LaCie drive won't stay mounted when USB'd to Cinema Display

[muaythai]

I've been powering/connecting my LaCie Rikiki USB 3.0 drive to my Apple Cinema Display for over a year, no problem. Now all of a sudden it won't stay mounted, i.e. it disappears from the desktop and gives me "the disk was not properly ejected..." error message.

The drive mounts successfully when plugged in directly to my machine. Any ideas of what could be the issue?

 

[JediMeister]

You have been using a USB 3.0 device with a display only rated for USB 2.0. That it has worked for as long as it has is surprising.

This may prove to be a fruitless exercise ultimately, but is the drive bus powered or does it have an external power source? Is this a 24" or 27" LED Cinema Display or an even older 20"/23"/30" Apple Cinema Display? You could possibly try resetting the SMC but I wouldn't expect anything to change.

 

[muaythai]

Thanks for your reply JediMeister. I didn't realize the cinema displays were only rated for USB 2.0 devices!

 

[Joseph Farrugia]

You have been using a USB 3.0 device with a display only rated for USB 2.0. That it has worked for as long as it has is surprising.

This may prove to be a fruitless exercise ultimately, but is the drive bus powered or does it have an external power source? Is this a 24" or 27" LED Cinema Display or an even older 20"/23"/30" Apple Cinema Display? You could possibly try resetting the SMC but I wouldn't expect anything to change.

JediMeister he might be, but very far from being a USBmeister

USB 3 is backwards compatible with USB 2, so the problem is not the fact that the ACD's port is USB 2.0 but elsewhere.

 

[muaythai]

USB 3 is backwards compatible with USB 2, so the problem is not the fact that the ACD's port is USB 2.0 but elsewhere.

Hmm interesting! But doesn't that refer only to data transfer, and not power rating? I wish I had a multimeter for USB

 

[skorpien]

Just quickly googled up a review on that drive and it states that the drive has issues with power using a USB 2 connection:

http://www.everythingusb.com/lacie-rikiki-usb-3.0-portable-hard-drive-20982.html

Is the drive capable of being powered externally? I know it defeats the purpose of a portable HDD, but if it's capable of it I'd plug it in to make sure it's not the port on your ACD that's to blame.