Iomega Extternal Drive keeps ejecting itself?

[NStocks]

Hi,

I've been using a 500GB Iomega Prestige external hard drive for the past 2 and a half years for my time machine backup.

For no apparent reason, a warning message appears telling me that the disk has been ejected and that I should use the eject button to do so safely, rather than just unplugging it. (although I'm not actually unplugging it!)

I've had the same problem for a few days now and not really sure what to do. I formatted the drive around a month ago as the same issue occurred, and now it's repeating itself on a daily basis. I've connected the drive directly to my mac, to test wether it's the usb hub causing the problem, however it is not.

The hard drive is out of warranty too...

Thank You

 

[Fishrrman]

"For no apparent reason, a warning message appears telling me that the disk has been ejected and that I should use the eject button to do so safely, rather than just unplugging it. (although I'm not actually unplugging it!)"

This sounds to me like either
1. A failure in the connecting cables (and other physical "connection-related" items, such as the USB ports), or
2. A failure of the drives controller card or perhaps its power supply.

I'm going to _guess_ that the actual "hard drive" itself is OK -- and something with the enclosure or connections is causing your problem.

That's why the Mac is sensing that the drive has been "unplugged" when in truth, you haven't done anything.

Another guess:
Since the drive is out of warranty, it no longer will matter if you open the enclosure. I suggest you open the case, and take the drive out. Then (assuming the drive itself is a "SATA" type drive) get one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=usb+sata+dock&x=0&y=0
(many different items shown, they all work the same, just pick one you like that's cheap)

Hook the dock up to the Mac, put the drive in, turn the dock on.
Does the drive "mount up" now?

If it DOES, looks like the Iomega enclosure went bad on you. I'd suggest that you just keep using the USB/SATA dock instead. And you can buy additional "bare" drives, and use them in the dock, too.

 

[NStocks]

"For no apparent reason, a warning message appears telling me that the disk has been ejected and that I should use the eject button to do so safely, rather than just unplugging it. (although I'm not actually unplugging it!)"

This sounds to me like either
1. A failure in the connecting cables (and other physical "connection-related" items, such as the USB ports), or
2. A failure of the drives controller card or perhaps its power supply.

I'm going to _guess_ that the actual "hard drive" itself is OK -- and something with the enclosure or connections is causing your problem.

That's why the Mac is sensing that the drive has been "unplugged" when in truth, you haven't done anything.

Another guess:
Since the drive is out of warranty, it no longer will matter if you open the enclosure. I suggest you open the case, and take the drive out. Then (assuming the drive itself is a "SATA" type drive) get one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=usb+sata+dock&x=0&y=0
(many different items shown, they all work the same, just pick one you like that's cheap)

Hook the dock up to the Mac, put the drive in, turn the dock on.
Does the drive "mount up" now?

If it DOES, looks like the Iomega enclosure went bad on you. I'd suggest that you just keep using the USB/SATA dock instead. And you can buy additional "bare" drives, and use them in the dock, too.

Sorry for the late reply!

It's kinda 'hit and miss' at the moment. One day I will have no issues, another day it will only work (backup) when it's plugged directly into my Mac i.e not via the USB HUB.

I'm going to leave it plugged directly to my Mac for a week or two and see if the problem still arises. If not, then it's time for a new USB HUB perhaps.

Thank you for the suggestions.

Nathan

 

[Fishrrman]

"For no apparent reason, a warning message appears telling me that the disk has been ejected and that I should use the eject button to do so safely, rather than just unplugging it. (although I'm not actually unplugging it!)"

My guess is that something (probably the enclosure or the controller board or perhaps the power supply if there is one) has "gone bad" on you, and the effect is that the connection between the computer and enclosure/drive is being lost from time to time. To the OS, this would seem as if you had "unplugged" the drive without ejecting the drive's icon from the trash first, and hence, the warning message.

I will also guess that there's a good chance that the drive itself (the "core drive" inside the enclosure) is still ok.

Best solution might be to get another enclosure, remove the drive, install it into the new enclosure, and see how it goes from there.

Actually, even better is to get one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=usb+sata+dock&x=0&y=0
(many items shown, they all work the same, pick one you like that's cheap)

Hook the dock up to the USB port, insert the drive, turn the dock on, let the drive spin up and see if it mounts on the desktop. If it does, you're in!

The advantage of the USB/SATA dock is that you're no longer "tied down" to a specific drive/enclosure combination. You can swap drives around with the single dock. If the dock fails, your drives are still good, just get another dock. And you can boot from the dock, too.

I see you're in the UK, but dealmac.com has a deal on one of these for $18US today....

That's a very low cost to "get operational" again!