Anyone else having problems with external disks unmounting randomly/suddenly on Mavericks?

I'm crossing my fingers here but I may have found a solution. After turning off my imac for awhile, I turned it back on and my external was showing again. Before it had time to disconnect I went into settings and changed 'put HD's to sleep' to 'never'. So far its been a day and the drive has still not ejected. Also I still have time machine off just in case. Will report back.

I'm having a similar issue with my DROBO 5D connected via Thunderbolt. If you look in your console, you will see that the system has done a pci reset, and then your drive drops. I have no idea why mavericks is doing this.

I am knocking on wood while I type this. I have turned OFF computer sleep and I've made it a full day without disks ejecting.

I'll report back if the ejecting starts again.

Yep, 2 days now for me. It's looking good, not sure if I should switch time machine on yet though.

Just an FYI, these drives were so damaged that I could not reformat any of the three.

I was also experiencing this issue when copying data to the drives - they would just unexpectidly eject! Using an ICY BOX twin bay docking station connected via USB 3 to my 2013 iMac. Mavericks.

So after trying loads of things I changed the connection cable to a USB2 and this seems to have fixed the issue for me. Have had this set up for about 3-4 days and no issues as yet.

So its either a dodgy cable I got or Mavericks aint liking the USB3 connection

Well...I don't want to rain on your good fortune parade but all of mine are USB2 since I have an older Mac I am stuck there without buying a pci card.

I truly hope you keep your drives running smoothly.

I am of the consensus that this is a Mavericks issue and needs to be aggressively addressed. I've lost 3 drives and unable to reformat or use in any capacity. This is a HUGE issue for me and a very costly one.

The same thing started happening with my machine. I just recently upgraded to Mavericks and have a LaCie 4TB Raid as my Time Machine backup. Never had any issues with sleep/wake modes and random ejects — but now I suddenly do… Strangely enough, another 500GB LaCie drive doesn't magically eject on sleep/wake.

My current machine is a 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7 15inch MBP with 8GB Ram.

I am having the same problem. I am using an Orrico Dock with 4 3 TB Synnex hardrives. I have 16GB of RAM and an Intel 3.02 Ghz Core Duo on my IMAC This has not happened ever until Mavericks. I am surprised Apple has not already come up with a Fix

same here, random ejectings on my 4 seagate usb 3 external drives with my late 2012 mac mini 2.3 quad i7, only started with mavericks it has to be an OS related problem. very annoying

For all you guys experiencing this problem, uncheck 'put hard drives to sleep' in settings. I know this isnt the ideal solution but has been working for me. 1 week and no ejections so far.

lol thats a no brainer son!

I will try that solution and see what happens. Seems strange that Apple has not come out with a fix yet.

Run Etrecheck and verify you dont have any WD software running

https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/48217/etrecheck

EtreCheck is a simple little app to display the important details of your system configuration and allow you to copy that information to the Clipboard. It is meant to be used with Apple Support Communities to help people help you with your Mac. EtreCheck automatically removes any personally identifiable information from the output.

fsck is likely what is causing all theses occurances along with spotlight indexing.

Put your external HD into the privacy setting

launch the Spotlight preference via System Preferences, click on the Privacy Tab, click the '+' sign and add in any drives that you don't want indexed.

I tried the unchecking "put hardrives to sleep" but that did not help. Here is what Etrecheck shows:

Hardware Information:

iMac (27-inch, Late 2009)

iMac - model: iMac10,1

1 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: 2 cores

16 GB RAM

Video Information:

ATI Radeon HD 4670 - VRAM: 256 MB

Audio Plug-ins:

BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0 - SDK 10.9

AirPlay: Version: 1.9 - SDK 10.9

AppleAVBAudio: Version: 2.0.0 - SDK 10.9

iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3 - SDK 10.9

Startup Items:

DigidesignLoader: Path: /Library/StartupItems/DigidesignLoader

PACESupport: Path: /Library/StartupItems/PACESupport

tap: Path: /Library/StartupItems/tap

tun: Path: /Library/StartupItems/tun

System Software:

OS X 10.9 (13A603) - Uptime: 0 days 1:47:49

Disk Information:

WDC WD1001FALS-40U9B0 disk0 : (1 TB)

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB

Macintosh HD (disk0s2) /: 999.35 GB (227.98 GB free)

Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB

OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5670SC

USB Information:

Apple Inc. Built-in iSight

JMicron USB to ATA/ATAPI Bridge 3 TB

EFI (disk1s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB

back up dock (disk1s2) /Volumes/back up dock: 3 TB (1.49 TB free)

Apple Internal Memory Card Reader

Western Digital My Book 1110 999.5 GB

EFI (disk3s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB

itunes (disk3s2) /Volumes/itunes: 999.16 GB (363.93 GB free)

Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

Apple Inc. BRCM2046 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

FireWire Information:

Thunderbolt Information:

Kernel Extensions:

com.digidesign.iokit.DigiDal (9.0.6f4 - SDK 10.5)

tc.tctechnologies.driver.Saffire (3.5.6 11675)

com.paceap.kext.pacesupport.snowleopard (5.8 - SDK 10.6)

foo.tap (1.0)

foo.tun (1.0)

Problem System Launch Daemons:

Problem System Launch Agents:

Launch Daemons:

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist

[loaded] com.paceap.eden.licensed.plist

[loaded] PACESupport.plist

[loaded] tc.tctechnologies.Saffire.plist

Launch Agents:

[loaded] com.epson.ews.launcher.plist

User Launch Agents:

[loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist

[failed] com.apple.CSConfigDotMacCert-[redacted]@me.com-SharedServices.Agent.plist

[loaded] com.divx.agent.postinstall.plist

[loaded] com.facebook.videochat.[redacted].plist

[loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac.helperTool.plist

[loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac.volumeWatcher.plist

User Login Items:

iTunesHelper

EEventManager

Dropbox

AdobeResourceSynchronizer

EEventManager

WDQuickView

StatusMenu

3rd Party Preference Panes:

DivX

Flash Player

Flip4Mac WMV

Internet Plug-ins::

OVSHelper: Version: 1.1

Default Browser: Version: 537 - SDK 10.9

Flip4Mac WMV Plugin: Version: 2.4.0.11

AdobePDFViewerNPAPI: Version: 10.1.8

FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 11.9.900.170 - SDK 10.6

Silverlight: Version: 4.0.60531.0

Flash Player: Version: 11.9.900.170 - SDK 10.6

AmazonMP3DownloaderPlugin: Version: AmazonMP3DownloaderPlugin 1.0.15

QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3

iPhotoPhotocast: Version: 7.0 - SDK 10.8

AdobePDFViewer: Version: 10.1.8

JavaAppletPlugin: Version: 14.9.0 - SDK 10.7 Outdated! Update

User Internet Plug-ins::

Move_Media_Player: Version: npmnqmp 071701000001

Bad Fonts:

None

Old applications:

Audacity: Version: 1.3.13.0 - SDK 10.4

/Applications/Audacity/Audacity.app

Digi CoreAudio Manager: Version: 9.0.6 - SDK 10.5

/Applications/Digidesign/Digi CoreAudio Manager.app

DigiTest: Version: 9.0.6 - SDK 10.5

/Applications/Digidesign/Pro Tools/Pro Tools Utilities/DigiTest.app

Epson Printer Utility 4: Version: 9.14 - SDK 10.5

/Library/Printers/EPSON/InkjetPrinter2/Utility/UT4/Epson Printer Utility 4.app

FacebookVideoCalling: Version: 1.2.0.157 - SDK 10.5

/Users/fiddleplay/Library/Application Support/Facebook/video/1.2.0.158/FacebookVideoCalling.app

Free Ringtone Maker: Version: 1.6.5 - SDK 10.5

/Applications/Free Ringtone Maker.app

InterLok Helper: Version: 5.8 - SDK 10.4

/Library/Application Support/PACE Anti-Piracy/InterLok Helper.app

Keynote: Version: 5.3 - SDK 10.5

/Applications/iWork '09/Keynote.app

Numbers: Version: 2.3 - SDK 10.5

/Applications/iWork '09/Numbers.app

Pages: Version: 4.3 - SDK 10.5

/Applications/iWork '09/Pages.app

Pro Tools: Version: 9.0.6 - SDK 10.5

/Applications/Digidesign/Pro Tools/Pro Tools.app

SoftwareUpdater: Version: 9.0.6 - SDK 10.5

/Applications/Digidesign/Pro Tools/SoftwareUpdater.app

TurboTax Deluxe 2011: Version: 2011.r17.007 - SDK 10.4

/Users/fiddleplay/Applications/TurboTax Deluxe 2011.app

Uninstall Pro Tools: Version: 9.0.6 - SDK 10.4

/Applications/Digidesign/Pro Tools/Pro Tools Utilities/Uninstall Pro Tools.app

WFTPairing: Version: - SDK 10.4

/Applications/Canon Utilities/EOS Utility/WFTPairing.app

iSkysoft Helper Compact: Version: 2.2.6.4 - SDK 10.5

/Users/fiddleplay/Library/Application Support/Helper/iSkysoft Helper Compact.app

licenseDaemon: Version: 1.1 - SDK 10.5

/Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/licenseDaemon.app

Time Machine:

Skip System Files: NO

Mobile backups: OFF

Auto backup: YES

Volumes being backed up:

Macintosh HD: Disk size: 930.71 GB Disk used: 718.39 GB

Destinations:

back up dock [Local] (Last used)

Total size: 3

Total number of backups: 36

Oldest backup: 2013-10-20 21:12:21 +0000

Last backup: 2013-12-15 04:56:42 +0000

Size of backup disk: Excellent

Backup size 3 > (Disk size 930.71 GB X 3)

Time Machine details may not be accurate.

All volumes being backed up may not be listed.

Top Processes by CPU:

25% WindowServer

2% EtreCheck

2% Dock

0% mds_stores

0% mds

Top Processes by Memory:

164 MB mds_stores

164 MB com.apple.IconServicesAgent

164 MB iTunes

115 MB Finder

115 MB Mail

Virtual Memory Statistics:

12.30 GB Free RAM

2.22 GB Active RAM

308 MB Inactive RAM

1.18 GB Wired RAM

1.36 GB Page-ins

0 B Page-outs