Disk Drive ejecting itself

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?

Apple does not post on these forums.

The forums are manned by users like yourself.

Ugh. That's just great!

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

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

Apple will read your post there but will not respond.

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

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.

...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.

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.

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.

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...

I just took the time and went through 64 pages with answers and suggestions on HD disconnects / rejects on my brand new iMac 5k, 27inch installed with macOS Sierra version: 10.12.1

I double checked cables, different disk drives (yes even my old ones from 2000 and up) and what not and I even ordered a new usb3 non ac powered disk. http://www.freecom.com/product/mobile-drive-classic-3.0-1tb-usb-3.0-35610/

Someone suggested to switch to a NAS solution and after I grew tired of the lack of official solutions i've decided to use my QNAP NAS's Backup machine to enable the Time Machine option. After watching a quick tutorial on getting it setup my TM is currently running a full backup (50gigs)

You can find the Qnap tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ILgMydgudo

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for now..

~Richard

I tried to use a USB 3 bus-powered disk drive on a 2009 Mac mini. It kept disconnecting. I no longer trust USB 3 bus-powered disks.

I experienced the exact same issues, therefore I have decided to stick to the NAS solution.

Feel free to add your failing drive to the overview of (not) working drives: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_b7Ftn0mYFVAUH_abqVR1bp69A9n8Hav6Q_9yPac HnY/edit#gid=0

Tx!

This bug just cropped up on my iMac with two Seagate back up drives connected (one is 4TB and the other 2TB, purchased at separate times and the 4TB within the last year). I had not seen it previously. Occurs: all the time upon wake from sleep with the HDD's still connected; there are many error messages on the screen which indicates even with display sleep the computer is sensing an improper disconnect from USB from both drives even though none has occurred. One drive is plugged in directly to the wall socket, and the other shares a power strip with the iMac. This bug did not occur until the last week or two, and did not occur for many months that I've had this hardware set up with the two drives always plugged into USB ports and powered on, connections directly to the back side of the iMac. This bug was reported first on this thread in this forum in 2009, and I can attest that it still occurs today running OSX El Capitan 10.11.6 with an iMac 21.5-inch, late 2012, Processor 2.9 GHZ Intel Core i5, 16GB 1600 MHz DDR3. Since users have reported it occurring on a many different external hard drives, and on different computer hardware, I don't think it's a drive issue, or a sector problem. Continues to reproduce when I deselect in System Preferences Put Hard drives to sleep whenever possible. I have just deselected "Enable Power Nap" since I recall there being issues getting that to work well when I was an Apple employee although I don't remember this bug and if it was power nap related but it seems to be. I'm not sure why Apple hasn't prioritized this bug and fixed it in the 7 years it's being reported, since it has resulted in data loss for some users as seen in this thread. It would be helpful if Apple could comment whether data loss is expected, as it seems the best work around right now is to disconnect all drives properly before putting the system to sleep, a real pain but would prevent the improper eject messages. Since Apple doesn't comment here, maybe someone can point me to any other workaround. If disabling power nap seems to help, I'll comment on this thread.