Disk Drive ejecting itself

Same issue here too with my external USB Time Machine drive since installing 10.6. It doesn't seem to happen consistently on sleep and does not seem to be related to the screen saver.

Having recently upgraded to 10.6, I thought the spontaneous ejecting of my Time Machine drive was due to a software problem. I've now switched back to the original USB cable (having tried using the much longer one that came with my camera), and the drive is staying mounted. Presumably it wasn't able to draw enough power over the camera's USB cable.

Thanks, kjw970!

No worries, glad I could help.

I have also been having this problem, this Lacie 1Tb has been driving me nuts. I'll admit kjw970's solution sounded crazy but I switched up the long USB cable with the short cable that came packaged with the drive and now I can sleep my computer every time without the drive dismounting.

THANKS kjw970!

I have the same problem. But, I think it's happening because there's a bad sector somewhere on the disk, and it's crashing when it tries to access that sector. When I use Disk Utility to erase the disk and zero out the data, which is supposed to mark off the bad sectors, it fails to complete the task and disconnects the disk.

I'm using OS 10.6.1. Have any of you with 10.5 tried erasing the disk with the zero out security option to see if that works?

Hi Tipton Grange;

What error is it returning to you?

Allan

It starts with "Preparing to zero disk", then "Writing zeros to disk. Estimated time: 3 hours", then after 3 minutes I get the error; Volume Erase failed with error: Disk object invalid or unable to serialize.

Furthermore, I get a second error message from the system "The disk was not ejected properly. If possible, always eject a disk before unplugging it or turning it off." and the entire drive is disconnected from the computer. (I have 3 partitions on the drive. Two of the partitions work fine, but the problems occur with the third.)

I have read the many interesting attempts to solve this problem, but none seem to work for me. I am using the short cable that originally came with my Simpletech drive and I am not using a hub. There is no evidence that a bad sector is causing the problem. Sleepmode apparently acts to disconnect the drive from my Macbook, and it then reconnects upon waking, albeit with a warning that the drive was not properly disconnected.

Any news from Apple? I too have an external USB drive that has a problem after system comes out of sleep mode. It is connected with a very short USB cable and no USB hub. I have not had data loss or corruption issues to date.

No news yet, my problem still exists only now it doesn't instantly wake my computer after I sleep it, which is better. Oft when I wake it I get the Disconnection notice.

Message was edited by: s1owmo

I have this problem, and no solution. The drive ejects itself as soon as it mounts. I have a lot of work stored with no access to it.

It happens on both my Macbook Pro 15.4" Early 2006 model, as well as the iMac 7,1. External enclosure is an Akasa Integral SATA connected through USB. I had no problems with Leopard.

I have an external HD in an external Acomdata enclosure (with its own power supply) and when I am cpoying files to this drive, it eventually disconnects as described by everyone here... At first I thought it was my drive, but now I am starting to think it is this 10.6.2 since this never happened before.

Chris

I am having the same problem, with the original cable, w/ and w/o a hub, only on 10.4.11, on a PPC, which makes me think that maybe it is related to the latest updates to OSX in general, not to snow leopard in particular. Also, mine ejects randomly, sometimes while I am using it, not only on sleep mode. Sometimes it will eject and immediately re-attach, and other times I have to restart my computer.

The problem is, I can't afford to lose the data on the drive as I am a web designer, and have ongoing projects on it - and my Mac Mini HD is no where near big enough to store all the data on my drive (over 1/2 TB). So I can't try to wipe it and start over.

After it ejects, if I plug it into another computer, it loads up the drive (all 3 partitions) just fine. If I try plugging it back into the Mac Mini (w/o restarting the comp) it won't work. If I try turning it off and back on via the switch on the back, no luck. It must be an OSX issue, but I have no idea what.

Any word yet from Apple?