Hard Drive Not Ejecting

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Hard Drive Not Ejecting

I have a Western Digital MyBook that will not eject at all. I do not get the "device in use" type error messages or anything like that. When I try to eject it, the icon ghosts out as if its trying to eject, but will then just sit there, and I can do nothing with it. It even interfeers with shutdown as my computer starts to shut down, but then sits at a grey screen. My only option after that is to manually power off the computer. Without it connected, shutdown is normal. Does anyone know what may be going on and how to troubleshoot it?

OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Jan 23, 2013 10:00 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 23, 2013 10:14 AM in response to KaelCormac

Next time that happens try relaunching the Finder: command + option + esc, select Finder, then click on Relaunch.

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Answer 2

KaelCormac Author

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Jan 23, 2013 11:14 AM in response to Eustace Mendis

Finder is not Relaunching

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Answer 3

Jan 23, 2013 11:21 AM in response to KaelCormac

Did you try Repair Disk?

Applications / Utilities / Disk Utility. Select the external drive and request "Repair Disk".

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Answer 4

KaelCormac Author

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Jan 23, 2013 11:28 AM in response to KaelCormac

When I tell finder To relaunch it takes away my icons and only shows a blank desktop. I can get to the "dock" and open programs from there but finder is still not responding. And I still have the shutdown issue.

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Answer 5

KaelCormac Author

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Jan 23, 2013 11:32 AM in response to Eustace Mendis

I will try this next, but I'm pulling some files off in case it goes screwy. I'm finding that as soon as I transfer a file, finder stops responding (I can only assume because of the hard drive). Then I have to shutdown the computer (with the power button) and unplug the hard drive in order for a working boot up.

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Answer 6

Jan 23, 2013 11:36 AM in response to KaelCormac

Do this only if Repair Disk does not work.

Go to Users / yourself / Library / Preferences.

Find the file called com.Apple.Finder.plist, and put it in the trash. But do not empty the trash, just in case.

Now restart. That file will be recreated. If the problem is a corrupted preferences file, this should solve it.

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Answer 7

Nov 25, 2015 8:36 AM in response to Eustace Mendis

This is an old question, but the reason you are getting the error message is because your disk is actually in use. Try opening Console.app with your disk attached, then click your eject button. You should see the request to unmount several times in your console log, then you will see it fail with an explanation that it was in use by <foo> process. You can find out more about that that process by running `sudo lsof | grep -i <volume_name>`. Most likely the service using your disk is mds-related(spotlight indexing, or other meta-data tasks).

Once you know which service is preventing your drive from ejecting, you will have a better idea of what is "wrong"(if anything). Finder itself is behaving as it should though, and letting you know that it failed to eject the drive because another process using it was not finished.

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