External Hard Drive spontaneously ejecting after upgrade to Snow Leopard

Quick test: disabled Time Machine in System Preferences and put computer to sleep: NO disk ejection message. Re-enabled Time Machine and put computer to sleep again, error message is back. So it seems to be related to Time Machine and the sleep process (and possibly something that changed regarding them in SL?)

I left my console open when I put the machine to sleep but no errors logged to it either time unfortunately...

PhotoTV wrote:
Quick test: disabled Time Machine in System Preferences and put computer to sleep: NO disk ejection message. Re-enabled Time Machine and put computer to sleep again, error message is back. So it seems to be related to Time Machine and the sleep process (and possibly something that changed regarding them in SL?)

I left my console open when I put the machine to sleep but no errors logged to it either time unfortunately...

In my conversations with Apple and with the testing we've done it's looking more and more like a problem with the Lacie drive. Other USB devices connected directly to the computer USB ports aren't being ejected on sleep/wake - we're still not sure whether it's sleep or wake. There are other issues as well with sleep on my computer using the energy saver which might be involved here. Turning TM off doesn't totally solve the problem - I was still having ejecting occasionally even when TM was turned off. Apple is still looking into the problem for me.

judithnewman wrote:
In my conversations with Apple and with the testing we've done it's looking more and more like a problem with the Lacie drive. Other USB devices connected directly to the computer USB ports aren't being ejected on sleep/wake - we're still not sure whether it's sleep or wake. There are other issues as well with sleep on my computer using the energy saver which might be involved here. Turning TM off doesn't totally solve the problem - I was still having ejecting occasionally even when TM was turned off. Apple is still looking into the problem for me.

Thanks judithnewman, I'll keep an eye out to see if I get the error with TM turned off. I notice you mentioned that earlier, much have skimmed over it too quickly.

Update: yep, it seems it still has the problem. Just got the eject warning again with Time Machine off. ..

It would be helpful to know from the others posting in this thread if the drives they are experiencing the problems with are all USB. I'm using a 1TB Lacie hi-speed USB 2.0 drive (the Neil Poulton designed black one - doesn't seem to have an official model name) I've got 4 Lacie D2's and a Lacie 2 Big Quadra that I always use with FW800 that have never had this issue - though I typically use them on another Mac and don't use them with Time Machine.

I probably give Apple a call this week too. Keep us posted if you find anything out...

Anyone has the solution for this issue yet?

Having the same problem with my 2TB external drive connected via firewire 800, and only happened after upgraded to SL.

I have a similar problem only it's my ipod that keeps being disconnected. It then reconnects on its own and then disconnects again. And again and again.

I am also having the same problem and its ruining the whole Snow Leopard experience. External USB HDD's and Ipod keep ejecting and not beeing found. No solution even after update 10.6.2

I have the same problem.

Check out this thread as well : http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1967652

Like many here, I've been having the same problem with my 2.53 GHz Mini, running 10.6.2. I tried the Energy Saver option, no go. Removed all the content from the external drive, reformatted it, and still the same problem. This hard drive is in tip top shape, and the problem never occurred with my MacBook Pro 2.0 GHz.

I've called Apple Care and have a reference number running with them, if any new leads arise I'll post them here.

We used to see a lot of sleep/device disconnect issues with USB drives due to chipset firmware incompatibilities with the G4's. As I recall, the Oxford 934 chipset was the most reliable, particularly with expansion USB cards. I wonder if this might be the same type of issue?? I've seen WD and LaCie drives mentioned in this thread, with one instance reported of the issue reported with FireWire but mostly USB..

Driver changes in OS upgrades over the years fixed some of the problems, but not all of them.

Just adding food for thought.

-Douggo

+1 here. I've the same issue with a WD 1tb USB drive and 10.6.2.

After adding my first USB drive last weekend, I started getting the disk ejected improperly warning, too. It seems to have stopped after unselecting the 'Put hard disk(s) to sleep when possible' option in System Preferences/Energy Saver.

iMac with 2 GHz Intel Core Duo, 10.6.2, (re)Drive (a 1 TB USB drive made by Hitachi: HDT721010SLA360)

I also have three FireWire drives attached, but had never seen this warning before when waking from sleep (unless I'd actually disconnected a drive without first ejecting).

Well, It's nice that I am not the only one!

I have the following 3.5" external USB drives connected to my iMac 20" with 10.6.2:

1TB WD Elements
1TB LaCie with the blue light
500GB Verbatim

I use the 1TB LaCie as a time machine volume and after each, or almost each sleep I get the disconnect message and a lot of messages in system.log:

11/16/2009 8:37:46.001 PM - Waketime:11/16/2009 8:37:46.000 PM = Deltatime:0.001040101 Nov 16 20:37:46 FamilyiMac kernel[0]: Nov 16 20:37:51: --- last message repeated 3 times --- Nov 16 20:37:46 FamilyiMac mds[44]: (/Volumes/LaCie/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/A1667B89-E5CD-44B0-B8E0-FF2F87E 88C89)(Error) IndexStore in SIStoreDirytySDBChunks:Error storing dirty sdb pages: 22 Nov 16 20:37:46 FamilyiMac kernel[0]: Nov 16 20:37:52: --- last message repeated 5 times --- Nov 16 20:37:46 FamilyiMac mds[44]: (/Volumes/LaCie/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/A1667B89-E5CD-44B0-B8E0-FF2F87E 88C89)(Error) IndexCI in _ContentIndexSyncIndexBulk:preSync error:22 22 Nov 16 20:37:46 FamilyiMac kernel[0]: Nov 16 20:37:52: --- last message repeated 4 times --- Nov 16 20:37:46 FamilyiMac mds[44]: (/Volumes/LaCie/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/C6BF5BBD-B477-4405-B91B-E4C2299 E5785)(Error) IndexStore in SIStoreDirytySDBChunks:Error storing dirty sdb pages: 22 Nov 16 20:37:46 FamilyiMac kernel[0]: Nov 16 20:37:52: --- last message repeated 3 times --- Nov 16 20:37:46 FamilyiMac mds[44]: (/Volumes/LaCie/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/C6BF5BBD-B477-4405-B91B-E4C2299 E5785)(Error) IndexCI in _ContentIndexSyncIndexBulk:preSync error:22 22 Nov 16 20:37:46 FamilyiMac kernel[0]:

Nov 16 20:38:00 FamilyiMac fseventsd[49]: event logs in /Volumes/LaCie/.fseventsd out of sync with volume. destroying old logs. (11861 2 22038) Nov 16 20:38:00 FamilyiMac fseventsd[49]: log dir: /Volumes/LaCie/.fseventsd getting new uuid: 00A8BB5D-38FF-4A9E-A5ED-9DE079BE4B3A

I tried to use USB hubs, switch to different USB ports and disabled TimeMachine. I thought that it has something to do with that but apparently not.

I opened a case with LaCie but I only got 1st Level and they told me to try this on another computer or bring it back to the vendor. I don't like their answer, so I asked if there is a firmware or if they really support Mac osx sleep mode with hardisk spin down.

It's frustrating since all other disks work without error!

Same issue using the new 27 iMac with USB drive connected for TM backup. Seems to occur waking the computer from sleep. Hope there is a solution soon I really would like to use sleep mode but for now I am keeping my system poered on

Every external I plug in ejects within just a couple of minutes, this only happened after the SN upgrade. So we can all see this is a HUGE problem and apple techs are obviously aware of it. Backups are extremely important so WHY is it taking so long for them to release a software update that corrects this issue for pete sake?

same problem here - since snow leopard.
i don't use sleep/wake - energy set to no turn off drives.
i also do not use time machine at this stage.

it only affects one specific drive that always worked (and still works) when booted in leopard - only in snow the problem persists.

Had similar trouble with iPhone for a little while - but since updated to latest firmware it has gone away.

with the drive it is a real problem since it is my data drive and also i have my iTunes playlist on there. additionally i fear it does actually corrupt the drive quite a bit. i have a copy of leopard installed on it (for emergency boot up option) - but after a few of those disconnects when i boot into it, it takes about 10 to 15 minutes to be operable. clearly that leads me to believe to data corruption.