Mavericks where almost every time I put my computers to sleep I get the "Disk not ejected propoerly" message and every disk but the system one is not mounted and cannot be found by Disk Utility.

     

    I have a Mac Mini late 2009 and a Macbook Pro 15 mid 2009 and I'm having this issue in both machines. Never had any issues before in any of my machines, not in Leopard, Snow Leopard or Lion.

     

    On my Mini I have two external USB drives and on my MBP I have a SSD, where the system is installed, and a HD (I replaced my optical drive with a bay to install the extra disk).

     

    I researched the issue and found a couple of threads where people sugested to buy a 3rd party app that would unmount the disks at sleep and remount them at wake, but I think this shouldn't be a issue, since it never happened with any version of OSX I had used before.

     

    Is anybody else having this issue as well? Is there any word from Apple on this subject? Can I hope for a fix?

     

    Thanks

     

     

    The initial poster has had this problem with an older USB2 MacBook already, and he points his upgrade to Mavericks as the culprit.

    I have never had this issue with any of my USB2 Macs, but I began to have the DNEP issue with a USB3 MacBookPro and Moutnain Lion, after months of flawless operation with the same hardware.

    With all the hardware configurations that were exposed until now who knew this issue, this discussion seems to be turning into circles with no way to determine whether it's a cable, USB chip, newer drives power saving protocol, bad hardware connection problem or anything else. Could it be that a software-upgrade applied to all late OS's initiated the problem?

  • by apw5746,

    apw5746 apw5746 Dec 31, 2014 7:41 AM in response to alpshiker
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 31, 2014 7:41 AM in response to alpshiker

    I kept getting the error Disc Not Ejected Properly.  I've got Mavericks 10.9.5, and run it on a Mac Mini.  I too have two external drives.  One i use a Time Machine, the other my SuperDuper back up.  I've read all post concerning this subject, and finally went to the never setting for sleeping as I leave my computer on 24/7.  So far I haven't gotten the error message anymore.  I don't know how it affects the rest of you as I seem to be the only Mac Mini on these postings and others with the problem.  Just my two cents on the subject.

  • by apw5746,

    apw5746 apw5746 Dec 31, 2014 7:58 AM in response to apw5746
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 31, 2014 7:58 AM in response to apw5746

    I also want to add that I'm not tech savvy, and don't know what the program 'Jettison' is, nor what Thunderbolt has to do with this problem.  Besides the two external discs, I've got my external CD/DVD drive, and a Satechi 3.0 usb hub attached to my mini as all my usb ports on the mini are in use.  Is my no longer having this issue due to the fact I run a Mac mini?

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