Disk not ejected properly

Robin,

My observation is that dragging to the desktop does not delete the folder. I dragged to the desktop, to create a copy for recovery, then deleted the folder, which required password confirmation. This processes rehab'd two systems after the 10.9.2. update.

Mike

Ok. Good to be clear about that. Just checking if there's a case that Robin's method only works for those of us on 10.9.2. A few posts here seem to support that theory - or at least show that it reduce the frequency of the DNEP message.

I'm also seeing less of it on 10.8.5, but that's because I'm doing something like Linda and only connecting my external drive when I need to backup or shift something, and I'm doing do that while I work so that my computer doesn't sleep. Robin's method didn't work for me.

Despite the evidence i won't be upgrading yet. It still seems like onboard management of sleep/power in external USB3 drives via USB3 slots is the underlying problem.

I just got a new computer (MBP Retina Late 2013, OSX 10.9.2) and this started happening to me as well, I had a mid 2012 MBP on Mavericks and it never did this. I have two WD external hard drives USB 3.0 attached to a USB hub with a power source. Only 1 of the 2 disconnects on sleep. The one that stays connected is the newer of the two, but neither are awfully old hard drives. I just called Apple today about this and they gave me case number 591057190. They had me do some funky restarting of the computer because I was also getting no audio occasionally on waking from sleep. I have just done the "fix" that Robin suggested and will weigh back in on how it worked in a few days. I am however going to call Apple again and try to get this issue elevated to Tier 2 since I've already started the process.

Same "Disk Not Ejected Properly" problem, PLUS.

On an iMac 12,2 (2012), I “upgraded” from the last Mavericks to 10.9.2, and I have had unending misery since.

My 250 GB SSD from which I run OS X started acting funny, so I shut down from the software and started up again, and got spinning gears.

Using Disk Utility from Recovery Disks did nothing, and DiskWarrior (long-time fan, has saved my bacon so many times) did nothing.

In the meantime, I find that 2 of the 3 partitions on my 1.5 TB Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex are unavailable, and my TimeMachine backup was on one of the partitions. DiskUtility, DiskWarrior, and TechTool start to work on the drives, but eventually the drives eject, or are not readable.

I ended up reinstalling Mavericks 10.9.2 from another drive, and now it's booting up, but I'm getting lots of beachballs, and eject messages. It's only my SeaGate drive that's doing this, though, and no my Western Digital MyBook 1.5 TB.

I too am having the "Disk Not Ejected Properly" problem. I am using Jettison to "bandaid" the problem and I am currently working with Apple to see if we can get the problem fixed. I have tried all of the previously mentioned fixes to no avail. I am running a Mac Pro 2013 with an external Thunderbolt enclosure (OWC Thunderbay IV) which always dismounts. A bus powered 1TB OWC drive connected through a Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter doesn't exhibit the problem.

I discovered the cause of my problem with my Mac Pro 2013 and disk not ejected properly problem - my POWER STRIP! After fussing with all sorts of system level solutions it turns out my APC Energy Saver that I had been using on my Mac Pro 2006 was the culprit. Once I removed the APC Energy Saver, my Mac Pro 2013 behaves as it should upon sleep! YES!

I only discovered the solutioin after googling a number of times and reading a post by a user who had an iMac and was having similar problems and removed the power saver strip (manufactured by another vendor - not APC) from the iMac and all worked fine.

Go figure. Hope this solution helps someone else who might have a similar problem.

Robin's method reduced the frequency of error messages for me.

However, I found that as long as I keep a torrent running (using Vuze) the external hard disk will not be ejected upon sleep.

This is even though the torrent does not write or read from the external disk. Maybe it just keeps the system active.

10 days after Robin's fix and everything works fine now. No ejections. But my audio not coming back after sleep was continuing. I called Apple and they instructed me to reinstall Mavericks completely. I did and still haven't had either problem again.

Any word on Apple fixing this issue? I have a Seagate Backup Plus Slim 2TB usb3.0 drive that keeps randomly ejecting (even when not putting the computer to sleep). My WD Mybook usb3 hard drive is now ejecting randomly also, which it didn't used to do (until I got the Seagate). Doesn't seem to matter if the drives are plugged into a hub or directly.

Worried about losing important data.

I've alread tried the trashing preferences fix detailed in this thread. Didn't seem to solve the issue.

I'm due for a response from Apple this week and will advise any useful news. However, after watching this thread for about a month, I'm not so sure "this issue" is necessarily just one issue. Sure, we're all getting the "Disk not ejected properly" message but there seem to be a lot a variables in the (limited) successes people are reporting. For some it's just a different cable or variations of power sources, hubs, adapters etc; for others it's a software/preferences fix. And your description of a "randomly ejecting" HDD sounds a bit different to many of the stories here, which seem to be related to ejection after idle/sleep. Certainly my Seagate HDD only ever gets ejected coming back from display off or hard drive sleep. The rest of the time it's fine. Suggest you give Apple a call. They may be able to help you isolate the issue.

I thought I would chime in here. I am totally new to Macs. I got a refurb iMac OS X Mavericks 9.2 not even a month ago. I have not used migration assistant ~~~~ yet. I will need to move all my info. from my old windows Vista laptop. I also have a Lacie porche 2TB USB 3.0/2.0 desktop drive I'm using for back-up. I also have an APC back-up 750 battery back up/surge protector. The morning after I installed the Lacie, I got the same error ejection message as laid out in the original post here. Everytime my Mac came back from display, or off of hard drive sleep, I got the error message. So I began searching to find out what the problem was. I landed on this thread as it was the only 1 I could find dealing with the problem on Mavericks. What didn't fit was that I had not used migration assistant.

March 31st, I began experimenting to see if I could isolate the problem as someone else had mentioned thier power strip being the cause. The APC battery back-up has an energy saving "master" plug that controls all devices plugged into the "controlled by master" outlets. You can enable the feature where when the device plugged into the master gets turned off or placed in standby mode then it does the same for all devices in "controlled by master plugs"; when the master device is turned on or taken out of standby then everything else is also turned on or taken out of standby. I disabled that feature on it & have tested it every which way since then & have had no error messages since. Well, I did have one yesterday but it was immediately after we had a nano second power blip so that I guess is understandable.

Still doing fine today.

Sandypaws described a UPS theory. Coincidently today I decided to try and improve the long standing DNEP problem I have on my iMac. I came across this thread with reference to energy saving power strips and had implemented a similar solution that Sandypaws described with his UPS.

My setup is early 2013 iMac with external powered USB3 Toshiba Stor.E 2GB drive used for hourly Time Machine backup and USB3 powered Hitachi used for daily Carbon Copy images. An APC ES 550 UPS is attached. The DNEP has become problematic in last few months but has only affected the external seperate powered dive - not the USB3 bus powered drive. I have tried switching off the energy saving master function on the UPS in a similar way to sandypaws but is too early to tell how effective that is. One aspect that makes me suggest there may be a contribution by the energy saving mode on UPS is that occasionally the iMac would not boot - seemed non powered but rebooting the UPS not the computer fixed the problem. I have also attached an old USB2 powered external hard disk as second time Machine backup to see if USB2 is better than USB3

As others have said there may well be multiple causes and solutions for this DNEP problem but for those with an energy saving UPS or energy saving power strips it may be worth trying disabling these as it is simple to try.

just to chime in here - have never seen this problem on a mac before after using them for 20 years, until i recently got a 7 port powered usb 3 hub, and a usb 3 2m extension cable - in an effort to hide all the things (ext hard drives etc) away in a cabinet.

Started getting these 'drive not ejected properly' messages. tried the fixes described in this thread (jettison app + orig solution) but these did not fix the problem. my drives were ejecting randomly - not just on waking/sleeping.

I assumed it was the hub - but then thought to try the hub without the extension cable - and voila, no more error messages. so in this case it looks like a faulty extension cable that works only half the time. So, not that great.

Anyone particularly fond of a specific brand/type of usb3 extension cable that I might have more success with? the one i got was a no name brand off ebay for $5. (lesson learned)

this is very annoying because the same problem happens with SD cards inside PCI Express Card SD adapter at my 17" Macbook Pro.

the conclusion is this is not related to brand or model of external storage... it could be related to OS X energy saver code or something related.

Actually I'd tend to agree with houstonwehaveaproblem2014 I think there are many different issues going on here. I've discovered that this issue only occurs when my Seagate Backup Plus Slim drive is plugged in. My WD Mybook works fine, even connected through a usb3 hub. But when the Seagate is plugged in, both drives eject erratically. I'll get a replacement from Amazon and let you guys know if the new one works better.