Disk Drive ejecting itself

I seem to be having the same problem. I have a 2008 unibody macbook pro 15". I have a HP simple save 1tb usb 3.0 portable external (its a rebadged wd drive). Its been split into two partitions, 500gb ntfs and 500gb hfs journaling. The ntfs drive is my storage place while the hfs is the time machine backup. Basically, a few days back, time machine gave me an error saying not enough space on the external drive for a backup and it would try again later after clearing up some space. Ever since that error message, the drive has been ejecting itself and giving the error message (both partitions would eject). I've tried everything I could think of including updating to 10.7.5 (including the supplemental update), trying a different usb 3.0 cable, using a micro usb cable to connect the drive and also switching the usb port. *********And then I found something by fluke chance, if I plug in the drive and go to disk utility and unmount the hfs partition, the ntfs partition remains mounted on the computer and no error message, no automatic ejection either. *********** If I then try to mount the hfs partition as well, within a few minutes, the drive ejects itself. So, I just leave it unmounted, which means time machine isnt working but at least I have access to my hard drive. So far, its been 3 days without an ejection, I just wish I could backup my computer as well.

Back 2 years ago, having Apple Product is a proud for me ... but after Steve Jobs ... so disappointed ... first the iOS 6 bugs, now Mountain Lion bugs ... bugs everywhere and Apple seems care to create new product with only using "RETINA DISPLAY" label ... after Steve I saw every new products lacks of attention to details ... next year there will be new OS, while the currently OS is still unstable ...

My late 2001 model macbook pro got this problem as well ... for two days ago with USB 3.0 devices only ... keep ejecting itself while doing a copy from Macbook to my WD external drive ... and freeze my Macbook... yesterday it makes my WD cannot be detected ... try to repair with Disk Utility with no success ... give up Mountain Lion OSX and surrender my pride to Windows 7's Check Disk Utility that finally can fix my External drive for 2 hours....and while running Windows 7, this problem never happen... I run Windows 7 using Bootcamp on Macbook ... never ejecting itself ... should I use Windows platforms if I want to backup my file from Macbook HD to USB 3.0 devices?

Apple please fix this ...

2 years ago when using Snow Leopard, they always fix some problems in the next update ... don't only focus on profit, Apple is no more fun .... Samsung do better jobs ... please don't only make new products with only "RETINA DISPLAY" labels it is not Steve Jobs' style, it is not Apple' style ...

<sorry for my bad English>

in my case the problem was solved after changing the USB 3.0 cable to another one same type / brand (from another Hdisk). So the first one was defect. The cables seem to be quite sensitive.

Quite lucky with the solution, now everything works fine (on my MBP Retina Mountain Lion; external HDisk 1TB zinc CnMemory).

I absolutely agree with that cable plays a big part in this problem. Apparently OS X is a lot more sensitive than other OSes with cables when dealing with external hard drives. I have had issues with long cables, thin cables, or even cables which have been tested 100% with other OSes.

Last week, I bought a LaCie Minibus USB 3 drive, it was ejecting itself randomly with the original cable (but it works perfectly if I boot in Windows 7), so I swapped the cable with a much shorter one which I know it will work since I have been using it with another drive, then the problem went away and the drive hasn't been ejecting itself ever since.

I'm having problems with my mini SD reader, i can transfer my stuff but suddenly it quits unexpectedly. I tried to find a solution but still nothing, I've tried with different cards and the same thing happens with all of them.

You really should start your own thread rather then attaching to the bottom of this old thread. Besides thread is about disk drives and you are asking about a card reader.

Allan

I had a break from this problem but now it's back.

@Allan Eckert

Sorry to say, your intervention is completely out of place. True, this is an old thread, but it's alive and kicking, which proves, if anything, that it's an issue that's been going on for years which the powers that be have never bothered to address (has anyone seen a reply from an Apple tech on this thread?). As to the distinction between a data drive inside an enclosure and a reader that is an enclosure for data cards, it seems pretty irrelevant to me in this context.

So to all, previous and future, please keep on posting on this thread anything that has to do with devices that get ejected with no apparent explanation and the havoc this behaviour can cause to your data.

To each his own but I personally think that threads that attempt to cover a bunch of topics all rolled into a single thread do more harm then good because of the confusion they create.

A thread that only covers a single topic is clearer to both the one who has asked the question and thos that are trying to help. Personally I try to avoid long droven out threads with multiple topics since I see them as a waste of time.

Allan

tingotanca wrote:

@Allan Eckert

Sorry to say, your intervention is completely out of place.

I agree with Allan's advice. For one thing, that new poster's situation differs from the rest of this thread in two important ways:

1) It deals with a flash drive, while the rest of the thread deals with rotating disks. With a flash drive there's no issue of drive sleep, for example.

2) Perhaps it was an oversight, but she doesn't mention the ejecting of the flash drive, only a copy failure. Such ejecting has been characteristic of the problem of this thread. If there was no eject, then she definitely has a different problem.

For another thing, by tacking her post onto the end of this thread, if someone offers her useful advice, she's made it impossible for her to award "reputation points" to the helpful poster. Only the original poster can do that.

Well, then we have a problem, if we post a new thread they say "there are already a thousand threads about it, why post a new one"

This thread is not old as the other guy said, it had been only 10 days since the last post and yes my problem is very smilar, it ejects itself.

barbara89 wrote:

Well, then we have a problem, if we post a new thread they say "there are already a thousand threads about it, why post a new one"

The key is your use of the word "it". That implies that this thread deals with your specific problem. Based on what you described I gave two reasons why I didn't think that's the case. Neither of my reasons had anything to do with the age of this thread.

Now that you've identified that your flash drive is actually dismounting, that makes your problem seem more similar to the main subject of this thread than before. The other reasons, (no such thing as sleep with a flash drive and the lack of ability to award reputation point) still stand.

Have you launched the Console utility to see if there are any message around the time of the problem?

Yes, this is the message that shows up

and this is what shows in console.

04/01/13 21:32:00,000 kernel[0]: disk1s1: I/O error.

04/01/13 21:32:00,000 kernel[0]: IOUSBMassStorageClass[0xffffff800ba63c00]: The device is still unresponsive after 6 consecutive USB Device Resets; it will be terminated.

04/01/13 21:32:00,000 kernel[0]: disk1s1: device/channel is not attached.

04/01/13 21:32:00,000 kernel[0]: [0xffffff800ba63c00](6)/(5) Device not responding

04/01/13 21:32:00,000 kernel[0]: disk1s1: device/channel is not attached.

04/01/13 21:32:00,000 kernel[0]: disk1s1: device/channel is not attached.

04/01/13 21:32:00,000 kernel[0]: disk1s1: media is not present.

04/01/13 21:32:00,000 kernel[0]: disk1s1: media is not present.

04/01/13 21:32:00,000 kernel[0]: disk1s1: media is not present.

04/01/13 21:32:00,000 kernel[0]: disk1s1: media is not present.

04/01/13 21:32:00,000 kernel[0]: disk1s1: media is not present.

04/01/13 21:32:00,000 kernel[0]: disk1s1: media is not present.

04/01/13 21:32:00,000 kernel[0]: disk1s1: media is not present.

04/01/13 21:32:00,000 kernel[0]: disk1s1: media is not present.

04/01/13 21:32:00,000 kernel[0]: disk1s1: media is not present.

04/01/13 21:32:00,000 kernel[0]: disk1s1: media is not present.

04/01/13 21:32:00,000 kernel[0]: disk1s1: media is not present.

04/01/13 21:32:00,000 kernel[0]: disk1s1: media is not present.

04/01/13 21:32:00,000 kernel[0]: disk1s1: media is not present.

04/01/13 21:32:00,000 kernel[0]: disk1s1: media is not present.

04/01/13 21:32:00,000 kernel[0]: disk1s1: media is not present.

04/01/13 21:32:00,000 kernel[0]: disk1s1: media is not present.

04/01/13 21:32:00,000 kernel[0]: disk1s1: media is not present.

04/01/13 21:32:00,000 kernel[0]: disk1s1: media is not present.

04/01/13 21:32:00,000 kernel[0]: msdosfs_fat_uninit_vol: error 6 from msdosfs_fat_cache_flush

04/01/13 21:32:01,491 sandboxd[981]: ([979]) com.apple.qtkits(979) deny file-read-data /Library/Filesystems/NetFSPlugins

04/01/13 21:32:01,509 sandboxd[981]: ([979]) com.apple.qtkits(979) deny file-read-data /Library/Filesystems/NetFSPlugins

04/01/13 21:32:01,526 sandboxd[981]: ([979]) com.apple.qtkits(979) deny file-read-data /Library/Filesystems/NetFSPlugins

04/01/13 21:32:01,543 sandboxd[981]: ([979]) com.apple.qtkits(979) deny file-read-data /Library/Filesystems/NetFSPlugins

04/01/13 21:32:01,560 sandboxd[981]: ([979]) com.apple.qtkits(979) deny file-read-data /Library/Filesystems/NetFSPlugins

04/01/13 21:32:01,576 sandboxd[981]: ([979]) com.apple.qtkits(979) deny file-read-data /Library/Filesystems/NetFSPlugins

04/01/13 21:32:33,225 com.apple.launchd[1]: (com.apple.qtkittrustedmoviesservice[980]) Could not terminate job: 3: No such process

04/01/13 21:32:33,225 com.apple.launchd[1]: (com.apple.qtkittrustedmoviesservice[980]) Using fallback option to terminate job...

Here are some things I'd try:

1) If you have backups of all the data on that flash drive, use Disk Utility to erase the drive. Select the "Security Options" button and select "Zero Out Data".

2) If that doesn't help, try a different USB port.

If that still doesn't help, consider the possibiity that your flash drive is damaged.

double post - sorry