LaCie 1TB USB Drive ejecting randomly

[Francois4256]

I have an external laCie Usb drive, that as the header implies, is ejecting itself randomly.

I use the first partition for general storage, the second is for TM backups.

It has never failed to finish a backup, nor has any large (5gb or larger) file transfer to the storage partition ever errored out. It appears to be completely random.

I have tried the fixes mentioned in a couple of threads.. Turning off the disk sleep ~ No joy ~

I read one thread about turning journaling on and off, however the directions given did not seem to jive with my version of disk utility..

Any thoughts or insights would be greatly appreciated, particularly how to turn journaling off.

I am running 10.6.2 and am almost but not quite sure the issue only started after the .1 upgrade.

Thanks in advance

Francois

Drive data if that helps..

Capacity: 1 TB (1,000,204,886,016 bytes)
Removable Media: Yes
Detachable Drive: Yes
BSD Name: disk1
Product ID: 0x1018
Vendor ID: 0x059f (LaCie)
Version: 0.01
Serial Number: 8a0353f07c4a130246000000
Speed: Up to 480 Mb/sec
Manufacturer: LaCie
Location ID: 0x24300000
Current Available (mA): 500
Current Required (mA): 2
Partition Map Type: APM (Apple Partition Map)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Not Supported
Volumes:
Storage:
Capacity: 332.24 GB (332,238,106,624 bytes)
Available: 140.33 GB (140,333,867,008 bytes)
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk1s6
Mount Point: /Volumes/Storage
Storage 2:
Capacity: 667.83 GB (667,832,143,872 bytes)
Available: 530.71 GB (530,711,453,696 bytes)
Writable: Yes
File System: Journaled HFS+
BSD Name: disk1s7
Mount Point: /Volumes/Storage 2

 

[BlueRevolution]

Do you get this dialog when the drive ejects?

 

[drtech]

I would be very surprised if it was related to journaling. In fact, journaling may be keeping your data intact even though the drive has dropped offline multiple times. Without journaling enabled, corruption of the file system may have already occurred.

That being said, the real question is why is the drive dropping offline. I use that term because the drive is probably not "ejecting itself." Ejecting implies that the file system is properly closed and the drive properly prepared for disconnection.

First, try a different USB cable or USB port. Second, depending on the model of LaCie drive, there may be an issue with the power supply. Apparently, a small number of power supplies for some older LaCie drives were going bad. Replacing the power supply cured all issues. The power supply can be purchased from LaCie's website for a reasonable price.

We had a few LaCie's come in that weren't working with similar symptoms. We tried a new power supply first, and viola. We told the customer to buy a new power supply and sent them back their drives no charge. Easy fix!

Beyond that, there could be an issue with the enclosure itself, the electronics in the enclosure, the USB port on the back, or the hard drive could be failing. Diagnosing these would require removing the drive(s) from the enclosure and testing individually (check your warranty).

I would tell you to use software to read the SMART statuses of the drives and look for reallocated sectors (anything over 5 is suspect), however, SMART software will typically not be able to see hard drives in external enclosures.

The drive(s) would need to be removed and connected directly to the computer's SATA connection (assuming a SATA drive). If there are multiple drives in the enclosure (as used in the LaCie Big Disk), you have to be very careful about removing and reinstalling the drives. They cannot be modified outside of the enclosure and need to be reinstalled in the proper locations.

Jeff

 

[Francois4256]

That is the exact message Blue

And DrTech, the beast is exactly 30 days old today... Perhaps this is infant mortality...

Francois

 

[BlueRevolution]

It's probably a faulty cable or port. Try with a different USB cable if you have one available.

 

[wbski]

I don't think so

I am having an identical problem. My old mac had 10.5 on it. I just got a 10.6.2 27 inch iMac and now my 1tb drive goes offline after a while. This is definitely a driver problem I think

 

[Francois4256]

Woke up the machine and noticed the drives had ejected themselves again.

This is from the console log.. it reads like a clue, unfortunately, not to me

Any gurus care to take a crack at it?


Dec 10 19:40:36 Francois-Jeans-iMac SyncServer[5085]: [110f10] |SyncServer|Warning| Refreshing watchdog because of a calendar time change alert.
Dec 10 19:40:36 Francois-Jeans-iMac loginwindow[189]: loginwindow SleepWakeCallback will power on, Currenttime:12/10/2009 7:40:36.014 PM - Waketime:12/10/2009 7:40:35.130 PM = Deltatime:0.884102046
Dec 10 19:40:36 Francois-Jeans-iMac mds[35]: (/Volumes/Storage 2/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/824A800A-4868-4944-ACAA-888C21BB9E07)(Error) IndexStore in SIStoreDirytySDBChunks:Error storing dirty sdb pages: 22
Dec 10 19:40:36 Francois-Jeans-iMac mds[35]: ((null))(Error) IndexCI in _ContentIndexSyncIndexBulkreSync error:22 22
Dec 10 19:40:36 Francois-Jeans-iMac mds[35]: (/)(Error) IndexGeneral in _SIShutdownIndex:setDir error 9 (/Volumes/Storage 2/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/587B26D0-B7CB-4482-BEBC-7058C8290DB9)
Dec 10 19:40:36 Francois-Jeans-iMac mds[35]: (/)(Error) IndexGeneral in _SIShutdownIndex:setDir error 9 (/Volumes/Storage/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/EE42A450-A817-42A9-82EB-F4092BF61CE5)
Dec 10 19:40:46 Francois-Jeans-iMac configd[13]: Sleep: Success - AC - Software Sleep
Dec 10 19:40:46 Francois-Jeans-iMac configd[13]: Wake: Success - AC - OHC2
Dec 10 19:40:46 Francois-Jeans-iMac configd[13]: Hibernate Statistics
Dec 10 19:40:46 Francois-Jeans-iMac kernel[0]:
Dec 10 19:40:47: --- last message repeated 11 times ---
Dec 10 19:40:47 Francois-Jeans-iMac Safari[5101]: INSERT-HANG-DETECTED: Tx time:5.380382, # of Inserts: 0, # of bytes written: 0, Did shrink: NO
Dec 10 19:40:47 Francois-Jeans-iMac configd[13]: PMConnection AirPort configd plug-in com.apple.powermanagement.applicationresponse.slowresponse 11235 ms
Dec 10 19:40:47 Francois-Jeans-iMac configd[13]: PMConnection IPConfiguration com.apple.powermanagement.applicationresponse.slowresponse 11314 ms
Dec 10 19:40:47 Francois-Jeans-iMac configd[13]: network configuration changed.
Dec 10 19:41:06: --- last message repeated 1 time ---
Dec 10 19:41:06 Francois-Jeans-iMac loginwindow[189]: no spins reported for this wake
Dec 10 19:41:24 Francois-Jeans-iMac fseventsd[41]: event logs in /Volumes/Storage/.fseventsd out of sync with volume. destroying old logs. (73028 1 80293)
Dec 10 19:41:24 Francois-Jeans-iMac fseventsd[41]: log dir: /Volumes/Storage/.fseventsd getting new uuid: C23B68FD-A4E8-49E2-B279-B3EC033B9F03
Dec 10 19:41:24 Francois-Jeans-iMac fseventsd[41]: disk logger: failed to open output file /Volumes/Storage 2/.fseventsd/000000000052cb31 (No such file or directory). mount point /Volumes/Storage 2/.fseventsd
Dec 10 19:41:29 Francois-Jeans-iMac fseventsd[41]: event logs in /Volumes/Storage 2/.fseventsd out of sync with volume. destroying old logs. (72285 5 80298)
Dec 10 19:41:29 Francois-Jeans-iMac fseventsd[41]: log dir: /Volumes/Storage 2/.fseventsd getting new uuid: F272CF26-CEF6-4E07-96E9-80ABB1A78B2A

 

[Francois4256]

LaCie 1TB USB Drive ejecting randomly - Possible fix

Well, turning off spotlight for the drive seemed to have solved the random eject problem for me.

This was the clue:
Dec 10 19:40:36 Francois-Jeans-iMac mds[35]: (/Volumes/Storage 2/.Spotlight-V100/Store-V1/Stores/824A800A-4868-4944-ACAA-888C21BB9E07)(Error) IndexStore in SIStoreDirytySDBChunks:Error storing dirty sdb pages: 22
Dec 10 19:40:36 Francois-Jeans-iMac mds[35]: ((null))(Error) IndexCI in _ContentIndexSyncIndexBulkreSync error:22 22
Dec 10 19:40:36 Francois-Jeans-iMac mds[35]: (/)(Error) IndexGeneral in _SIShutdownIndex:setDir error 9

I will rebuild the data base and turn spotlight back on to see if the drive will still work.

Francois

 

[no.tzen]

same problem, did a lot of research, wasted a lot of time and enegy, then finally decided to contact LaCie (not easy). Don't waste time filling endless forms on the website, they are just a waste of time. Call them directly:
USA: 503-844-4503,
CANADA: (416)5302545
(those # are not on the website)
Basically, tell them your problem, sound very irritated. They will replace your product for free, and for me, it worked great.

I now have a brand new disk, working perfectly smooth.