External Drive keeps disconnecting

I've got a Seagate GoFlex 2TB that was reformated, so the built-in utilites got wiped. Every few minutes, I'd get a Device not put away properly message, then the drive would re-connect.

I ran an app called Keep Drive Spinning that runs for a quick second to "hit' the drive to keep it awake and the problem went away. It can be found at MacUpdate's site.

I am having the same problem with USB devices: a WD external HD, a usb SD card reader, and a USB modem.

Is there any foreseeable solution to this? I only recently (5 days ago) started having this problem after a few software updates.

I am using a 2011 13" MBP, OS X 10.6.8.

Using a USB hard drive on a Mac will often result in intermittent disconnection or a failure to connect at all in the first place.

This is because USB ports on all computers provide less power than a FireWire port. SATA drives need more power than PATA drives, so an external SATA 2.5" drive which draws power for itself from the USB port is borderline as to whether it will work. A lot of these drives come with a special USB cable that connects to the power input socket on the hard disk to be used in addition to the normal USB data cable. This allows it to draw power via two USB cables at the same time in theory giving it twice as much power and thus solving the problem.

As another reply pointed out, some ports on the Mac may share the same USB bus and hence share the same limited power allocation.

Normally, a 2.5" external FireWire drive would not have a problem since as I mentioned above FireWire has more power to start with. However if you tried to use more than two FireWire drives at the same time then you are again in danger of exeeding the power available.

Power is definitely the most common cause of problems but this should not apply to external 3.5" hard disks since they all come with their own dedicated power adapters. The only other likely cause is a loose cable, which if your using a laptop is more likely as the cable is in a location nearer to where your hand etc. is moving around or putting papers down.

I'm having the same problem with *internal* drives 😟

If it is a problem with your internal drive, then you are not having the same problem - please start your own topic rather than confusing the issue here. I'm sure you had no intention to do this, but it is considered threadjacking.

This problem is still present in Lion. It seemed more intermittent in 10.7.1 but has come back full force for me with 10.7.2. My script is the only thing that keeps my Seagate GoFlex (FW800) docked drive from spontaneously dismounting sporadically (frequently).

Grant Harrington1 wrote:

I ran an app called Keep Drive Spinning that runs for a quick second to "hit' the drive to keep it awake and the problem went away. It can be found at MacUpdate's site.

That's essentially what my script does in the background -- generating a minimum of disk activity at a periodic interval to keep the bus (be it FW800 or USB) from timing out. It's what you would call a "kludge" rather than an ideal solution. It works, but I wish Apple would fix the underlying problem. Perhaps it's a problem with the timing or power draw of the lower end iMac/MacBook I/O controller chipsets.

I'm having the same problem with my external FW drive in Lion. When I wake up my MBP, I find the drive unmounted, with a pop up telling me that a drive has been improperly ejected.

The drive is a Seagate FreeAgent Pro.

Same thing happening to me on a regular basis. This is extremley annoying as the disk that keeps disconnecting has my iTunes library on it and my iPhone backups. My iPhone was syncing over WiFi last night without me knowing my external drive had once again disconnected. I woke up to find all my apps on my iPhone gone.

In the process of doing a restore now, hope the disk doesn't disconnect in the middle of it. Apple do you not have a fix for this yet?

I'm also experiencing the same problem, but only after upgrading to Lion. It's a Seagate FW800 external drive (GoFlex series). It does seem from this thread that the Seagate GoFlex disk is a pretty common denominator. Although it worked fine under SL for months, with no random disconnections.
I've switched cables with no success.

Same problem here. :-(

I am running a Mac mini i5, 2010 with eyetv hybrid, Microsoft wireless mouse/keyboard, USB powersaving powerrack and a WD MyBook 1 tb harddisk.

The Mini is running Lion (only because it was born with it), plex, eyetv, transmission and iTunes. It automatically powers on and of morning/evening.

The last month or so it has not been sleeping since it has been dl, but before it was sleeping fine.

A week ago i set it to go to sleep after 10 min and after this i have Been experiencing problems. It is as if the mini ejects all the USB devices and after a while i recognises Them again. The "improperly ejected" popup displayes.

I haven't been able to reproduce the error on command, but it still appears every day.

I have had the same setup with two previos models of MacMini. Both running snow leopard. The 2.0 GHz core 2 duo, and the 1,8 GHz coreduo. Absolutely no problems with these machines.

Come on Apple. Fix this.

I had the same problem when I bought a WD external hard drive. I took it back to the store and bought a Seagate brand hard drive and have not had any trouble.

We have the same problems on both of our Macbook Pros. We have a western digital external hard drive with its own power supply. Lion seems to randomly disconnect it. The drive will hang for a few minutes not allowing you to manually eject it. Then it will say it was disconnected without being ejected. When I run windows 7 in a virtual machine on my Macbook Pro and connect the harddrives to that, it never disconnects so it's not a hardware problem.

I'm having the same issue with a networked Stora drive from Netgear. I have it plugged in to my Airport Extreme with RJ-45 (Ethernet cable). The connection seems to go to sleep. This is a real issue as I have my media stored on this device, so Itunes loses connections to files, as does iPhoto. Issue with a Macbook Pro and an iMac. Seems to be a hardware thing on external drives, and seems like a glitch. Given it's happening to others on USB, Firewire, and now Ethernet, I don't believe it's a power issue (separate power supply anyway). I don't have this issue with another drive plugged in via USB (again, it's own power supply) to my iMac.

Thanks.

This solution worked for me:

I ran an app called Keep Drive Spinning that runs for a quick second to "hit' the drive to keep it awake and the problem went away. It can be found at MacUpdate's site.