external drive keeps disconnecting

[djsound]

i had an old 2006 imac with an external drive and it was formatted for that. It never disconnected but now I put it on a newer imac that I got and it just keeps disconnecting. anyone know why?

 

[Reaktor5]

USB? Firewire? Try different ports?

 

[djsound]

USB. WHy would I have to try different USB ports? Apple puts some refurbed ones that dont work in the machines or something? haha

also trying to figure out how to plug in my motu card since this new machine doesnt have FW400 only 800

 

[Reaktor5]

Could be a bad USB port. If it's a portable drive, it might not be getting enough power from one USB port as well.

My thumb drive used to do this before it failed so I'd back up anything important ASAP to be sure.

You can get a Firewire 800 to 400 adapter on http://www.monoprice.com/ for about $4.

 

[djsound]

thanks for adapter tip Reaktor.

It is not a portable drive and it is plugged in....I dunno =/

 

[bluewooster]

I have this exact problem. Started happening once I upgraded to Lion. Have reformatted the drive, reinstalled OS, changed drive settings to never sleep without luck. Sometimes it ejects it while I'm in the middle of using it (once with tragic results!). I see there are others with similar issues on the apple help forums but no successful solution that I have seen.

 

[RedCroissant]

i had an old 2006 imac with an external drive and it was formatted for that. It never disconnected but now I put it on a newer imac that I got and it just keeps disconnecting. anyone know why?

This might be something you have already tried, but have you used disk utility to verify/repair the disk? I had a problem with it not recognizing my external for time machine backups, and then I did that; now I don't have any problems.