Q: External hard drive ejects on sleep

http://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-Plated-24AWG-mini-B-Ferrite/dp/B003L1380E/ref=sr _1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1377871028&sr=8-2&keywords=Monoprice+3ft+Gold+Plated+28%2F24AWG +USB+2.0+A+Male+to+5pin+mini-B+Male+Cable+w%2FFerrite+Core

See post dated 30 August @ 6:28; I have not shut the computer down in 2 weeks and have not had any of the external hard drives ejected.  I have repeatedly slept/woke the computer without the dreaded message appearing....... (see stats):

23 August sleep/wake X6

24 August sleep/wake X8

25 August sleep/wake X5

26 August sleep/wake X6

27 August sleep/wake X4

28 August sleep/wake X5

29 August sleep/wake X6

30 August sleep/wake X11

31 August sleep/wake X8

1 September sleep/wake X9

2 September sleep/wake X7

3 September sleep/wake X5

4 September sleep/wake X4

5 September sleep/wake X4

I have never gone this long without an external hard drive ejecting but I will post again only if this "solution" turns out to be incorrect.  My earnest desire is not claim victory in a potted field unless this is truely a solution.............. as has been the case in far to many of the prior posts.

The cables were not the solution.  I went 17 days without an ejection but an "improper" ejection dialogue box appeared.  I have tried everything I can think of and I am not sure what the answer is, especially, since this problem occurs with, the soon to be released, upcoming OS X as well...............

Hey all,

I'm also using a bus powered WD My Passport 1tb, usb 3.0. And this drive works flawelesly. My sata dock doesnt (USB 3.0, 2x wd black caviar 2tb).

gr, Mark

(imac 2012/2013, i7)

Thanks for the suggestion but I am not prepared to buy any more external hard drives because, fortunately, it is simply an annoyance and has not resulted in any data loss.  The new cables I purchased did not eliminate the problem but vastly improved hard drive ejections.  In three weeks leaving the computer on 24/7 with multiple sleep/wake cycles there has been only one “improper” hard drive ejection.  I am curious to see the impact of the new cables on the frequency of hard drive ejection in the upcoming months.  For me at least, one ejection with all the sleep/wake cycles has been a major improvement.

Just to add another data point. I have an iMac i7 32GB/768GB (Ram/SSD) I bought in May, and found I could not put it to sleep because when I woke it up, not only would the drives I have connected via Thunderbolt (2 via LaCie eSATA hub, 2 via TB/FireWire adapter, and 1 via Thunderbolt (Akitio Neutrino Thunder Duo with 2 SSDs) all turn out to be unmounted incorrectly, but the Finder and every other app would beachball...

So my only recourse is to keep the iMac running 24/7 or shut it down.

I have the same problem, and maybe this can add a new element :

I've got two WD-MyBook (standard version, not the "for mac" edition) connected directly in USB3 to my brand new 27' iMac.

One of them is used for Time Machine and the other is just for external storage. When the iMac goes to sleeping mode, the TimeMachine HDD gets ejected but the other not... I didn't anything different one one disc or another... Both have just been updated with the last firmware but this doesn't change anything... The TM keeps ejecting and the other is fine...

Note that I had the same problem with a Seagate FreeAgent on FW800 on my MPB on 10.8.5...

---Also a new Mountain Lion user, and recently ran into the problem, after never encountering with SL 10.6.8-----

Delete the seagatebackup plus extension found in system/library/extensions/seagatebackupplus.kext (hope thats the right file name)

Get the firmware updater from the seagate site for your drive. The updater might not recognize your drive if its been ejected, OR of if its in already. So--have the updater up and waiting for a drive, unplug and plug your drive back in. Should detect it needing the upgrade. Should upgrade to 5.0.8 or something like that.

Also--change your energy saver settings, to turn off the "hard drive sleep" option

Hope that helps.

Just come across this. Purchased LaCie 8TB Raid drive installed a week ago to hold all media and iTunes libraries and all running fine until a day ago. Since yesterday getting the HDD ejected incorrectly message whenever the 27" late 2012 iMac sleeps. Drive connected via Thunderbolt. Oddly the other 2TB LaCie drive connected via Thunderbolt/Firewire adaptor used for Time Machine has no problems!

Macrumors.com is reporting that Apple is preparing a supplemental release to 10.8.5 that addresses the disconnect issue among others.

http://www.macrumors.com/2013/09/24/os-x-10-8-5-supplemental-update-being-prepar ed-to-address-facetime-camera-and-other-issues/

Nick

Excellent news. Then I can stop worrying about losing valuable data (even though backed up) and the constant disconnect possibly damaging the external drive! Was just about to pay a fortune to replace the new thunderbolt cable to see if that helped but will hold off now! Thanks for the update nickditoro.

I had such hopes for this update, but no, the problem persists.

I installed the supplemental update to 10.8.5 this afternoon and I've gotten the improperly disconnected drive message two out of three times the computer has gone into sleep mode. Aaargh!

Same here. Problem not solved by update.

I have figured out the cause to my problem, but not the solution.

I have a small power strip that has my problem external drive, another external drive that exhibits no issues (different make), my iPad charger and a small fan. The small power strip is daisy chained to my main power strip.

I've noticed if there are any fluctuations of power, whether by something attached to the small power strip or my main one, my problem external drive is prone to give me an improper ejection warning.

For example, if I turn my fan off, it may cause the HD to improperly eject. If I disconnect my charging iPad, it may improperly eject. If my MBP goes to sleep, it may improperly eject.

The only real frustrating thing is that it doesn't happen every time, but more often than not, I can trigger the ejection warning.

So it does (at least in my case) seem to be some kind of power issue. It's not clear to me if it's OS X or the power brick that came with the external case. It's one of those proprietary bricks so I don't have another one to test out my theory.

Please note it didn't matter if the external drive was plugged into my powered USB hub or directly into my MBP.

No solution, just trying to add more data points, I guess.

By the way, I also updated to 10.8.5 and continued to have issues.

Message was edited by: debaire
Fixed misspelling

All,

Please report if the external hard drives are continuing to eject after the 10.8.5  supplemental update.  The update has been out only a couple of days so it may be to early to tell but it will help to see if Apple needs to go back to the drawing board.  I have not had an ejection yet but, based upon past experience, it is far to early to be overly optimistic.

Thanks!