Disk not ejected properly

Hi All

I am not sure if the fix I am about to relay will work for everyone here BUT it has certainly worked for me!

I have a new MBPr which I migrated from my old MBPr and immeadiatly started to get the problems described in this forum.

I have investigaed most of the solutions suggested here and elsewhere without any success, I did install Jettison but while this masked the problem it actually stopped most of my backups working!

So I called Apple support and pushed it very hard until I had a Teir 2 person on the line and she was incredibly helpful, supportive and instisted she woudl ge the problem fixed and she delivered.

She pinned the problem down to the migration from the older machine/prefs corruption.

I will try and record here exactly what we did.

Instructions

1. Pull out your ethernet cable and disable WiFi and any other network connectivity you have.

2. Open Finder, go to your computer and then select you Macintosh HD (or whatever you have renamed it).

3. Go to Macintosh HD - Library - Preferences

4. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the list and you ewill see a folder called SystemConfiguration

5. Pull this folder onto the desktop.

6. Go to System Preferences - Sharing and change the name of your computer, even just a litlle bit.

7. Reboot

8. Re-enable Wifi and Ethernet

9. If you have installed Jettison, remove it and remove it from your start up items.

You shoudl be good to go.

My machine was constantly ejecting my USB drive, even if left for onnly 10-15 minutes, since doing this I have not had one single ejection and I am into 48 plus hours of run time.

If you like what Jettison does but don't want to eject the disks everytime your computer sleeps and it will!, then try UnDock from the Mac App store.

Very similar functionality BUT it is a manual process.

In my case if I am going to be going out I will simply use the key combo I hae seletced Ctrl-Alt-Command plus U and all my external devices undock.

I really hope this helps one or more you you guys.

Robin

Wow, a 25 page reply to this problem! One wonders what Apple can do about this as it appears to be an OS issue with firmware from my testing.

To chime in and offer my testing results:

1. Had this problem with my Seagate USB drive and it finally died last month.

2. Bought an identical DataTale enclosure to one I currently have that allows me to easily swap hard drives (nice feature). Figured the eject problem was due to the old Seagate Time Machine HD on it's last breath. Nope, same issue with the new enclosure and HD on 2nd bus of e-Sata card on my 2008 Mac Pro.

3. Hooked up my FW800 bus to eliminate the possibility of a bad e-Sata channel. Problem still persisted :-( At least not a communication issue with the e-Sata channel :-)

4. Switched e-Sata buses from one enclosure to the other. Problem still persisted on same volume. So, not the e-Sata channel or cables.

5. Switched hard drives from one enclosure to the other. BINGO…problem now moved over to new volume! This indicates an issue with the enclosure, most likely a firmware issue since this problem is so widespread. I tested it many times to verify, definitely an issue with the enclosure, not the type of bus, since this issue has occurred under USB2, USB3-PCI card, FW800 and e-Sata-PCI card or the cables for that matter (even though some have reported it fixed their problem).

To Summarize: There appears to be an issue with the OS and firmware of the enclosures. This is happening for OS users on L, ML, M, and the new Y. This issue is not necessarily caused by bad cables or hardware, other than perhaps some small issue with how the OS communicates with the enclosure's firmware when it goes to sleep.

I'll have to breeze through these 25 pages and see what seems to be working for others and try it. I'll also take my new enclosure to my friend who can run the Windows 7 latest DataTale firmware updater to bring the FW up to the same as the enclosure that is working properly. Perhaps a clean install is in order too, since I haven't done so for ages. I'm a bit hesitant to try that as the machine is so stable except for this one issue.

This is really annoying and I had no idea how widespread this problem is…25 pages of users having the same issue!!!

Get involved Apple..please.

Also being a member of this club i quickly went threw the 25 pages of thread... but a question i did not see answered was... Is this error anything but just a nuisance? Has there bee any damage or loss of data because of this?

I have not had any data loss or corruption. In my opinion, this is a firmware/software issue with OSX. Normally, when your machine goes into deep sleep, the firmware/chipset keeps the drive connected to the OS, so that when it wakes up, the drive is still there. It appears that some firmware/chipset combinations lose this connection during deep sleep which is why one gets the disconnect warning upon waking up.

Since OSX has several different communication protocols: USB2 and 3, FW400 and 800, eSata and Thunderbolt, the firmware may stay connected with one. but not the others. For example, my DataTale drive can function on USB2, FW800 and eSata buses. If I use FW800 or eSata, the drive disconnects from the OS as soon as it goes into deep sleep, thus the disconnect warning when the OS wakes up. However, when connected with USB2, it stays connected and I don't get the warning. Funny thing is, I used to get the warning with an old Seagate running on USB2, but that drive soon failed, so I figured it was the drive going south, but now I get the warning with a new enclosure and hard drive. If I shut down and restart the enclosure, the drive mounts again and works with no problem, which reinforces my theory of it being a firmware/hardware issue with deep sleep.

It's worth mentioning again that I have an identical drive enclosure that was FW updated and it doesn't have a problem on any of the different buses. I suspect a problem in the FW or chipset in the latest enclosure that is disconnecting me. Since I just use the 2nd enclosure for Time Machine BU, USB2 is fast enough, but I would prefer to run it on my 2nd eSata channel.

As mentioned in a prior post, I've run tests between the two enclosures to eliminate cable, hard drive and enclosure issues. That's not to say a bad cable isn't the culprit, as some users have said, it fixed the problem. However, I think for the vast amount of users with this issue, it's a firmware/hardware issue with OSX.

Try a different enclosure or communication bus to see how it performs on your system. This is a pretty widespread problem with 25 pages of replies. Id like to see Apple chime in and help us with a solution.

I had a long phone call with a Level 2 Apple adviser last week and apparently "the engieers are working on it". It seems they're becoming aware of this problem (if it is just one problem) and this thread, because the Level 1 adviser wanted me to run through Robin's fix (see post on 25 Feb) before he put up the white flag and called in Level 2. In turn, Level 2 ended up suggesting I try Jettison as a temporary work-around. Hopefully I'll hear something in the next few days.

In the meantime those of you still on Mountain Lion might like to check out this supplemental update, which the Level 2 adviser sent to me: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1686?locale=en_GB&viewlocale=en_GB It claims to address "...an issue that may cause external drives to be ejected after the computer goes to sleep." Didn't work for me but might help someone.

Peter

Just want to point one related article that was suggested in the page:

OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.5 Supplemental Update

It says: Fixes an issue that may cause external drives to be ejected after the computer goes to sleep.

more complex question it seems…

I don't want to count my chickens before they've hatched but, after many hours and months of looking and trying, this solution seems to be working!!!!! I wonder how much electricity I have used searching for this solution? Far more than I've saved using my ECO socket!! Thanks (hopefully) bfhaith .

bfhaithOct 4, 2014 12:32 PM Re: Disk not ejected properly
Re: Disk not ejected properlyin response to iPhabio

OK, I'll offer my solution to what turned out to be a really simple problem. I've been fighting this issue for the better part of a year, since I bought my Macbook Pro. I've tried Jettison, resetting all sorts of things, everything I've been able to find online and found no solution that worked consistently. I have three external drives, all different brands: WD, Seagate, and ioSafe.

Turns out (drumroll please) I have an APC UPS that has "smart" outlets. When the "master" plug goes dark (in my case a Thunderbolt display when it sleeps), the other outlets shut down, including the ones into which my drives are plugged. This type of power strip is becoming more and more common. I plugged these into a "regular" outlet and problem solved.

I doubt this will help everyone, but it's a simple (and stupid to overlook) solution that helped me.

Appeltjehehe :- I tried, for almost 2 years, to resolve this. I know that there seem to be many "solutions".

In my case I finally followed advice from bfhaithOct 4, 2014 12:32 PM Re: Disk not ejected properly

I think it was linked to the ECO socket removing power when the monitor went to sleep. This reduced the power needed from the ECO socket which "assumed" I had switched off and shut down the power to the drives, which were also attached to the ECO socket (i.e. working as it was supposed to)..

Essentially what I have done is plugged my desktop (iMac) into a separate (non eco) socket so it receives a constant supply. My, various, external drives are in other sockets. This has removed the message/problem.

The hard drives do power down when not in use (depending on settings in energy saver) and come back to life when the iMac wakes up.

I suppose in a way this shows that the mac uses very little power when in standby which is a good thing.

Might be worth plugging the Mac Pro into a separate socket to see what happens (this is probably a fairly simple operation, apart from the inevitable crawling under desks etc!!).

I kept getting the error Disc Not Ejected Properly. I've got Mavericks 10.9.5, and run it on a Mac Mini. I too have two external drives. One i use a Time Machine, the other my SuperDuper back up. I've read all post concerning this subject, and finally went to the never setting for sleeping as I leave my computer on 24/7. So far I haven't gotten the error message anymore. I don't know how it affects the rest of you as I seem to be the only Mac Mini on these postings and others with the problem. Just my two cents on the subject.

Edit

Apple doesn’t routinely monitor the discussions. These are mostly user to user discussions.

Send Apple feedback. They won't answer, but at least will know there is a problem or a suggestion for change. If enough people send feedback, it may get the problem/suggested change solved sooner.

Feedback

Ok. It's been about a week now and I feel that a combination of a couple of the "fixes" recommended here have worked for me. Originally I tried the solution provided by @Robster50 (Robin) and it seemed to work for a few days, but the 'Disk not ejected properly' issue returned. In the end, doing all these things appears to have worked for me:

1. The original solution provided here by Robin
2. In Settings > Energy Saver unchecking 'Put hard disks to sleep when possible'
3. In Settings > Energy Saver checking 'Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off'
4. In Settings > Spotlight > Privacy added all the external drives to NOT be indexed by Spotlight

I'm not 100% sure if the last item is required or not and I may experiment with that and report back here. I did have one time in a week where my Time Machine drive did report the 'Disk not ejected properly' error but that is FAR better than before when I used to get these errors on multiple drives multiple times a day.

Robin,

Many thanks for providing this solution! Two questions:

1. Just to confirm... you drag the SystemConfiguration folder out onto the Desktop, not copy and paste, correct?
2. Will that folder be re-created?

Thank you.

Same issue on an 27" IMAC Late 2012. I have several external drives attached via USB 2 and 3 and when the system sleeps, the drives will do one of two things.. Either Go to sleep as they are supposed to or get disconnected with the "Disk not ejected properly" message when it wakes up.. Lots of data and very worried it will corrupt if this keeps up.

Same here, 2007 iMac running Mavericks.
I have 4 external USB drives consisting of 7 terabytes of HD space.
After every sleep it's the "disk not ejected properly".
I have no problem installing 3rd party software to do a task, but NOT to fix an obvious bug from Apple!.

I get this error as well, and my two external SSD drives are practically useless under Mavericks. Many freezes during read/writes. Have had several pretty critical issues with Mavericks so far- really regret upgrading. My fault for upgrading so early, I almost never do that. Paying for it now. Hopefully a forthcoming patch will fix at least the external drive problems, this is a real killer.

Update: at least it seems Mavericks has not corrupted the data on my SSD's. I have been able to mount them on my wife's Air (w/ Mountain Lion) and copy the disks over the network. Not ideal at all, but at least this saves me days of downloading backups from Backblaze. And the SSD's are still viable.

iMac 27" late 2012

Message was edited by: Bitmatt