Solved -Thank You! Storage drive will not eject from MacBook

[ThatGirl]

Hi,

I have a MacBook with a storage drive connected via firewire. All was fine but now suddenly it won't show the contents of the folders and it won't eject. I tried dragging it to the trash, and I also tried the eject arrow in the list of drives. I tried to open Disk Utility, but it just spins. I also tried to throw something else away in the trash, and the trash folder will not take it.

Normally if something like this happened, I would just restart and hope it rights itself, but I don't know if I can do that with a storage drive still attached. (On another occasion, the storage drive got pulled out improperly and luckily I was able to repair it with Disk Utility.)

Would someone please tell me if it would damage the storage drive to restart while it is still attached? If so, is there another solution?

Thank you.

 

[cosmokanga2]

Make sure all of your applications are closed and then I would just shut the computer down with it attached. The only option I can think of. Someone else might have more knowledge on this though.

 

[-tWv-]

Hi,

I have a MacBook with a storage drive connected via firewire. All was fine but now suddenly it won't show the contents of the folders and it won't eject. I tried dragging it to the trash, and I also tried the eject arrow in the list of drives. I tried to open Disk Utility, but it just spins. I also tried to throw something else away in the trash, and the trash folder will not take it.

Normally if something like this happened, I would just restart and hope it rights itself, but I don't know if I can do that with a storage drive still attached. (On another occasion, the storage drive got pulled out improperly and luckily I was able to repair it with Disk Utility.)

Would someone please tell me if it would damage the storage drive to restart while it is still attached? If so, is there another solution?

Thank you.

I have restarted with an External HD connected via USB before. It didn't do anything to the drive and it is still working fine. Go ahead and try to restart and see what happens

 

[i.shaun]

on a normal restart the drive is dismounted and the computer reboots, if you do a hard restart it's like a sudden cut in power (to the mac anyway).


Did you try to repair permissions in disk utility? (permissions on the internal drive).

 

[ThatGirl]

Make sure all of your applications are closed and then I would just shut the computer down with it attached. The only option I can think of. Someone else might have more knowledge on this though.

Thanks, but I cannot shut down the open applications. All I have is a spinning cursor. The icon of the storage drive is stuck and highlighted. I can't restart properly. Is there a key stroke to restart? It looks like I would have to cut the power, but that will damage the drive. I have already tried Force Quit.

 

[ThatGirl]

I have restarted with an External HD connected via USB before. It didn't do anything to the drive and it is still working fine. Go ahead and try to restart and see what happens

Thanks. I can't restart with the cursor. Is there a key stroke to do an restart? I have already tried to Force Quit several times.

 

[ThatGirl]

on a normal restart the drive is dismounted and the computer reboots, if you do a hard restart it's like a sudden cut in power (to the mac anyway).


Did you try to repair permissions in disk utility? (permissions on the internal drive).

Thanks. No, when I went to Disk Utility, I was hoping to find the external drive showing up there but when it did not, I quit the program. I did not know that I should repair the permissions on the internal disk. Now I can't even if I tried. It's just spinning and unresponsive.

 

[i.shaun]

If it's unresponsive then it would seem you have no choice but a hard restart. Hold the power to shut it down, unplug the external HDD, and boot it back up again.


Check to see that the system itself is running properly before trying to reconnect the external so that you can try to avoid having it lock up and having to do another hard shutdown with it connected.



If everything is good, re-connect it and see if there is anything wrong with it in disk utility.

 

[ThatGirl]

If it's unresponsive then it would seem you have no choice but a hard restart. Hold the power to shut it down, unplug the external HDD, and boot it back up again.


Check to see that the system itself is running properly before trying to reconnect the external so that you can try to avoid having it lock up and having to do another hard shutdown with it connected.



If everything is good, re-connect it and see if there is anything wrong with it in disk utility.

Ok. Thanks.

So I did this suggestion. My internal drive and system seem fine, but when I tried to check on the external drive, it shows up in the list in Disk Utility, but none of the function are available. I can't verify or repair, and it won't eject it even though that button is not grayed out.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

 

[ThatGirl]

If it's unresponsive then it would seem you have no choice but a hard restart. Hold the power to shut it down, unplug the external HDD, and boot it back up again.


Check to see that the system itself is running properly before trying to reconnect the external so that you can try to avoid having it lock up and having to do another hard shutdown with it connected.



If everything is good, re-connect it and see if there is anything wrong with it in disk utility.

Ok. Thanks.

So I did this suggestion. My internal drive and system seem fine, but when I tried to check on the external drive, it shows up in the list in Disk Utility, but none of the function are available. I can't verify or repair, and it won't eject it even though that button is not grayed out.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Oh! Now the Verify Disk and Repair Disk Options just became available! I'll give them a try. Thanks.