external hard drive error

Discussion in 'MacBook' started by heidijd, Aug 27, 2012.

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  1. heidijd, Aug 27, 2012

    heidijd macrumors newbie

    Joined:
    Aug 27, 2012
    Location:
    Oregon
    #1
    When plugging in my western digital to do a Time Machine backup the hard drive lights up. It has loaded and starts the backup but after a couple minutes an error message comes up.

    "The disk was not ejected properly. If possible, always eject a disk before unplugging it or turning it off."

    I left it plugged in and it has restarted twice and said the same error. But now it isn't showing up but the light is on.

    I do have it partitioned because at one time I was trying to help my sister backup her dell laptop, but her laptop has its own issues so I don't need the partition anymore.

    How do I fix the error or reset the hard drive to make sure I can make up my backups?
    I am also having issues with the computer running slow. I do have CClearner installed and ran a sweep last week. It helped but still had issues last week.

    I will include a screenshot of the error.
     

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  2. GGJstudios, Aug 28, 2012

    GGJstudios macrumors Westmere

    GGJstudios

    Joined:
    May 16, 2008
    #2
    Try plugging it into her Dell, then ejecting it properly from the Dell, then plug it into your Mac.
    You don't need "cleaner" or "maintenance" apps like CCleaner to keep your Mac running well, and some of these apps can do more harm than good. Some remove files/folders or unused languages or architectures, which does nothing more than free up some drive space, with the risk of deleting something important in the process.

    These apps will not make your Mac run faster or more efficiently, since having stuff stored on a drive does not impact performance, unless you're running out of drive space. Some of these apps delete caches, which can hurt performance, rather than help it, since more system resources are used and performance suffers while each cache is being rebuilt.

    Many of these tasks should only be done selectively to troubleshoot specific problems, not en masse as routine maintenance.

    Mac OS X does a good job of taking care of itself, without the need for 3rd party software. Among other things, it has its own maintenance scripts that run silently in the background on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, without user intervention.

     
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  3. heidijd, Aug 28, 2012

    heidijd thread starter macrumors newbie

    Joined:
    Aug 27, 2012
    Location:
    Oregon
    #3
    the partition was made over 6 months ago so it has nothing to do with the error. Her computers usb drives are messed up so it wont work even if I did.

    Since I have had CCleaner it has actually helped, since my computer is older.

    I understand what you are saying about the 3rd party applications. But I know for a fact that it has helped.
     
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