my macbook pro keeps ejecting my seagate external hard drive

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my macbook pro keeps ejecting my seagate external hard drive

I have a seagate 1.5T external hard drive and my mac book keeps ejecting and giving me the red box of doom telling me I didn't eject it properly. It just started a week ago or so, but it seems to happen if I
move my lap top around too much, or sometimes I am just sitting not moving and it ejects. Most of the time it will reconnect but any idea whats happening?? and what is bad about a drive ejecting without you ejecting it?? Am I going to ruin the drive??

Thanks!

Mac Book Pro, Mac OS X (10.6)

Posted on Jul 22, 2010 8:53 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 2, 2010 2:11 PM in response to mellyson

I had the same problem with a Seagate 2TB Expansion series external USB drive. Looks like it has something to do with the hard drive sleep mode. Under +System Preferences->Energy Saver+ I unchecked "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible". This fixed the problem for me.

Beware, this setting control all HDs, not just the external. Less than ideal if you use your external HD while battery powered, or are just concerned with overall electron suckage. The OS should be smart enough to know not to eject a USB drive when it puts it to sleep. This looks like a bug for Apple. Maybe the OS has no choice? It would be nice to have control of sleep states for each individual drive.

Message was edited by: mkarasoff

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Answer 2

Jul 23, 2010 6:38 AM in response to mellyson

Most modern drives can cope with disconnections. However, if the disconnection occurs partway through a write process it's possible that the file being written will be corrupted. Corrupted files can cause problems later on.

When the correct procedures are used for disconnecting/ejecting a drive the process ensures that file corruption doesn't happen.

Neville

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Answer 3

Aug 2, 2010 9:50 PM in response to mkarasoff

You can pass on this suggestion to Apple by using the Feedback contacts available through the 'Contact us' link at the bottom of this page. These feedbacks from users do come to Apple's attention.

Neville

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Answer 4

Aug 3, 2010 10:38 AM in response to Neville Mayfield

Spoke too soon.

While disabling sleep appeared to fix things yesterday, this morning, just after waking up my computer from its nights rests, I had 2 more spurious ejections. So, looks like disabling sleep reduces frequency, but doesn't solve the problem altogether.

I'm going to try putting the drive in a firewire enclosure.

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Answer 5

Aug 6, 2010 11:17 AM in response to mkarasoff

Took the 2TB hard drive out of the Seagate Expansion enclosure, and attached it to my computer using a Comkia SATA adapter. Drive works fine for the past day and a half with no disconnects. Not a bad hard drive.

I have a second Seagate Expansion that works fine on as an XP/NTFS external drive, but have the same problem when I attach to my Mac. Though that could be due to clunky NTFS support in OSX, I still suspect the Seagate Expansion enclosure does something the OS X doesn't like.

Think I need a new enclosure. Can anyone recommend an enclosure for my 2TB drive that is known to work with a MacBook Pro?

Message was edited by: mkarasoff

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Answer 6

jochy168

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Nov 17, 2010 2:00 PM in response to mellyson

I had the same problem with a western digital elements external HDD. The way i have fixed it was to go into disk utility and on the external HDD do a verify disk then a repair disk. Its been working for me without ejecting for the past 4 hours no problem. Before doing this fix it would eject about every 5 mins

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Answer 7

Jan 4, 2011 2:06 AM in response to mellyson

I have a similar problem, and tried using Disk Utility to solve it. Half way through verifying the documents the drive was dropped again, with the usual message accusing me of failing to eject it properly. DU said the disk software checked out ok. Tried again, this time saw lots of little things among the document files which DU thought should be repaired. Repairs completed successfully.

Started Time Machine backup.

Had shower. Came down to find backup complete (I checked the disk). Then the disk disconnects itself again, and I'm accused again. Moved computer, disk re-attaches itself. Carried on typing this, drive disconnected twice (same message), but unusually, reconnected quite quickly. It remains connected as I type (on my knee), with its light winking. Wiggling the connectors of the short USB lead has no effect.

The external drive is a Seagate 640 GB

Sometimes the light on the drive winks when it has been unilaterally ejected, other times it goes out.

Best regards, T.

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Answer 8

tbux

Level 4

1,691 points

Jan 9, 2011 5:57 PM in response to mellyson

I had the same problem with an OWC drive. I went through extremely extensive troubleshooting with both Apple and OWC. Reinstalled the OS,uninstalled several applications, changed the FireWire 800 cables etc. No problem with the USB port but the FireWire issue continued until recently when it stopped. No idea why the issue resolved itself.

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Answer 9

Jan 10, 2011 4:16 AM in response to tbux

Is that a solid-state drive? Mine is not, and it is USB. I had a WD Firewire drive before that which failed in a week or two, and was replaced. I've not dared use the new one, but maybe I should start a whole fresh backup on that in case it works. Seems like a flaky area. My last two portable macs went down with their original drives in not much more than a year. My new MacBook Pro has a solid-state drive...

Any indication of what the basis of the trouble is - are we asking too much of 2.5" drives, is the OS flaky in this area, are the connectors not up to it?

... but the FireWire issue continued until recently when it stopped. No idea why the issue resolved itself.

How maddening!

Best, T.

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Answer 10

tbux

Level 4

1,691 points

Jan 10, 2011 4:31 AM in response to Anthony Jackson3

Yes it is a solid state drive.The FireWire 800 port doesn't connect as securely as the the USB port but I don't know if that is a factor.

It was maddening.

Another odd issue is when not all of the partitions on an external FW drive mount, yet if I then launch Disk Utility they will mount. I have this issue with two other OWC drives. This makes even less sense.

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Answer 11

ronroyer

Level 1

15 points

Jan 16, 2011 10:20 AM in response to mellyson

I am having the same problem on my Iomega USB external HD. I put the computer to sleep last night, then pulled out the plug and shut off the drive. This AM started the macbook up and kept getting this message even though the drive was not in. Downloaded and used OnyX and it reported a number of errors on my laptop HD. Used the system disk to repair my internal HD, then all seemed to be OK. Then I accessed my MiFi card and the HD disconnected and I got the same message. I think it might have something to do with the newest version of the OS (read about here: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-10365239-263.html but it might also have something to do with the MiFi card (I got it yesterday.). still trying to find a solution. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Ron

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Answer 12

natefair

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Apr 22, 2011 10:30 PM in response to mellyson

Same issue as everyone else. Many different drives, so this is not an issue with the drives. I tried both USB drives, but it seem to happen with other ports. This sure sounds like an OS issue and it's major since it effective prevents backups!

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Answer 13

J.H.A.D.

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May 14, 2011 1:48 PM in response to mellyson

I have the same problem with a Seagate 2TB 3.5" external USB hard drive connected to an Intel Mac Mini running Snow Leapord (OS X 10.6.7). It regularly seems to spin-down and eject, and then almost instantly reconnect, happens every 5-10 minutes. If I'm actively accessing information on it (i.e. through iTunes), then it has no problem, but the moment it's been inactive for more than 5 minutes it starts disconnecting and reconnecting over and over again until I start using it again.

The same thing happens if I hook the drive up to my MacBook Pro running the same OS. Doesn't happen if I use it with Windows/Linux PCs.

Has anyone managed to do anything to stop their drives from doing this, is it an OS issue (sounds likely)?

J.

Also, the drive doesn't shut off when the computer turns off. I think this is an issue with some Seagate drives.

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Answer 14

Jun 11, 2011 7:38 PM in response to mellyson

I have have found that I have this problem with usb thumb drives and my NTFS seagate 1.5TB usb3 portable drive. I haven't had this problem with my OSX formated Seagate 1.5TB drive though. I'm starting suspect it has something to do with FAT and NTFS partitions. I have eliminated all external causes, save software on my Macbook (late 2008 runing 10.6.7)

it happens randomly, when I delete a file (small or large), when transfering files. it's so random that I can't narrow it down.

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Answer 15

Jun 22, 2011 2:26 PM in response to mellyson

Although this is a year old post (original) the problem has been around for awhile. I have two Seagate FreeAgent disk drives powered by an externally powered USB hub, connected to my core 2 duo imac. The older drive 1TB, (two yrs old) is fine, never ejects itself, the new one that I bought last month, 1.5TB, is the culprit. Aside from making clicking, clunking and arcing noises, it will eject and reconnect itself several time an hour. I just downloaded the FreeAgent go sleep dmg referenced above,and installed it a few minutes ago, I will keep an eye on things to see if the problem has been resolved. I contacted Seagate a few days ago and and asked for a replacement since the new drive is only a month old, they sent an email today saying that they are out of stock. Both of these drives were originally formatted for Windows at the time of purchase, and i reformatted and partitioned them as GUID for use with OS X 10.6.

From the numerous comments about the same problem, independent of the brand of drive, it does appear that there is some sort of firmware glitch that exists between the Mac OS and the external hard drives. Now that Apple is aware of the ongoing issue, perhaps they will address it in the new OS 10.7, Lion??? Then again, maybe not.

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