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 davidra,

    davidra davidra Nov 2, 2015 9:43 AM in response to iPhabio
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 2, 2015 9:43 AM in response to iPhabio

    I have a 2012 iMac; when I first got it I bought an external Green Drive that kept ejecting when the computer slept. After much discussion with the manufacturer they agreed that they had a problem with their USB 3 hardware/software. I returned it and got a Lacie 1TB drive that has worked for three years with no problems; in fact I bought another 6 months ago. I haven't had the DNEP message during that time. However, after I updated to El Capitan, I now get it every morning when the computer starts up, on both drives. There is NO WAY this is not related to the update. I have checked and the "put drives to sleep" box is not checked. What's interesting is that rarely, maybe one morning out of ten, there aren't any messages. No problems accessing the drives after it starts up and all the data is fine; it's just the messages that are  PITA. Would love to get some hints.

  • by flarestar,

    flarestar flarestar Nov 2, 2015 9:51 AM in response to davidra
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 2, 2015 9:51 AM in response to davidra

    I have exactly the same. The problem relates to USB2/USB3 and Thunderbolt 2 drives.  On the thunderbolt i need to remove the cable and reconnect it to get it to work (switch power on off on the front doesn't work).


    Running a MacPro 6,1,  with a LaCie 2BIG drive (which i can't use). The USB2  drives are just any thumb-drives.

     

    I filed this morning again a bug report. I really hope Apple will do something about this! Drives me nuts!

     

    The more people file this as a bug, the bigger change they will fix it.

     

    https://bugreport.apple.com/

  • by KenV54,

    KenV54 KenV54 Nov 2, 2015 10:52 AM in response to flarestar
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 2, 2015 10:52 AM in response to flarestar

    As I mentioned in my Oct 28 post above, this problem seems to be device-specific. I agree that El Capitan has worsened it for some drives. I had to get rid of my WD MyBook USB 3.0 drive--sold it. My two G-Drives, one a combo TB and USB 3.0. the other just USB 3.0, are working flawlessly under 3.0 with El Capitan 10.11.1--no DNEPs at all in a week with constant use, computer going to sleep, etc.

  • by flarestar,

    flarestar flarestar Nov 2, 2015 12:41 PM in response to KenV54
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 2, 2015 12:41 PM in response to KenV54

    Hi Kev,

     

    Thanks for the update.  If its the h/w its most likely to be the controller (not the disk itself). The LaCie 2Big is one of the few TB2 (2nd gen) that was out there, so that that would not work with my MP (cylinder), is extremely weird. I think the MacPro (Cylinder) was one of the first withTB2 connectors.

     

    What is the exact model you have?

  • by KenV54,

    KenV54 KenV54 Nov 2, 2015 1:07 PM in response to flarestar
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 2, 2015 1:07 PM in response to flarestar

    I've got the G|Drive Mobile 1 TB 2874 and 3840 drives. They are both 7200, one of them TB and USB 3.0, the other just USB 3.0, but I'm running both of them on a Amazon Basics USB 3.0 (external power) hub into one rMBP USB port. Not a hint of DNEP with either of these drives. With my WD Drive and with a previous LaCie USB 3.0 drive I couldn't go for more than a day without a DNEP.

     

    As you say, it must be in the controllers.

  • by longtimeuser,

    longtimeuser longtimeuser Nov 2, 2015 2:42 PM in response to longtimeuser
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Nov 2, 2015 2:42 PM in response to longtimeuser

    Its been 5 months since I last posted re my 6TB LaCie 2big Thunderbolt, running as Time Machine in a Raid set, having the DNE problem.  While it almost always rebooted on computer / monitor startup, when it would DNE did not seem to set a consistent pattern.  I have in touch with Apple and trying to isolate/identify the problem.  I am still running Yosemite pending a determination whether the issue can be resolved soon in Yosemite.  If not, I may reluctantly load El Capitan.

     

    I have asked Apple support whether El Capitan (or any of its versions) is intended to address this issue, but the people I speak to don't know.  We mere mortals aren't allowed to communicate directly with the engineers.  Despite the number of people in various discussions raising the DNE issue under numerous OS versions over the years and with numerous hardware configurations, Apple support doesn't seem to have identified it as a prominent or important problem, and seems to consider it most likely an issue outside Apple's hard and soft ware, unless in individual cases a specific problem is noted in particular motherboards, ports, corrupted OS or permissions, etc.

     

    The current stage I am at is testing connecting the iMac and accessories through a new APS surge protector.  (Originally, everything was powered through an APS UPS unit.  Then, to rule that out as the cause, I disconnected the UPS; the iMac was powered directly from the wall outlet; and the rest was powered through an old outlet bar plugged into the wall.  The problem continued, so now we are up to the surge protector.  For a day or so, no DNE.  The next day a DNE with the LaCie nevertheless recognized. The next day a DNE with the LaCie not recognized.  I had to unplug the Thunderbolt cable from the iMac and replug it, then restart. For several days, no DNE.)

     

    Bottom line: I don't know much more.  There is no obvious pattern except that sometimes somehow when I am away from the iMac the LaCie becomes dismounted and, within those sometimes, it sometimes remounts without my intervention.

     

    Apple has not been able to explain to me what activities (when I am not using the iMac) could contribute to the dismount and to the failure to remount.  When I send my contact in support copies of console reports around the time, it appears that these aren't read as only engineers look at and understand them and the support cadres aren't engineers.  Frustrating, particularly where a Time Machine backup to protect the user is concerned.

     

    I would have hoped by now Apple would have come up with an internal diagnostic to determine when and why external HDs dismount and when they "disappear."  I know it is complex, but that is what Apple often does so well.

     

    If I discover anything useful I'll pass it along.

     

    PS - I am not heartened to hear that upgrades to El Capitan don't eliminate the problem or make it more manageable.

  • by longtimeuser,

    longtimeuser longtimeuser Nov 2, 2015 2:43 PM in response to longtimeuser
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Nov 2, 2015 2:43 PM in response to longtimeuser

    ps - this topic should not be limited to one operating system in the discussion hierarchy.

  • by flarestar,

    flarestar flarestar Nov 2, 2015 3:13 PM in response to longtimeuser
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 2, 2015 3:13 PM in response to longtimeuser

    I have the same LaCie unit. I had the problems basically from day one (with a new MacPro!), basically what you describe. My feeling is it not getting better with El Capitan. I switched of mine, put it in a corner, since removing the cable to get it to work.....Grrr!!  What do they think....?

     

    Did you file a bug-report ? If not, please do so. I also offered Apple to work with them closely to solve this.  Im pretty sure that its related to the driver card used in the LaCie, apparently G-Drive usages something else.


    Im cleaning my unit, and its going back to LaCie, they will have a look at it. And lets see what happens. When di you buy it?

     

    Obviously one of the biggest problems is thats it totally unclear if this a Apple or a LaCie problem.

  • by KenV54,

    KenV54 KenV54 Nov 2, 2015 3:17 PM in response to longtimeuser
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 2, 2015 3:17 PM in response to longtimeuser

    When some external drives have no problems at all and others in the same operating environment have none, as seems to be the case here over three operating systems, about the only conclusion to be drawn is that there is some essential incompatibility with certain drive controllers and OSX. Whether that incompatibility can be identified and fixed is unclear, but until Apple investigates it at the engineering level, nothing is going to happen. My experience with Apple is that they make sure that anything made by Apple is compatible with other Apple products, but as for third party after market devices you're pretty much on your own.

     

    I do agree about submitting a bug report as suggested above. If they see something, they'll tell you.

  • by longtimeuser,

    longtimeuser longtimeuser Nov 2, 2015 6:29 PM in response to flarestar
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Nov 2, 2015 6:29 PM in response to flarestar

    I'm not sure its only LaCie.  Is there someone skilled out there who can (a) make a meta-anlysis of all the discussions on DNE and collect data on types (brands and models) of HD, version of OS, and symptoms (such as whether the HD reappears on its own never, some of the time, all the time) so that can be provided to Apple and us; and (b) collect information on HD drivers by types to correlate with above?  Of course this is the kind of data collection and data analysis is the sort of thing we would expect from the manufacturers (Apple, LaCie, WD, etc.) but ......

  • by longtimeuser,

    longtimeuser longtimeuser Nov 2, 2015 6:48 PM in response to KenV54
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Nov 2, 2015 6:48 PM in response to KenV54

    See my response to Flarestar.

     

    As to the attitude of Apple to third party accessories, there is a little irony here. When I got my new iMac the end of last year I looked for a robust, compatible external HD for Time Machine.  Among the reasons I chose this LaCie is that it was one of the few external HDs in the Apple store and it had Thunderbolt at a time when only the iMac had Thunderbolt.  Perhaps naively, I figured that Apple and LaCie had made some effort to coordinate mutual development of their respective systems, that Apple considered the LaCie capable of working reasonably well with the iMac, and LaCie was aware of what Apples need.  While I didn't read this as a guarantee, it seemed like a modest mutual endorsement.  Even though I did not buy the LaCie from Apple but another reputable dealer, the model was the same one.

     

    Further, as I have pointed out to Apple, at the time, it did not make any external HD with anything close to the capacity.  Now they offer a 3 TB Time Capsule, but not in Raid format.  The Apple store has G-Force, LaCie and other drives.  Maybe the store should be required to reveal compatibility issues.

     

    If Apple is intending to drift toward a point where its own products are the only ones with cross-compatibility and users are "encouraged" to buy Apple external HDs, perhaps it is time that we "third party" sufferers were informed.

     

    Finally, LaCie and other HD manufacturers who describe their products as compatible with Mac OS X or a particular version have some responsibility to tell us whether they are fully compatible, whether the HD manufacturers have taken timely steps to allow their drivers to work with newer OS Xs, and how these problems can be addressed most efficiently and without needlessly imposing additional expense on the end users.

  • by KenV54,

    KenV54 KenV54 Nov 2, 2015 7:11 PM in response to longtimeuser
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Nov 2, 2015 7:11 PM in response to longtimeuser

    Irony, yes, but it's more that there's no real communication between Apple and third party device manufacturers, and really none between Apple and the retail Apple Stores about which third party devices they carry. Different Apple Stores seem to carry different third party items of all sorts. But if Apple Computer doesn't know which devices are compatible, then they wouldn't be able to advise the Stores as to which ones to carry. And some of these devices work under some configurations and not in others. This is completely different from the Apple Store apps, which all have to pass muster with Apple for compatibility with their computers.

     

    As for your suggestion that someone do a meta analysis of all the posts here, in principle that's a good idea, but in practice I suspect it would amount to nothing. Apple wouldn't look at it, and if they did, they wouldn't act on it. Surely all sorts of users with Applecare have called Apple Support over the years with this DNEP issue--we who use these forums are a minority among the total Apple user cohort--and Apple still hasn't come up with anything, even a "white paper" on it.

     

    In my experience with Apple, if you submit a bug report with configuration logs, they will sometimes see something that explains the problem and tell you how to fix it. They did that for me with a USB network connection problem using a non-Apple phone. It was a duplicate kext file, and when I removed it, the problem was solved. So maybe if someone submits a bug report with one of these drives attached, Apple will see something. I sort of doubt it though. This really seems to be a basic incompatibility with some external drive controllers. If Apple would take the time to work with these external drives, maybe they could figure it out that way and get the manufacturers to make the necessary changes. Not to be repetitive, but that doesn't seem to be Apple's modus operandi.

  • by longtimeuser,

    longtimeuser longtimeuser Nov 2, 2015 7:52 PM in response to KenV54
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Nov 2, 2015 7:52 PM in response to KenV54

    I'm talking about Apple's online store through the Apple site.

     

    As to the bug report, I'll look for the next opportunity.

     

    Thanks

  • by themacmeister,

    themacmeister themacmeister Nov 2, 2015 8:28 PM in response to iPhabio
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 2, 2015 8:28 PM in response to iPhabio

    I must admit to having this problem with Seagate Desktop 2TB USB3.0 (on late-2013 iMac). I tried everything imaginable to fix the issue, firmware flashes, OS X upgrade, OS X downgrade, fresh network installs of both OS versions, but it continued (sometimes after 2 weeks of perfect performance). Being my time machine backup drive, these (UNREPORTED!!!) errors were unacceptable. The computer sometimes went for a week or more, without anyone noticing the little warning icon in the menubar.

     

    I have a stupid (but strangely successful) workaround that is (relatively) cheap, and allows you to keep your expensive external hard drive as a Time Machine backup drive.

     

    I purchased an mbeat USB2.0/USB3.0 powered hub (3xUSB2.0, 4xUSB3.0) and attached the Seagate Desktop to USB2.0 on hub. Been working flawlessly (albeit more slowly) ever since. I am yet to encounter a Time Machine overrun, even with 80GB hourly backup.

     

    If you create less than 60GB of new data per hour, you may wish to try this workaround. The hub cost me AUS$35

     

    Best of luck everyone. I hope Apple doesn't drop the ball (again) with USB drives in future OS X updates.

  • 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 Nov 2, 2015 10:08 PM in response to iPhabio
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Desktops
    Nov 2, 2015 10:08 PM in response to iPhabio

    FWIW, I'm in the same boat as everyone here and have tried everything under the sun to no avail. I have an iMac 5k (2014). The *only* external drive I've found that doesn't give me the DNE errors is a LaCie Little Big Disk. It's an extremely fast Thunderbolt disk I use to store photos on, but it has a limited capacity: 1 TB.

     

    Then I have a couple of Mercury Elite Pro enclosures from OWC that are USB3. However, I do not keep them powered on at all times because of this issue. I just connect them a few times a week for backup.

     

    This is incredibly frustrating as it defies all attempts to determine the cause of the problem and even who is affected. It's obviously a large # of people, but not everyone. I've spoken to others with Macs and external drives that are not experiencing this problem. In some cases they are the same Mac models and the same external drive models that people on this thread have, so it must be some combination of both hardware and software, or perhaps some hardware glitch in certain (but not all) Macs.

     

    For example, I've spoken to people that have the OWC ThunderBay IV enclosure with an iMac 5k and it works fine for them. But I tried that exact combo and it gave me DNE errors all over the place.

     

    I am even considering upgrading to the newest model of the iMac 5k, though I don't really need to, to see if that solves the problem. El Capitan had no effect.

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