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External hard drive ejects on sleep

I recently upgraded to Mountain Lion and noticed every time I leave my iMac and it goes to sleep, the external hard drives eject. I get the pop-up stating they were improperly ejected. Anyone know how to stop this? Wasn't having any problems in Lion.

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion

Posted on Aug 3, 2012 6:21 PM

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450 replies

Aug 3, 2012 6:22 PM in response to iamapple

I have similar problem. When I upgraded to ML just about all USB devices I have disconnect except my magic mouse. I have 2 external drives, 1 500 GB I use for TM and the 1TB I use for storage. Also a logitech K750 keyboard with its own usb dongle. When my system goes to sleep everything disconnects except for my magic mouse. The only option is to restart the system then everything work fine on reboot. When going back to sleep same thing happens again. I have gone in sys pref and unchecked all 4 options in energy saver. I'm looking for a solution as well.

Aug 4, 2012 6:13 PM in response to Reevesrl

Hi


Am having exactly the same issue with a LaCie d2 Quadra 3GB connected via FW800. From what I've seen in the limited information on various forums, the issue seems to be related to Mountain Lion and how it handles wake from sleep rather than a specific brand of drive. I am now running Caffeine when my iMac is turned on during the day to avoid the system going to sleep. Not ideal but does (so far) seem to have the benefit that since there is no sleep there is no random eject.


Roll on ML .1 update and hope a fix for this is included. I too did not have the issue with Lion but after the upgrade it's been a daily occurrence. 😟.


Andrew

Aug 5, 2012 10:15 AM in response to iamapple

After it posts the message about improperly ejecting does it actual "re-mount" the drive??

That's what I see on one - but not all - my drives.


Do you see any unusual message after it wakes up? I see a lot of these:


8/5/12 1:05:11.000 PM kernel[0]: disk0s3: media is not present.


but then it actually mounts the disk and, in fact, all seems no worse for wear.

Aug 6, 2012 12:16 AM in response to jmbell

Likewise mine does not remount the drive - proudly leaves the "you didn't eject the disk properly silly!" message on display. I have up to date AV software Chrisphoto and have had the problem before and after definition and component updates (running Norton Internet Security for Mac).


Interesting finding (so far) is that I have pulled out my main LaCie 3TB (just noticed I said 3GB - duh - showing my age in IT) and replaced this a LaCie 500GB USB drive (USB powered - not separate power supply) and so far all fine. I purposely did not run Caffeine while I left the Mac on all day when I was at work.


So wondering if the ML issue with the random disk eject is related to size or power source of drive (clutching perhaps I know). I have seen others report the same problem with 1TB so suspect it's not a drive size factor.


If the 500GB continues ok for a day or so I will try some other USB drives I have. Just trying to narrow down what the common factors if any may be.


The d2 Quadra 3TB from LaCie is only a month or two old and was not cheap - paid more to get a quality product rather than basic consumer - so I will be rather annoyed if it turns out the problems with LaCie firmware talking to ML rather than with Apple. From some other forums, seems LaCie have not generally been fast to resolve issues with their drives.


jmbell - last night I left my iMac running but just ejected the external drive. Do did not need Caffeine and for me the external is more long term storage rather than used for downloads in the first instance. If the problem persists I may go looking for an apps that keeps the disks spinning but lets the screen go into energy save mode.


Andrew

Aug 6, 2012 2:19 AM in response to iamapple

Update to my earlier comment:


My 27" iMac (2008), just upgraded to Mountain Lion from Snow Leopard, now improperly ejects my 2TB WD hard drive everytime it goes to sleep. When it comes back to life it remounts the drive, but gives me a message about I did something wrong. I'm worried that eventually this repetitive process will damage the data on the external drive.

Aug 6, 2012 2:40 AM in response to Reevesrl

Likewise my concern and why I'm ejecting my 3TB LaCie when not using it. From the growing list of comments there does not seem to be any similarity or common factors. 😟


I have seen comments re Mountain Lion and laptop battery issues in the media but not a lot of threads re this disk eject problem yet so wondering if it will make the list for Apple to look at for the .1 patch update.


While the lack of obvious common factors is a pain, it does seem to strongly suggest it's Mountain Lion rather than firmware from a specific manufacturer or a particular mode of connection (FW, USB etc).


For the moment I'll stick with Caffeine when I need to be sure the "offending drive" stays mounted. Not ideal but at least the files are there when needed and it reduces the risk of file system corruption from the device going offline at an inappropriate moment.


Andrew

Aug 6, 2012 2:49 AM in response to iamapple

Just done some more forum searches and this issue is appearing in several now, including multiple in MacRumors. Someone said they were going to put in a support ticket to Apple, so hopefull this will help our collective cause. Apart from this issue, and some occasional Mail funnies (seems to "lose" the network and I have to manually "Get Mail"), I like Mountain Lion a lot.


Andrew

External hard drive ejects on sleep

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