Disk not ejected properly

On my new iMac there is no PRAM, it is called NVRAM.

Now on 10.10.5 I did a NVRAM reset and than hooked my LaCie back on via Thunderbolt (instead of USB).

After first sleep: BANG! Disk not ejected properly :-(((((

Hi,

Did you do a power reset as well? See Apple support for this. They suggest PRAM and Power reset (disconnect every and all power and connection cables, not sure how to do that with a battery powered device).

Hi, also want to join this DNEP discussion :

Al was working fine, until someday out of the blue my tree OWC Rack Pro's are giving me a hard time. I have 12 Disk connected to my Mac mini for backup tasks.

Two case are getting random DNEP error, i rack is running for now. First connectected to FW800, now on USB. Getting crazy. Will try a full power reset (SMC) and PRAM to see if it helps.

I am at the point where my trusty LaCie Little Big, which is the only external drive that hasn't caused DNE errors, is nearly full. I need more storage space, but everything I've tried (hard drives in external enclosures like OWC Mercury Elite Pro, ThunderBay IV, LaCie D2, etc.) produces the DNE error.

At this point I've just accepted (grudgingly) that this is probably going to be an unresolved issue for some time to come, and I'm interested in figuring out a workaround. To that end, I'm curious to hear how you are all dealing with it?

In my case, most of the DNE errors happened when putting my computer to sleep. I don't generally get them otherwise. So I am considering just leaving it on for the entire workday, and then manually unmounting the drives before putting the computer to sleep at night. Or, I may try using Jettison (an app in the Mac Store I've used before for this purpose) to automatically unmount and mount the drive when sleeping/waking up.

Just curious to know if anyone has found a different workaround that you like?

I bought a 4GB USB 3.0 Seagate drive from Costco that never gave me the DNE error. I have other external drives that do give that error and I keep them turned off except when I need them. I have no idea why some drives work and some don't.

Lindsay, I too think there is no rhyme or reason. Many have tried to narrow it down. So far, no fix. I think that maybe it isn't any big problem though. I don't think anyone has actually had any problems with their ejected disks becoming corrupt, which is what would worry me most. It is just a huge annoyance to keep getting these messages.

This problem has been fixed for me since 10.10.5. I have 2x3TB WD My Book USB 3.0 and 1x3TB WD MyBook Studio.

El Capitan is arriving at the end of the month. I hope all of your problems will be fixed then.

This disconnect problem was with me for some time and I've shared quite a bit on how it affected one of two identical drive enclosures. Back then, after extensive testing, it pointed to some firmware issue on some drive enclosures.

Update: Last week I found some corruption deep in the OS files on my MacPro (the machine I was having disconnect problems with) when I was not getting the response I should from Unix Terminal inputs I was working with. While Disk Utility continued to say there was nothing wrong with the partition, my attempts to rebuild the directory with Drive Genius 3 always ended with a failure due to a warning the OS10.8.5 system drive was corrupted. Since I didn't want to do a clean install and reload the tons of programs and updates on my main MacPro Tower, I cloned my laptop (has 10.8.5 with no issues) over to my MacPro since it has most of the programs and would be the least troublesome way to change my OS to a fresher install of 10.8.5 on my MacPro without losing all the organization of files.

After cloning and using the Terminal app to reset all my permissions on my home folder to default (they got screwed up in the cross-over) I was delightfully surprised to see my new DataTale enclosure (the enclosure constantly disconnecting) very stable and working perfectly; both shutting down and waking up from sleep without disconnecting….surprise, surprise. This points to some aspect of the 10.8.5 OS I've been running for years on my MacPro. As to what was wrong and how the change to a fresher 10.8.5 OS fixed the problem, I don't know….sorry.

If you are still having this disk-disconnect problem, I suggest a clean install if possible to fix the problem on many external enclosures. There's something in the system files that doesn't show up on Disk Utility or overtly affect your machine's operation, short of the disconnect issue . I wish I knew what it was, but at least now I'm happy my machine doesn't have this problem anymore and the Terminal app fixed all my permissions on home folder files which was driving me crazy. I realize a clean install will be problematic for many who have lots of software apps installed and the computer organized the way they want it. Apparently from what I've read, one can use the recovery mode to switch out only the system files, which might very well work, but after cloning back and fourth over the years the recovery partition no longer exist on my HD. In it's place I have installed a bare minimum OS Repair partition with all my repair software that I can boot into a anytime to repair the main OS.. I find this so much more convenient than using Apple's recovery system which would take forever and require the internet.

Thanks to all that have contributed to this issue.

Good luck.

Marshall

Marshall,

It is a real worry. I have had the issue continue since doing clean install of 10.10. I am amazed still that after all this time the Apple Genius crew have not had enough motivation to resolve it.

Hmm, interesting, you did a clean install and the problem still persist? Well, there is something else I did that may have contributed to the problem going away, outside of the fresh OS clone. For some time my system was acting strange and not waking from sleep properly. When it would fail, the indicator light on my McPro tower would flash rapidly. When I looked up what the indicator signals meant, it said I had a batch of bad RAM. Others have had the same problem and suggested first, reseating the RAM boards. Since I hadn't blown out the MacPro in a long time, I disconnected it and opened it up , blew all the dust out of the machine, removed all the hard drives and RAM boards and cleaned their contacts with electronic cleaner, before reinstalling the unit into my video editing system. Result: No more RAM signals and problems awaking from deep sleep! So who knows, either cleaning and reseating the RAM boards or installing a fresher copy of D 10.8.5 did the trick with the sleep and disconnect problems. They may be related because the disconnect problem happens when the machine comes out of sleep. I suppose there may be an issue with RAM causing the problem, but this is just another wild guess from all the other possible solutions we've read on this issue.

It's all so weird, no wonder the guys at Apple are scratching their heads. Most of those tech guys there don't know what they're doing compared to us "Mac Heads" that have been working with the system since the days of OS9. LOL :-) It becomes obvious when you're talking t them, they're reading from a script. No offense Mac Genius crew, many are quite sharp and know what they're doing :-)

Hi Marshall. I am hardly a "Mac head" only been using them for about 3 years out of over 50 in IT.

I never had the problem on my old macPro tower (even though I did "fry" most of the RAM) under Mountain Lion.

This has only happened on my new iMac (2 Months old) running Yosemite after I switched from a WD external drive as Time Machine to a Seagate.

I am tending to believe that it has something to do with firmware in the drive?

Although it is mostly only annoying, sometimes I am frustrated as the Seagate won't reconnect, and I have had the need to be quite dependent on my Time Machine backups a couple of times.

One can only hope that Apple staff read this forum and realise what a pain this problem has become.

Interesting. I have had RAM added to my mini before the problems started, but they only started after upgrading from 10.6 (10.9) and went away again after power and PRAM reset.

They came back once, after hot swapping a dvd burner at the end of the FW800 chain, which caused the last external hd (MyBook Studio) to eject.

LOL…Update: Okay, with some dismay, my disconnect problem has returned :-( It's becoming sort of a bad joke now, since none of the things I've shared this past week have really solved the problem. My first DataTale case continues to perform flawlessly on all communication channels using the same cables and hard drives. The second newer unit works best on USB2 and worse on eSata, regarding the disconnect issue. So, I'm back to square one with the exception the manufacturer has agreed to replace the unit on it's last few days of warranty. I'm still of the belief that some firmware on drive enclosures does some weird thing in sleep mode that caused the drives to be ejected.

I think it's fair to say at this juncture that no one, including Apple, really knows what's causing this, but it's certainly widespread. Like others have said, it would be nice if Apple used their enormous resources to try and tackle this issue. Maybe they're scratching their heads too?

In the meantime, it's more of a nuisance than anything else, at least for me, as I've never had any data corruption that I know of. Hopefully the replacement enclosure will do the trick and work as good as it's older brother (who happens to have different firmware, I'm sure).

Good luck everyone.

Marshall

I was plagued by "disk not properly ejected". MacPro 2010 with different external drives and a sonnet USB3-4-port PCI Express Card. Removing the only Belkin clip hub I was using cleared up all my problems. (Not the first time that a hub is creating havoc and timeis wasted to look for other reasons.) At least this worked for me. Big thanks.

Not that I have read the entire 29 pages of this issue (wow), but I will give my thoughts for those that care. I have been running a 2008 iMac from 2008 till now (pretty good longevity). I have run the OS's from Leopard to Yosemite generally a few months after they are released and I have run every one of them on this system. I have had a variety of USB2, USB3 external drives connected from a variety of manufacturers. The improperly ejected messages are just the way the system behaves in response to sleep. This issue is very deep in the firmware or code and it would appear Apple is unconcerned. Just last week a 1T drive died (after 4 years as a backup) and I plugged a new one in. Same issue. I run one external as a time machine and another for Photos and iTunes and both give the same issue so it is not a Time Machine thing. The same message on yet another new drive with a new OS was the Impetus to look at the forums.

Insomnia is the only solution and of course that is really just going to make you buy new fans more often. I did run 24/7 for a year and it fixed the issue but killed an internal fan that I then replaced. On another note, the error does not seem to be very important, at least in my case. I have not had significant corruption issues with the drives even though I get this message pretty much every day, one or two repairs with disk util per year but no data loss etc.

My advice ignore it get on with life.

If anyone knows how to just make the stupid message not appear it will save me around 700 mouse clicks a year 🙂