Disk not ejected properly

Do a SMC reset, it *might* help : http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964

Also change your cable, you may have a small break in it causing connection loss.

Sandman77 I have the same issue as the one that you described - sadly I couldn't fix it yet.

That was my issue and it took me ages because we got so used to just using usb cables that we think its fail proof, I went and bought a new one and it still didnt work, only after i purchased a good quality cable only then it resolved my issue, so the only reason i can think is that between the qualities of cables we can buy there is transfer quality issue, on cheaper cables it is not as good as on quality cable.

Sandman77 said:

509 views and nobody has experienced the same issue? I guess the problem is in my setup somewhere.

Click to expand...

i've learned not to take it personally, this forum has perhaps the worst view to reply ratio i've ever seen.

Sandman77 said:

Anyone have any ideas how I can prevent this from happening?

Click to expand...

I spent $1.99 for Jettison - great little app!

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/jettison/id447430809?mt=12

Uncheck 'Put Hard Disks to Sleep'

I have been having this same problem with a Seagate USB drive.

Have not yet verified if this works for me, but one solution getting some people results is to open System Preferences > Energy Saver, then UNcheck the box that says "Put hard disks to sleep when possible". This needs to be done for both the 'Battery' and 'Power Adapter' modes.

From https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5678720?tstart=0

Good luck.

Power-down for at least 2 hours

RE: New Mac Pro (late 2013) with LaCie externals: 2x3TB, 1x1TB (USB3), and 2x12TB LaCie 2BIG (each RAID 0 on Thunderbolt 2).

The 12TB drives were behaving perfectly when brand new (about 3 weeks old now). Then, Final Cut Pro with a certain MOTIONVFX.com plug-in occasionally caused my system to crash and reboot automatically. As a result, finder prefs (minimally) got corrupted and I couldn't even dup or delete a file or folder. PLUS, eventually, the 12's would no longer sleep with the computer and then get ejected when the Mac slept for an extended period of time and when the Mac woke up, it produced the dreaded, "DISK NOT EJECTED PROPERLY" message for BOTH 12's.

I tried everything: zapping PRAM, resetting SMC, rebooting, repairing permissions...Nothing worked. LaCie: No help, although they offered to send new Thunderbolt cables.

I had the same drive-not-sleeping problem with my Mac Mini for a while, and that inexplicably went away recently.

Sooooo... Here's how mine got fixed. Hope it works for you...

Last night there was a car accident (somewhere) at 2:45AM and for 2-1/2 hours we had a power outage in the entire area. At 6AM I woke the computer and the drives were once again working perfectly (and not getting improperly ejected).


The one thing I hadn't tried was shutting down the Mac PRO for an extended period (probably the same extended period of simple sleep that caused the ejection). The Mac Mini's drive-sleep problem probably also went away when it was powered down recently for lack of use.

So try it: Power-down for at least 2 hours.
∆

I'm having this problem on my late 2010 Air. With a drive attached, (with integral cable), and you close the lid, or it goes to sleep, it will have the 'disk not ejected properly' message when you awaken.

I should not really have to spend 2 bucks on an issue that should be solved by the OS as is.

Same Issue re "Failure to Eject Disk Properly" Messages

Sandman77 said:

509 views and nobody has experienced the same issue? I guess the problem is in my setup somewhere.

Click to expand...

Hi, Sandman,
Just new to MacRumors so not sure how all this works. I just wanted to reply that I have had the same issue. OS 10.10.1 on new MacBook Air with new Seagate and older WD 1TB external HDs used as alternating backups with Time Machine. After waking Mac up from Sleep I often got those "failure to eject disk properly" messages. Saw a suggestion in a post for a related issue and so went into Energy Saver preferences and unselected "put hard disks to sleep when possible" for both battery and mains modes, Haven't had the issue since.
Cheers,
Aussie Ziggie

The Energy Saver workaround will be good for some cases.

Some hardware mixes will be OK with one type of file system, not OK with a different type.

Some types of failure will be more likely where, say, a peripheral USB hub is used.

Some hardware mixes will be good with sleep but fail with safe sleep.

Feedback to Apple; feedback to the drive manufacturer. Wish for, but do not expect, a fix from one or both.

Technical

hdparm on OS X – Server Fault – my answer. If you're lucky, you'll have SpindownHD, but don't expect it to report things perfectly for modern hardware (example attached).

I too have been suffering the "failure to eject disk properly" warning for a USB drive connected to my 2009 Mac Pro. It actually wakes up from sleep to inform me, sometimes every few minutes!

I restarted and the same. So I used Disk Utility (recovery mode) to repair the drive and permissions and topped it off with the 4-finger salute (Command-shift-PR) at restart and it returned to normal. It's been fine for 24 hours. I don't know which fix worked but it's fine now after many days of that drive warning BS.

Alerts from Finder

Gochugogi said:

… that drive warning BS.

Click to expand...

The shouldn't view those alerts as BS. They effectively prompted you to take appropriate actions … actions that help to reduce the risk of damage to your data.

Incidentally, I don't imagine any type of problem with file permissions contributing to an improper eject of a volume or drive.

What's odd is this only happens in Mavericks. I have 10.85 and 10.68 on separate volumes and they have never issued the "drive not properly ejected" warning. I would stick with 10.85 if it weren't for certain apps I need to run.

Environment

Gochugogi said:

… only happens in Mavericks. …

Click to expand...

What make and model is the drive, and what's its firmware?

USB 2.0 or 3.0?

Is anything else on the same USB controller?

Having this problem with Yosemite

I have a MacBook Pro Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013 running Yosemite 10.10.1, 2.7 Core i7, 16GB RAM, internal SSD HD. I have an aging Belkin USB hub which a bunch of USB drives. Some I use for Time Machine, others are cloned drives of past machines with files I access occasionally.

Boot rom version: MBP101.00EE.B05
SMC version (system): 2.3f36

I recently set power settings to put the machine to sleep after set period of time even when plugged in. Now every time I wake it up I get one or more "Disk not ejected properly" messages.

I'm certainly open to installing jettison but this seems like a fairly serious issue that should be addressed by the OS. I don't know if I accept bad cables or USB hub since they all function well under any other circumstance.

The drives include a LaCie, WD, iOmega and Maxtor.

I used to have this problem until I replaced the cable. Problem gone.

Trouble with USB 2.0

richsad said:

… aging Belkin USB hub …

Click to expand...

2.0, I guess. Whilst USB 2.0 is commonplace, it can be troublesome.

Yes it's USB 2.0

Yes it's a higher end, powered USB 2.0 hub. It's 5 years old. But what puzzles me is this seems to be a newer problem related to the Mavericks and Yosemite updates. This hub works well in all other respects. I'm always skeptical when an otherwise working device is blamed for a problem that appears with software updates. It could be the device, but it also could be something changed in the system software that made the problem more prevalent.

I'll try plugging just one of the drives directly into the USB port on the MBP. If there's no problem with that configuration I can accept that buying a newer hub could solve the problem. Although it makes me wonder if investing $2 in Jettison might not be a better solution short term.

So to be clear, are people with USB 3.0 hubs never experiencing this problem?

USB device fitness for purpose

richsad said:

Yes it's a higher end, powered USB 2.0 hub. It's 5 years old. …

Click to expand...

What's the make and model?

Here

Adapted from an old post (at least one of the links no longer works) …

Sitecom USB 2.0 Dock CN-022

• circa 2005
• 0x0022
• Data sheet: CN-022 - Sitecom (PDF)

Cerulian 10 port USB 2.0 top loading hub

• circa 2011
• Maplin Electronics code N14JB
• System Information identifies the Cerulian N14JB as product 0x0608 from vendor 0x05e3 (Genesys Logic, Inc.)
• Genesis Logic | USB Hub Product | Hub Controller … but I don't know whether what's in the N14JB is amongst that range of controllers.

For me the 2005 device was and is more reliable than the 2011 device.

I purchased the Cerulian after repeatedly failing to get information, from the manufacturer, for the hubs that Apple sold at the time. (Sometimes when I found trouble with a hub, Apple recommended trying one of the hubs that they knew to be good.)

… It could be the device, but it also could be something changed in the system software that made the problem more prevalent.

Click to expand...

I guess a combination of the two.

Certainly, some combinations of software will 'want more' from a hub than a clean installation of the operating system.

A relatively extreme example

Fitness for purpose of a USB 2.0 hub may be questioned with some approaches to ZFS on OS X. (In the MacZFS area: USB not supported; Issues with USB Drives. In the OpenZFS on OS X area: "… direct attached SATA, eSATA, Firewire, Thunderbolt, and Thunderbolt2 are better choices. …". And so on.) I used USB 2.0 with ZEVO.

Without a hub

I'll try plugging just one of the drives directly …

Click to expand...

Smart.

Belkin Hi-Speed USB 2.0 FSU237

Quick update:

The hub I am using is Belkin Hi-Speed USB 2.0 FSU237. It's been working great for years. I've had other hubs that haven't withstood the test of time.

I plugged my time machine backup drive which is a Western Digital 1TB USB 2 drive directly into the USB port on the computer (no hub). I got the same error on sleep. It didn't happen every time, but it happened over half the time I tested. I tried several USB cables. The full description that Disk Utilities gives me for this drive is: WD Ext HDD 1021 Media

It seems like I'm going to need to purchase Jettison. Since the problem is occurring even when the drive is plugged in directly, I'm not convinced that purchasing a new USB 3.0 hub would solve the problem. Because I use the drive for manual Time Machine backups it does get written to. Most of the other drives plugged in are used in a more read-only fashion.