judithnewman

Q: Disk Drive ejecting itself

My Time Machine disk drive has been "ejecting" itself since I installed Snow Leopard. I'm not unplugging it, or turning it off. I'm not touching it.
I'm getting the following error message:
"The disk was not ejected properly. If possible, always eject a disk before unplugging it or turning it off."

My question is why would a disk drive be "ejecting" itself. I've turned off the auto backups, and unselected the drive as the backup disk. It is still "ejecting" itself which leads me to believe the problem isn't with Time Machine but with something else - something connected with Snow Leopard because this wasn't happening five days ago before I installed SL.

iMac5,1 Intel Core 2 Duo, Mac OS X (10.6)

Posted on Sep 9, 2009 5:40 PM

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Q: Disk Drive ejecting itself

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  • by Blouoogadam,

    Blouoogadam Blouoogadam Aug 3, 2015 11:37 AM in response to judithnewman
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 3, 2015 11:37 AM in response to judithnewman

    Same problem. I have a Seagate 2TB external with its own power supply.

     

    My external HDD ejects in the middle of nowhere - while I'm busy working. It has nothing to do with sleep mode or any such things. It is really a pain in the *** since my whole iTunes library is on this disc. I have tried everything mentioned above apart from replacing the USB cable.

     

    Why is Apple so quiet on this thread? Hallooo? Apple? You guys still alive?

  • by Allan Eckert,

    Allan Eckert Allan Eckert Aug 3, 2015 2:25 PM in response to Blouoogadam
    Level 9 (54,055 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 3, 2015 2:25 PM in response to Blouoogadam

    Apple does not post on these forums.

     

    The forums are manned by users like yourself.

  • by Blouoogadam,

    Blouoogadam Blouoogadam Aug 3, 2015 8:24 PM in response to Allan Eckert
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 3, 2015 8:24 PM in response to Allan Eckert

    Ugh. That's just great!

     

    So how do I get their attention and/or help?

  • by Allan Eckert,

    Allan Eckert Allan Eckert Aug 4, 2015 10:53 AM in response to Blouoogadam
    Level 9 (54,055 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 4, 2015 10:53 AM in response to Blouoogadam

    You can post yoor problem at http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

     

    Apple will read your post there but will not respond.

  • by Peter D Cox,

    Peter D Cox Peter D Cox Aug 20, 2015 1:04 AM in response to John Roc
    Level 2 (179 points)
    Desktops
    Aug 20, 2015 1:04 AM in response to John Roc

    Thanks - I added this to the long list of suggestions to try but my 3tb lightning drive still disconnects frequently. It didn't use to - but I now realise that those pesky messages about a USB thumb drive being wrongly removed were the start of the same problem. What I cannot understand is why it should now affect the lightening drive .... it was fine until Apple replaced the internal drive (on recall). I have filled out an Apple bug report .... When I have the strength I'll call them too

  • by inetfish,

    inetfish inetfish Dec 21, 2015 11:09 AM in response to Jay Daley
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 21, 2015 11:09 AM in response to Jay Daley

    I have been having trouble with a 500gb Seagate external hard drive ejecting itself during Time Machine backups and when drive is connected but not being used.  This is a drive I have been using for a couple years at least, and with no problems.

     

    This problem started today when I was backing up my "non-media" files(everything but photos and videos) and only got through 75 of 175 gb when the drive ejected itself.

     

    This problem got progressively worse until it was ejecting itself in as little as 30 seconds after hooking it up through the USB port.

     

    I called Apple Care and they seemed to have fixed, I've completed the Time Machine backup.  The fIx, do a "NV Ram" or NVRM Reset:

     

    1)  Shut down everything, close all windows, do a "Shut Down", but when the Shut Down window pops up, uncheck the selection "Reopen Windows When Logging Back in".  Then click Shut Down.

     

    2)  You'll need two people to complete the next step.

     

    While one person is holding down the Option, Command, R, and P keys the other person pushes the start button on the computer(iMac 20" mid-2007 unit in my case), and then continue to hold the 4 keys down until one low volume chime, 2 loud chimes occur, and then let go of the keys.

     

    After this my Seagate has remained connected even after a 30 minute Time Machine backup operation was completed to it.

     

    Thankfully!  Hope this helps others, and don't know if this was already covered earlier.

  • by jhp03c,

    jhp03c jhp03c Jan 19, 2016 6:47 AM in response to judithnewman
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 19, 2016 6:47 AM in response to judithnewman

    ...so I have noticed when I remove the bottom panel of my macbook pro (2010) to disconnect my data doubler HD and found that the HD itself is very loose and only attached via the connecter and no particular hardware to keep it from shaking or even becoming slightly disconnected. I have secured it with electrical tap on the corners opposite of the connecters and it appears to be quite solid. Hopefully this can solve the issue and if so I will update.

  • by leonfromberkeley,

    leonfromberkeley leonfromberkeley Mar 8, 2016 10:03 AM in response to Elidesuma
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 8, 2016 10:03 AM in response to Elidesuma

    Problem: Iomega External Hard Drive ejects automatically. Solution (via Apple Support Tech): Go to System Preferences, then Energy Saver, finally uncheck Put hard disks to sleep when possible.

  • by Barbara Smits,

    Barbara Smits Barbara Smits Mar 31, 2016 8:28 AM in response to leonfromberkeley
    Level 2 (232 points)
    Desktops
    Mar 31, 2016 8:28 AM in response to leonfromberkeley

    Dear All,

    My Western Digital Mac Book Studio silver, 3TB, is constantly ejecting itself from the desktop without reason, sometimes in the process of burning a DVD which  aborts the burn.  The drive worked with no problems until several months ago and then began the ejecting problem.  In the last week it has begun ejecting itself immediately after computer start up, so it certainly hasn't had time to go to sleep, but I did go into System Preferences Energy Saver and uncheck the Put Hard disks to sleep when possible box -- we'll see if that helps.

     

    I talked to Western Digital, as my drive is still under warranty, and they said it sounded like a power supply issue, either power cord or USB 3 connector.  They are sending me a new power supply under warranty and I have a new USB 3 cable on order locally, so we'll see if any of those things resolves the issue. 

     

    I have found that disconnecting the power supply completely, waiting ten seconds and plugging it in again seems to stabilize the drive for a while.  The ejection is very random.  Sometimes it works perfectly for most of the day and then suddenly ejects.  I have never lost any data due to the ejection -- so far -- but I have backed up everything on the drive just in case until the problem is corrected.  If I'm working on photos in Adobe Bridge and move from one folder to the next too rapidly, the drive will eject itself, almost as if it can't handle the processing speed that it takes to handle the files.  I have more than ample power in my iMac, so that should not be a problem, and the USB3 should certainly be able to handle those simple chores.  We'll see what happens.

  • by Peter Liao,

    Peter Liao Peter Liao May 27, 2016 4:28 AM in response to HK Matrix
    Level 1 (19 points)
    May 27, 2016 4:28 AM in response to HK Matrix

    THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! This actually worked! Or, at least in part.  I also took the advice of another user who said to "reset the SMC and zap the PRAM."  Not sure which procedure was the real solution. Maybe, it was both.  But, so far I have not come back to my computer after it had been asleep for a couple of hours, only to find that my external HDs had been ejected, with multiple warnings about ruining them. So far, so good...

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