Q: Disk Drive ejecting itself

@onemac:

I did think that explanation might be a bit oversimplified. That said, changing over to the FireWire connection does seem to have stopped the problems in my case. I was able to transfer about 3 tb of data onto the Drobo (transfers that I was never able to finish completely over USB). Also of note, when I had analyzed the data that I was able to transfer successfully over USB, I would have the same number of files/folders but there would be slight differences in file size (destination<source) which seemed to suggest some loss in these large prolonged transfers. The 3tb that I've moved over FireWire match up perfectly to the source and everything has been behaving for the last week or so (used daily as a media server)

MSeneca:

Glad to hear you've found a solution for your particular problem.

My own tests continue. I found that with USB I got what I call partial ejections, i.e. I got the "did not eject properly" warning, but the disk was not actually ejected and continued to work normally (as far as I could tell, anyway). I've now switched back to Firewire and I'm getting the same results I did before with Firewire, i.e. occasional (but full) ejections.

Later today I will do a test after booting up in a new partition of my Mac HD (this was suggested to me by Apple). Basically what I'll do is simply close my MacBook's lid, put it to sleep, then wake it up, and keep repeating that process until I get an ejection (or not). I should remind folks that my ejections only happen when I wake up my Mac.

If that doesn't work, the last thing in my box of tricks is to plug in the AC adapter I just bought from Hitachi for my G-Drive.

If that doesn't work, I'll be seriously flummoxed (a high-tech term meaning, "what the heck do I do now?").

Message was edited by: onemac

Well, I tested the G-Drive in a new partition of my Mac HD, but the ninth time I woke my Mac from sleep, the G-Drive ejected itself fully.

So now I'm down to testing my last resort, the AC adapter for the G-Drive.

So far I have had only a couple of partial ejections, i.e. I get the classic warning but the G-Drive's icon is still present in the Finder, and the drive acts normally and is able to perform a Time Machine backup. And as usual, these ejection incidents, like all my previous partial and full ejections, only happen upon waking my Mac from sleep.

So I'll continue testing with the AC adapter until something has been determined one way or the other.

This is not an issue with your disk drive, it is an issue with OS X. My disk drive ejects and then remounts itself every few seconds, nothing I can do will stop it. I did not have this issue last time I used it, a few months ago. Incredibly frustrating problem.

Reed,

I'm with you about it not being an issue with my G-Drive. What I'm testing is whether OS X is intermittently not supplying enough power to the Firewire port. The idea of using the AC adapter for the G-Drive is to find out if that will stop the ejections. If it does, then perhaps one can conclude that it is indeed a matter of an OS X-initiated interruption of power to the Firewire port. My plan is to take copious notes as I test, come to a dead end, and then pass all my notes to Apple and say, "I've done all I can, now fix this, dang it!"

Thus far the only help I've received from Apple is some suggestions of things to try, and that's what I've been doing. I have to admit that I'm pretty disappointed about Apple's seeming inability to fix the problem, but having gotten somewhat of a lacklustre reaction from Apple support, I decided to do as much as I could on my own before getting back to them with, shall we say, very much stiffened resolve.

Several of the Apple support people I've spoken with have said that they've not heard of the problem before, nor were they aware of this long-standing discussion, and although one of them (after I got insistent) did say it was a known problem, I have not seen any official acknowledgement of that by Apple. I always thought (naïvely, I guess) that Macs had few problems like this, but if a serious problem did arise, Apple would work closely with Mac owners to fix it. This situation is beginning to change my mind.

Anyway, my test with the AC adapter continues. After that, I'll apply the stiffened resolve.

Message was edited by: onemac

I dont know if anybody brought this up already, but this seemed to help me out... I have a buffalo 1tb drive.... sent it back to buffalo thinking the unit was defective.. they sent me a new one.. after a month or so.. it stopped working... and then kept ejecting.. i read on another forum to disable the spotlight search for the external drive... seems to be working. and im not in the process of verifing and repairing the disk ( as a precaution).

u disable spotlight search on externals by going to:
system preferences>spotlight>privacy....... and then drag the drives to that column

hope it helps

Hi guys,

I thought I would jump in and explain the same problem (and temporary solution) that I've found.

The issue: Disks ejecting themselves and giving the 'error-36' when copying files from external disks onto the mac (running 10.6.6). It seems that the disks that cause issue are those formatted in FAT32 & NTFS. (CF connected via USB and a windows machine connected via ethernet).

Temporary solution: At this point, I've narrowed the problem down to Mac OS 10.6.6. I have reinstalled the original 10.6 and I can copy all the data across without any trouble what so ever. When updating to 10.6.6, the same issues arise again.

It seems the issue isn't across all macs running 10.6.6 however. Using an iMac with 10.6.6 the data transferred perfectly fine. I'm using a MacBook Pro that is approximately 14-16 months old.

It does look like apple hasn't really taken notice of the issues we are having yet, but I would love to know if anyone has escalated the problem further with support?

Message was edited by: JeremyB5

Message was edited by: JeremyB5

JeremyB5 wrote:
The issue: Disks ejecting themselves and giving the 'error-36' when copying files from external disks onto the mac (running 10.6.6). It seems that the disks that cause issue are those formatted in FAT32 & NTFS. (CF connected via USB and a windows machine connected via ethernet).

I thought the problem was only on HFS+ and with that meta-file used for spotlight. For your information, I just remembered long before my problem arise, my spotlight failed to search file within my EXt HDD. The I try to find file that I'm sure it was in folder of my Ext HDD. Its not working though I know the file was on there. Few days later..... puff, sudden eject and everything was messed up.

add me to the list

fire wire drive ejects its self

then pro tools re writes the record path to another directory ??

Same here! This is extremely annoying! Any file that is larger to 2gb (I would say) will give me that drive ejecting issue - both front and back on my 08 Macpro. However, this works fine on my Macbook Pro... and both computers are running on 10.6.6

Managed to solve it like this:

Go to Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility/Repair Disk

If you can, erase/format the disk there.

I erased first before repairing so was not sure which fixed but the result is the problem goes away now.

Add me to the list as well. Just got my first Mac, a 15" MBP. First TM backup went fine (76GB of data). Installed more apps, and now my 107GB backup ejects after getting to about 95GB. Happens at the same place each time. Was going to go buy a new external hdd tonight, but it sounds like that might not solve the issue. I verified, but will try repairing tonight, as well as turning off spotlight. I hate not having a backup.

I'm having the same problem as everyone else here since updating to 10.6.6.

I rang apple technical support to ask their advice - I was told to take my macpro in for repair - they refuse to acknowledge any problems with 10.6.6 whatsoever - so I told them that there is overwhelming evidence online that this is an issue with the OS. I was then told to never believe what I read on forums - apparently this thread (and all threads for that matter) is just 5 people 'pretending' to be lots of people. Never has a PC / windows seemed more appealing to me....

larrycalyx,

My jaw just hit the floor. An absolutely unbelievable response from Apple (but I believe it).

How is it possible that NOBODY at Apple is experiencing this same problem and not kicking it upstairs for a fix? All you have to do is google "+OS 10.6.6 external drive self-ejection problem+" and you get pages and pages of references. And all of course originate from only five people...but you folks at Apple already knew that.

Anybody got a Steve Jobs' email address? I heard he actually takes time to respond to product concerns and since has become glaringly apparent nothing will get done here no matter how loud "all five" of us get. If we could just get him a link to this thread, maybe we will see action.

I'd really like to change my forum name from "WillyGates' to "SteveSnowJobs" but I'm sure that's already been taken. Hey, maybe THAT IS his email address! I'll try it and let you all know.

In the meantime, I certainly apologize to Mr. Gates. This will convert me back to PC unless it gets fixed real soon.

willygates wrote:
How is it possible that NOBODY at Apple is experiencing this same problem and not kicking it upstairs for a fix?

Although I have no special insight into this, it's possible that a future update to OS X 10.6 will deal with the problem. If you're curious, you might find speculation on such updates if you do a Web search.