Q: External hard drive ejects on sleep

I have a late 2009 23" iMac, 3.33Ghz Intel Core Duo, 1TB HD,8GB memory, running 10.8.5.

I have a G-Tech G-Drive 4th Generation, 1TB External HD connected directly to the iMac via Firewire.  For data security purposes this drive contains a sparse image bundle.  A few days ago, I noticed that when waking the iMac from sleep, the sparse image bundle had been dismounted, but the drive itself was still mounted.

I have noticed many threads on the subject of all sorts of disks being ejected or dismounted when all models of Macs, Macbooks, etc sleep, but have not specifically seen the problem with a sparse image.

Any thoughts?

Same problem here. My 27" iMac (late 2012) was working fine until I reinstalled Mountain Lion. Then it started ejecting my external time machine backup HD after wake up from sleep. I installed the combo update and still no avail..

Not a great solution, but logging out and logging back in is a quick fix on my end.

In my experience, no the disks don't remount. Upon wake (and getting that message) I have to unplug the thunderbolt cable and replug it in to get the disk to reconnect.

Running 10.9 imac 27" Mid 2011 Model, using a Lacie Thunderbolt Big Disk

Yes, I have the same issue and reported it to the Apple Feeedaback page. It does it on Mavericks as well. Could be an issue with the USB 3 ports.

Can anyone report if it happens with the latest batch of 27" iMacs late 2013? Does it happen across the board with MacBook Pro's also?

I'm attemting to put the machine on Power Nap and turn off "Put drives to sleep". See what this does. If anyone has done this let me know, I may be repeating what someone else has already tried.

Hi Guys,

I have the same issue, I get the "improperly ejected" warning.

However lately I have a new problem besides this one:

Sometimes my Macbook Pro (late 2007) cannot go to sleep.

I mean when the computer tries to go to sleep, first it shuts down the monitor, then my computer becomes unresponsive. I can hear the fans constantly spinning. And the only thing I can do is to press the power button until the computer shuts down completely. This is not very good...

It seems to be related with the connected external drive (USB 2), becasue this does not happen when there's no external drive connected.

Does anyone have the same experience?

Thanks!

I am having a similar issue with my 2012 Retina MBP but only in 10.9 Mavericks. After I try to put the Mac to sleep (either forcibly or via the sleep timer), the console log becomes flooded with "kernel[0]: Wake reason: XHC1," which is related to USB. In my case, it appears to be related to my USB hub, and my MBP wakes even if no devices are plugged into the hub. Sometimes my external drives connected to the hub will eject on sleep.

If I disconnect the hub, the MBP sleeps fine, and I did not have this issue in 10.7.x or 10.8.x. I have 10.8.5 dual-booted on the same MBP, and sleep works fine.

Thanks for sharing.

I had this issue even in Mountain Lion. (Started around this August or September.)

I've checked other forums and it can have several reasons but it's definitely related with the external drive (or other external devices).

Update...have not posted since 19 October.  I have not had any more ejections on either ML or Mavericks since the October post.  For me ML was cured with the supplemental update.  Mavericks with the GM release on the 22nd of October has solved the problems I was having with the Developers preview, and the "initial" GM release of Mavericks.

I too had the ejecting problem of my external drives connected by firewire. Finally broke down and bought the app "Jettison" for $1.99. So far it seems to be working and has eliminated the improperly ejected drive warning. In order for it to work properly you need to wait a minute after you put the computer to sleep or it goes to sleep via the timer before you wake it again otherwise the still attached disks will not remount.

This app should be part of Mavericks since without it Time Machine backups are at risk of being lost unless you eject the drive every time before you put your computer to sleep.

Thanks for the tip Zepple!

I've got to buy an application to keep my operating system from potentially ruining my hardware?

What is this Windows ME?

Hey Apple, how about fixing this issue, as it's clear, it's "not just me".

Sounds like both of us are running similar equipment. I'm running a 27'' iMac (mid 2011) 3.4 GHz i7. You are connected through thunderbolt while I'm connected by firewire 800. I was just happy I found the app. It would have been nice if the tech support at applecare had informed me of it's existance. I was glad to pay the $1.99  since I had spent at least 10 hours trying other suggestions that were awkward, time consuming and usually didn't work.

I was also getting annoyed having to unplug and replug cables to get the disc to remount. Jettison fixed all these issues, at least for me.

Couldn't agree more with you!  Why should we have to purchase a 3rd party app for something that Apple should fix. 

I wouldn't mind buying the $1.99 App, except I use the harddrive primarily to run backups that the computer does while sleeping.