Disk not ejected properly

Final update (I hope): It appears that Mavericks 10.9.3 dealt with my issue, because after I did everything discussed above, my problem was not resolved. After the update to 9.3, I have returned all energy savings settings to their original (10.8.something) levels, and three days later with abundant sleeps in between, I have yet to experience the disk not ejected properly issue. I hope everyone else has experienced the same improvement with that update!

sibebfica, I am glad that the Mavericks update 10.9.3 solved this issue for you. I still had the problem with Mavericks10.9.3. The only thing that worked for me was using a powered USB hub that doesn't allow the Seagate to go sleep. However, I see that my solution didn't work for others in this forum.

kcft: well, I guess Yosemite isn't much better!

FWIW, I have a WD MyBook USB 3.0 1.5 TB external drive connected to a powered (low powered, not high) 3.0 USB hub connected to a MacBook Pro Retina 15" mid-2012 with a recently replaced logic board (because of HDMI problems), using 10.9.3.

I have always had spontaneous disconnects of the external drive. All the WD software has been removed both by their uninstall program and manually for whatever was left. I get these disconnects whether connected to the hub or directly to the USB 3.0 port on the computer, but probably more often with the hub.

Here is the latest Console log of messages before and at the time of the disconnect, and after it reconnected spontaneously. I did have "put hardware to sleep" in the power saving preferences, and I've just unchecked that based on some earlier posts here.

6/19/14 12:56:31.000 PM kernel[0]: disk1s2: media is not present.

6/19/14 12:56:31.000 PM kernel[0]: jnl: disk1s2: do_jnl_io: strategy err 0x6

6/19/14 12:56:31.000 PM kernel[0]: jnl: disk1s2: write_journal_header: error writing the journal header!

6/19/14 12:56:31.000 PM kernel[0]: hfs: unmount initiated on MyBook on device disk1s2

6/19/14 12:56:31.000 PM kernel[0]: jnl: disk1s2: close: journal 0xffffff803846ac20, is invalid. aborting outstanding transactions

6/19/14 12:56:31.000 PM kernel[0]: USBMSC Identifier (non-unique): 5743415A4138363735383138 0x1058 0x1140 0x1025, 3

6/19/14 12:56:31.509 PM fseventsd[76]: disk logger: failed to open output file /Volumes/MyBook/.fseventsd/00000000000bbe06 (No such file or directory). mount point /Volumes/MyBook/.fseventsd

6/19/14 12:56:31.509 PM fseventsd[76]: disk logger: failed to open output file /Volumes/MyBook/.fseventsd/00000000000bbe06 (No such file or directory). mount point /Volumes/MyBook/.fseventsd

6/19/14 12:56:32.639 PM mDNSResponder[66]: ERROR: mDNSPlatformReadTCP - SSLRead: -9806

6/19/14 12:56:32.639 PM mDNSResponder[66]: ERROR: tcpCallback - attempt to read message length failed (-1)

6/19/14 12:56:45.000 PM kernel[0]: jnl: disk1s2: replay_journal: from: 17653760 to: 21299200 (joffset 0x2baa000)

6/19/14 12:56:53.000 PM kernel[0]: jnl: disk1s2: journal replay done.

6/19/14 12:57:00.000 PM kernel[0]: hfs: Removed 0 orphaned / unlinked files and 504 directories

6/19/14 12:57:00.000 PM kernel[0]: hfs: mounted MyBook on device disk1s2

6/19/14 12:57:00.961 PM fseventsd[76]: event logs in /Volumes/MyBook/.fseventsd out of sync with volume. destroying old logs. (14714 15 14714)

6/19/14 12:57:01.369 PM fseventsd[76]: log dir: /Volumes/MyBook/.fseventsd getting new uuid: FE177170-818E-46AB-B21B-6556CEEE75D6

6/19/14 12:59:20.703 PM mdworker32[5665]: CGSConnectionByID: 0 is not a valid connection ID.

6/19/14 12:59:20.704 PM mdworker32[5665]: CGSGetSpaceManagementMode: No connection with id 0x 0

Is there anything in the first part of these messages that gives a clue as to why it disconnected (unmounted)?

I to am having this problem, I have two Seagate 3TB external Thunderbolt drives and one is permanently ejecting its self, I have given up on it now but feel that it is time that Apple dealt with this problem that only started with the arrival of Mavericks. Could it be that they no longer care about their reputation of being head and shoulders above Microsoft, because that is how it looks to me. If I could go back to Mountain Lion I would without hesitation!! It is all very well giving Mavericks away for free but looking at all the people with this problem I think we would all have rather given it a miss!

Just got a new LaCie 2big (8TB) with Thunderbolt 2.

Same problem. Randomly, while working, it gives me the "Disk Not Ejected Properly".

Seeing all the messages here, i guess its not the drive but something in Mavericks?

I agree with you. This discussion has gone on a long time with no help from Apple. The only external drive that I have which does not eject itself on Sleep is a LaCie which I am connecting via FireWire 800. I have 2 other external drives--one Seagate USB 3.0 (connected to a CalDigit PCI card) and, a WD drive connected to the same CalDigit card but with eSATA. I have plugged the WD and Seagate into a USB 2.0 with the same results. Is anyone having this problem with FireWire?

A couple of months after giving up on the possibility of a solution to the DNEP problem, I noticed a folder named “Seagate” (the brand of my external HDD) in the Home/Library*/Application Support folder. Believing it was a left-over from when I used it with my 6 month old Macbook Air the very first time (when it automatically installed something called the Seagate Dashboard) I decided to delete it. I also deleted the Seagate Dashboard icon from the System Preferences drop down. The next time I connected my HDD to do a time machine backup, I let the screen timeout. When I hit the spacebar to bring the screen back, the DNEP message didn’t appear and it hasn’t appeared for a week since I made this simple change.

The Seagate folder has since recreated itself in the Library folder, likewise the Seagate Dashboard icon in System Preferences (not sure how or why) but the DNEP problem appears to be gone. Fingers crossed.

I've made no changes to my system since my last post, so this isn't the result of an update - I'm still on 10.8.5.

Peter

*The Library folder is not normally visible. I made it visible to do something unrelated – I can’t remember what – but it’s necessary to find the relevant folders.

Hi,

I have also been dealing with this "eject" issue for some time now but I finally solved the problem (keeping my fingers crossed 🙂).

My problem was resolved by buying 2 new cables. One from my iMac to a USB 3.0 hub and one cable from my WD external drive to the hub. It's been a week now with no ejection incidents (which used to happen daily) and the HD is still mounted when my iMac wakes from sleep. BTW, I'm using Mavericks and had the problem even with Snow Leopard installed.

Mikeymark, could you clarify that?

I have a 4 port 3.0 powered Amazon Basics Hub which connects via its own hardwired cable to a 3.0 port on my MackBook Pro Retina. My WD Elements 1.5 TB USB 3.0 HD connects to the hub with a 3.0 cable supplied with the HD.

Are you saying to connect to the Mac via a separate 3.0 cable from a port in the hub to the Mac? Or do you think you had defective cables?

Also, I think I get the "ejects" even when the HD is connected directly to the Mac 3.0 port.

I found another thread in which someone said to do the following:

"Start your Mac with safe boot into the safe mode (press and hold shift while pressing the on-button, hold it until a status bar appears under the apple). Try to reproduce the problem. If the problem doesn't occur in the safe mode, it's maybe a problem with the launch agents and the launch daemons (they are deactivated in safe mode) and the following will probably help you: Restart your Mac in the normal mode. In the finder, go to your HD > library > caches. Delete everthing in this folder (not the folder itself), do the same with extensions and compositions. Still in the library, re-name the folder "LaunchAgents" to "LaunchAgents.old", re-name "LaunchDaemons" to "LaunchDaemons.old". Re-start your mac, empty your paperbin and once again try to reproduce the problem."

i tried that and it seemed to work for a while, but then it ejected again. Besides, I needed some of the programs in the LaunchAgents and LauchDaemons folders, and they don't seem to have anything to do with the HD. I also get "ejects" when I plug my Amazon Kindle 2.0 into a 3.0 Hub.

There really doesn't seem to be any common factor that anyone can identify, other than maybe some sort of power management issue, and it does occur even with older OS versions.

Here's some more info about how I solved the issue I was experiencing. These are the steps I used to identifiy the problem area.

1) Connected my WD 1T external drive directly to my iMac and continued to have the problem.

2) I ordered new cable for my WD HD and connected the HD directly to my iMac. Had 1 week of problem free connection.

3) I now connected my HD to my Bolse 7 port USB 3 hub and the problem returned. (Note: I had originally connected the hub to the iMac using a USB extension cable because the cable that came with the hub was too short to reach my iMac)

4) I ordered and new longer cable to connect the hub to my iMac and have not had a problem since.

Conclusion: My problem was caused by cable issues and not the WD HD or Mavericks.

I Hope this helps.

Thanks. That does clarify completely what you have done.

I have one extra 3.0 cable which I'll try connecting from the HD to the Mac directly, and leave the hub out of it for now. As I mentioned, the hub cable itself is hardwired, although that could still be the problem, especially since I have another identical 3.0 hub to which my Kindle 2.0 was attached using a 2.0 cable, and that also had the eject problem. So, the common factor here could be the 3.0 hubs and/or their hardwired cables which connect to the Mac.

i'll give it some time, see what happens, and report back.

Well, that didn't take long. Hard drive connected with new 3.0 cable directly to MacBook, and disk ejected improperly overnight when computer in Sleep Mode.

there was no activity on the Cosole log between the time I put the computer to sleep and the time I awakened it.

But these are among the first messages I get on awakening, indicating that the disk has been or is being ejected:

7/30/14 9:18:26.000 AM kernel[0]: disk1s2: media is not present.

7/30/14 9:18:26.000 AM kernel[0]: disk1s2: media is not present.

7/30/14 9:18:26.000 AM kernel[0]: hfs: unmount initiated on MyBook on device disk1s2

7/30/14 9:18:26.000 AM kernel[0]: jnl: disk1s2: close: journal 0xffffff803b39bc20, is invalid. aborting outstanding transactions

7/30/14 9:18:26.580 AM fseventsd[44]: disk logger: failed to open output file /Volumes/MyBook/.fseventsd/00000000006cc6ed (No such file or directory). mount point /Volumes/MyBook/.fseventsd

There doesn't appear to be any clue in those messages as to why the HD ejects, just that it has done so.

I so sorry Ken that the solution that worked for me didn't help you 😟. This ejection thing is such a frustrating pain in the ..s. It seems that the solutions that work for some don't work for others. I wish Apple would address this issue as there are apparently many frustrated users out there 😠.

I'm curious, you mentioned that you used a new cable. Was it actually a "new" cable or a different cable that you had on hand and did you try different USB ports on you Mac to rule out a bad USB port?

Good luck

Thanks for your concern, Mikey. It's not, of course, the worst thing in the Mac computer world. Try kernel panics, for example...

Anyway, it was, in fact, a new 3.0 cable from Amazon, and I did plug it into the other USB port where previously I had been connecting my iPad (which doesn't like a hub, even a powered hub, at least not for charging. So I don't think it's either a problem with a cable or with a port, unless both ports are bad, and they seem to be working well otherwise with my other USB devices.

It remains a mystery, but apparently a very widespread problem, spanning many different Macs and OSes. One would think or hope that Apple would try to find a cause and a solution.

Brand new iMac27" (mid 2014). This problem went away entirely when I used a powered usb hub (a few years old, belkin, usb2.0) to connect my external drives. I figured that the powering of the drives was the thing that the machine didnt like. Also worked fine with a desktop disk that operated on its own power. Recently, my job purchased a hub for me, since the one i was using was one that I own. The new hub appears nicer and more powerful than the old belkin and it has a usb 3.0 connection. The problem returned with this new hub. Maybe the usb2.0 powered is why the old one worked, but that may be an undesirable tradeoff for some users. SOMEONE MUST have tested this!!... if not, the apple folks SHOULD!