Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

External drives randomly disconnecting.

B

baxlobs

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 21, 2012
238
14
Suffolk UK
Hi I have an iMac late 2012, with several external drives, 2 via Thunderbolt, 2 via USB including an SSD which is the boot drive.
These seem to randomly disconnect and I get a message saying I should eject them before disconnecting, this often happens overnight. Yesterday the machine slowed down horrendously and I realised that the SSD had disconnected and so it was running from the internal drive. Removing and remaking the connections sorts it out, generally, but it is annoying. Is there anything I could do to prevent this, new cables for example, or is it just a sign of an ageing machine?
 
This happens to me all the time with 2 Lacie external drives.
The only fix is to set the power option to never.
 
Questions:

Are all these drives "running from bus power"?

That is, do any of them use/NOT use external power blocks?

IF they are all running from bus power, could the Mac's ability to supply power be getting overloaded?

Do you really need to have ALL of these drives connected ALL of the time?
(If you're booting from an external USB3 SSD, yes, of course this one must be connected all the time... but... the others?)

Do you really need to leave the computer powered on at night (even if "just sleeping")?

Instead, have you considered powering down at night, and just rebooting in the morning?
 
Hi Fisherman, thanks, they all run from bus power, I probably don't need them all connected I just didn't think it should matter.
I will try shutting down at bedtime, and see if that helps reduce the disconnections. Not sure why they should happen at night though?
 
Hi all,
Just came across this thread while looking for an answer to why my Seagate external hard drive keeps saying I have not ejected it properly. I just got a new iMac with the M1 chip. My old computer 2008 model, never had this problem. Since the new computer, I have already received at least 4 times, a message saying that I did not eject the disk before disconnecting - which I did not disconnect. Usually, I just shut down the computer without disconnecting/ejecting the external hard drive. I only have one external hard drive, attached through a USB hub.

Could it be that the new computer system shuts down so fast, the external hard drive has no time to react??
Is this going to cause problems in the long run and should I now be disconnecting it every night?

The new computer also seems to have ruined a brand new WD My Passport drive which I used for Time Machine Backups. It only lasted 2 weeks. Now, I am having a conversation with WD with an agent who thinks I am totally brainless. LOL.

Any suggestions on how to proceed would be helpful. Many thanks!
 
Just a comment; It might be the firmware on the case in which the drive is installed.
Example; I had several external cases that had a switch that allowed you to set it to use raid or not.
Problem was even if you set the cases to not use raid; if you changed the drive from one case to another case it
would erase the drive and set it up to use as a raid. The big problem; the company knew about the problem but never told any one. I lost 15 years worth of work. It took three years of very long hours to recover and recreate all the lost work.
 
Brian33 said:
If feasible, I would eliminate the usb hub by attaching the external drive directly to the Mac. See if the disconnects go away. Perhaps the hub has failed in some way?
Click to expand...
It seems like with a new computer, comes new problems. Sigh!
I connected the Seagate external hard drive directly to the Mac sans hub a few days ago and for 5 days in a row, I did not receive the eject warning. While this was good news, it meant that one port was not available for use anymore. I have only 2 USB-C ports to be used for two external hard drives plus a printer and a lamp needing power. 4 things for 2 ports. (I also have 2 Thunderbolt ports but no adapter for that yet - didn't find any for sale.)

Yesterday, I decided to plug the USB hub into the computer using the last remaining USB-C port. . In the hub, I had the small table lamp plus my printer. The Seagate drive would get its own port

Suddenly, every minute, I got a message that my Seagate hard drive was not ejected properly plus an additional message saying my hub was overloaded and I needed to disconnect it. Does a printer and a lamp overload a USB hub? It didn't when it was connected to my old Mac and had two external drives too.🤔

And why did I get the "disk not ejected properly" messages. It wasn't even connected to the hub. Does the whole computer not have enough power for 3 devices. The 4th wasn't even connected.

Hmmm... has Apple built in a detector to not allow non-Apple stuff to work on it??

I thought when I bought a new computer, I would have less problems. Can't really say so.😭
 
franinmuc said:
I connected the Seagate external hard drive directly to the Mac sans hub a few days ago and for 5 days in a row, I did not receive the eject warning. While this was good news
Click to expand...
Yes, that does seem like good news!

franinmuc said:
Yesterday, I decided to plug the USB hub into the computer using the last remaining USB-C port. . In the hub, I had the small table lamp plus my printer. The Seagate drive would get its own port

Suddenly, every minute, I got a message that my Seagate hard drive was not ejected properly plus an additional message saying my hub was overloaded and I needed to disconnect it.
Click to expand...
Well, I can’t explain everything you’re seeing or why it worked ok before, but it sounds like you’re using an unpowered usb hub. What I would try is a powered hub—one that has a power adapter that plugs into the wall. I would think the “small table lamp” might draw quite a bit of power.

franinmuc said:
Hmmm... has Apple built in a detector to not allow non-Apple stuff to work on it??
Click to expand...
No, I don’t think that’s it.
 
Brian33 said:
Yes, that does seem like good news!


Well, I can’t explain everything you’re seeing or why it worked ok before, but it sounds like you’re using an unpowered usb hub. What I would try is a powered hub—one that has a power adapter that plugs into the wall. I would think the “small table lamp” might draw quite a bit of power.


No, I don’t think that’s it.
Click to expand...
Thanks Brian!

Yes, the USB Hub is unpowered. I’ll keep this in mind.

Anyway, I contacted Apple Support and they made me boot up the computer in safe mode. It was supposed to turn off certain programs. After I did that, the messages stopped. I will have to monitor this for a couple of days and if all is ok, boot up normally or else, call them back if the problem is not solved.

Many thanks! 🙏
 
  • Like
Reactions: Brian33
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back