Mac Os X External Hard Drive Keeps Ejecting
An external hard drive is an affordable way to expand your Mac’s storage capacity, back up important data, and transfer data from one computer to another. And compare to the hard disks that present inside a macOS system, external hard drives are both portable & detachable and can be easily taken from one place to another.
However, most of the time, external hard disks have a limited lifetime of around 3-5 years. Thus, external hard disks are prone to all the usual problems due to aging, human error, and so on.
In this post, we will list some major disk failure symptoms, reasons, and solutions.
The system can’t show up the external hard drive.
Oct 11, 2006 I have an external LaCie d2 (FA Porsche design) 160GB Hard Drive (USB 2.0) Here is the situtation (I emailed this to LaCie support as well, but thought I'd post it here too): Every time the hard drive gets disconnected or shut off without properly ejecting it, it will not re-mount. May 27, 2017 I just bought a 2 TB portable external HDD and I've got two partitions on it. I've been getting notifications from OS X that I should eject my disk via Finder before removing the disk but I'm not removing the disk at all, it's been plugged in, stationary on my desk since I got it.
Normally, when you connect an external hard drive to your Mac’s USB port, you will see it appear on the Desktop, in the Finder in the left column under Locations. But sometimes the disk won’t appear on any in these places.
Reasons
The reasons could lay in the unrecognized state of the external hard drive or the system is not set up to display hard drives on the desktop or in the Finder.
Solution:
Open a Finder window and go to Preferences > General and make sure the External disks option is checked. Check if the External disks option is selected as well under the Sidebar tab.
https://diatrutin.hatenablog.com/entry/2020/11/23/005832. If you can’t see the disk still, you can read and apply the fixes in this article.
The external hard drive won’t be mounted or read on Mac.
Imagine this scene: when you plug in an external hard drive, Mac warns you “the disk you inserted was not readable by this computer”. Then you go to the Disk Utility and find the disk shows up in the left sidebar but it is grayed out. It’s such an annoying situation especially when you need to transfer something right then.
Reasons:
This issue may be caused by the drive itself, which might be power or connection interruptions without properly ejecting the drive. As a result, your external hard drive has possibly become logically corrupt.
Solution:
When your external hard drive is not mounting or readable, use Disk Utility to mount and repair the disk. You could now select your external hard drive and remount the external hard drive using the Mount option or repair it using First Aid. If the First Aid fails to repair the disk, formatting the external HD would be an effective way. But keep in mind that this operation will erase all data on the external disk. So, you need to back up or recover your data from the external hard drive first.
Especially Relevant:How to choose a solid-state hard disk interface in one minute
Mac or MacBook doesn’t recognize or detect the external hard drive.
Technically, when you can’t see the external hard drive in Disk Utility, you could be able to say the disk is not recognized or detected by Mac computers. In such cases, you can’t access data or use the drive anymore.
Reasons:
Most of the time, the problem could result from the hard drive corruption as a consequence of a corrupted file system or virus infections. Also, it could be faulty connections and other factors. The worse scenario could be that the external hard drive is physically broken.
Solutions:
Believe it or not, there are many fixes for troubleshooting the problem. Let’s start with the basics:
- Check the drive is probably plugged in.
- Try reconnecting the drive to another USB port.
- Try changing the USB cable.
- If you have another computer, try connecting the external drive to it.
- Reboot your Mac.
If you tested your external hard drive with the above tricks with no luck, here are more solutions to external hard drive not showing up on Mac.
Files disappeared from the external hard drive.
Sometimes, you check your external hard drive only to find that the files or folders are missing. You may be confused as you don’t delete any files or format the drive. Well, it’s weird but very common for people to lose files in such away.
Reasons:
Files can disappear from your external hard drive if it gets corrupted, infected with malware, hidden, or automatically moved by a program with any interference.
Solution:
When you just realized that files have disappeared from your computer, you should first check the Trash on your Mac to see if your files are there or not. Secondly, if you’re using iCloud or Time Machine, you can restore your disappeared files from backups. Thirdly, you can try to show hidden files in Finder by using Command +Shift + Dot keys.
Conclusion
External hard drives bring lots of convenience in daily work storing the data outside the system. But no matter how carefully you use your external hard drive, it can still be prone to failure at any time. In case the external hard drive suddenly gets corrupted again, remember to back up important files regularly.
Related
Summary: It is rather annoying that an external hard drive keeps disconnecting and reconnecting when you copy, back up, or transfer files on Windows/Mac computers. Don't know how to fix this issue? Read this post to stop external hard drives from ejecting by itself and to recover lost data from external hard drives with iBoysoft Data Recovery.
- Table of contents
- 1. Why your external hard drive keeps disconnecting?
- 2. How to recover lost data from the corrupted/unrecognized external hard drives?
- 3. My external hard drive keeps disconnecting, how to fix?
Just picture this, you are trying to copy some important files from a WD my passport external hard drive, but the USB drive keeps disconnecting and reconnecting on the computer all the time. You need to use these files in tomorrow's conference but all the efforts you've done were in vain. You can't copy, transfer, or back up these files on this drive at all because it is always interrupted by disconnection. Annoying, right?
Indeed, you're not the first one who meet this problem, and here is a case from one of our users.
Hi. I'm having a bit of disk problem here. My external hard drive (Seagate 1TB) keeps disconnecting. When I plug my hard drive into my Windows 10 computer, this external hard drive is detected, but after 5 seconds or so, it starts disconnecting and reconnecting every second. After a while, I get the prompt 'You need to format the disk in drive D: before you can use it'. I am not going to format this drive as I have many important files on it, so I unplug the drive, which didn't fix this problem. Now, I am at loss. Can you help me? Thanks in advance.
It's commonplace for Windows and Mac users, whether you're using WD, Seagate, Lacie, or any other external hard drive. Hence, this article provides 6 solutions to stop external hard drives from disconnecting, and how to recover your data from this external hard drive in this case.
But before you check these solutions, why not catch a glimpse of the causes for this issue?
Why your external hard drive keeps disconnecting?
An external hard drive is connected to a computer through the USB cable/Thunderbolt and port. As you can see, reading a USB hard drive on the computer involves three parts at least - the external hard drive itself, the USB cable, and the USB port. Thus, it is hard to tell which part goes wrong when the hard drive constantly disconnects and reconnects. Generally speaking, the related factors could be:
- The external hard drive is corrupted due to unsafe ejection, bad sectors, virus infection, etc.
- The USB cable is broken or aging.
- The USB port is wobbly or damaged.
- The USB 3.0 driver is outdated or incompatible.
- The USB hub is not supplied with enough power.
Compared with external hard drive not showing up, this 'randomly disconnecting' issue is worse as it could make your external hard drive dead completely. You will not be able to open this drive nor access files on this drive at that time. So, no matter what the reason is, you need to recover your files from this drive as soon as possible, and stop the external hard drive from disconnecting and reconnecting right now!
How to recover lost data from the corrupted/unrecognized external hard drives?
When an external hard drive is showing up but later disappears/disconnects randomly, the most urgent thing, in this case, is to recover lost data from this external hard drive as soon as possible. Because constant disconnection and reconnection will damage your external hard drive and make this hard drive inaccessible possibly. So, you'd better recover your files from this external hard drive in no time before the 'disconnecting' thing destroys your drive completely someday.
Then, how can you recover lost data from the hard drive in this case? Actually, all you need is professional hard drive data recovery software. for example, iBoysoft Data Recovery.
iBoysoft Data Recovery is a professional file recovery tool. It can recover photos, documents, emails, etc. when an external hard drive keeps disconnecting and the drive becomes corrupted. Moreover, this free data recovery software can recover lost data from formatted, inaccessible, corrupted, RAW, unreadable, unmountable external hard drives. With this useful program, hard drive data recovery and SD card data recovery, as well as USB flash drives and CF card recovery, etc. are possible for both Mac and Windows users.
https://agilebrown.weebly.com/samsung-allshare-manager-mac-download.html. Supported Windows operating system: Windows 10/8/7/Vista/XP and Windows Server 2019/2016/2012/2008/2003
Supported Mac operating system: macOS Catalina (10.15), macOS 10.14 (Mojave), macOS 10.13 (High Sierra), macOS 10.12 (Sierra) and Mac OS X 10.11 (El Capitan), 10.10 (Yosemite), 10.9 (Mavericks), 10.8 (Mountain Lion), 10.7 (Lion)
Take windows computer as an example to recover lost data form external hard drives here:
Tutorial to recover lost data from external hard drives
Step 1: Download iBoysoft Data Recovery on your Windows computer and launch it.
Step 2: Select your external hard drive in the list and click 'Next' to scan for files on this drive.
Step 3: The scanning results will be listed in the left sidebar. Select the files you want to recover and preview if you want to check if it is intact.
Step 4: Icc world cup 2011 game free download for mobile. Click 'Recover' to get your files back.
Note: If your external hard drive keeps disconnecting and reconnecting on a Mac computer and you need to recover lost data from this drive, you can download iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac to get your files back as well.
My external hard drive keeps disconnecting, how to fix?
After recovering files from this external hard drive, you can go ahead to fix this 'disconnection' problem with ease. There are 6 solutions you can make an attempt.
Solution 1:Check the connections - the USB hub and cable
It may sound ridiculous and foolish, but actually, checking the connection does work for many users whose external hard disk keeps disconnecting on the computer just like yours. So why not give it a try since it is as easy as pie?
- Re-insert this external hard drive into your computer.
- Plug this external hard drive to another USB port.
- Use another USB cable to connect this device to the computer.
These steps didn't fix your disk problems? No worries, you still have other options to have a bash.
Solution 2:Update the USB driver
If the external hard drive keeps disconnecting during files copying, or the hard drive is not working on computer normally, you might be experiencing one of the USB 3.0 controller driver problems listed below:
- The USB driver is outdated and a new driver is available now.
- The USB driver has a conflict with some hardware devices that were connected to the USB port.
- The operating system of your computer has been upgraded, resulting in software incompatibility. It happens especially on Windows 7 where a new USB communication protocol was implemented and is known as USB 2.0.
- The USB driver has been corrupted because the computer is crashed or is infected by malware.
Can you fix this on your Windows or Mac computer? Yes, as sure as eggs is eggs! Simply update the USB driver as instructed below.
How to update the USB driver on Windows computer?
Step 1: Press 'Win + R' to open the 'Run' dialogue box.
Step 2: Type in 'devmgmt.msc' and press Enter to go to Device Manager.
Step 3: Expand 'Disk drives' and find your external hard drive in the list.
Step 4: If there is a yellow/red sign that indicates a problematic driver or if you find any 'Unknown device', you need to right-click and select 'Update Driver software…' and follow the instructions to update USB drivers. If there is no abnormal sign, you can right-click your external hard drive and choose 'Uninstall'.
Step 5: Restart your PC. Mac os el capitan download ohne app store.
How to update the USB driver on Mac computer?
Step 1: Click on Launchpad at your Mac Dock.
Ejecting External Hard Drive Windows
Step 2: Find App Store in the menu and open it.
Step 3: Click on 'Updates' and see if there is a new update available. If so, update it as the wizard said.
Solution 3:Turn off USB selective suspend
When an external hard drive continues unplugging randomly on your Windows laptop, it also could be the power saving feature that stops your external drive from working. Your PC could be set to turn off USB devices after a while just for saving power. If this is the reason that your drive disconnects and reconnects, you can disable it for good.
Step 1: Click Start and enter 'control panel' in the search box of your computer, then select Control Panel from the list of results.
Step 2: Select Power Options in the menu and open it.
Step 3: Find your power plan and click on Change plan settings.
Step 4: Choose Change advanced power settings.
Step 5: Click USB settings, choose USB selective suspend setting, and then set it to Disabled.
Step 6: Click on Apply and OK to save changes.
Solution 4 :Check for USB hard drive in system information (Works for Mac)
Since this hard drive problem resulting from power issue can be settled down on Windows, you may ask: Can I stop my external hard drive from disconnecting and reconnecting on Mac?
Fortunately, the answer is pretty positive. When a USB hub doesn't provide so much power to external devices, this external hard drive will not be recognized by your computer. You can check if this hard disk is supplied with enough power in a few clicks and the result will be shown in an intuitive way .
Step 1: Click on the Apple logo at the upper left corner of your desktop.
Step 2: Choose About This Mac and choose System Report where almost all information about your Mac computer is listed.
Step 3: Click on USB under Hardware in the left sidebar, and you will see all the USB devices connected to this Mac.
Step 4: Look for your USB external hard drive in the list. You can see the available power for this USB hub and the required power for your hard drive exactly. Free tube bending software for mac.
Step 5: Do the math and see if this USB hard drive is pulling too much power from the USB port. If the required power is higher than the available one, connect this hard drive to a different USB hub or eject other unnecessary USB devices.
Solution 5:Change power management settings for USB Root Hubs
The hard drive keeps disconnecting at will still? All right, you need to check the power management as your system might be too considerate to disconnect your external hard drive unnecessarily. To stop it from randomly disconnecting and reconnecting, you need to tell your computer you don't want it to disconnect your hard drive automatically.
Here is how.
Step 1: Press the 'Windows logo key + R', and then type 'devmgmt.msc' in the dialogue box and press Enter to open Device Manager.
Step 2: Navigate to Universal Serial Bus Controllers and double click on the target USB Root Hub.
Step 3: Choose Power Management in the pop-up window and uncheck Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.
How To Eject Hard Drive
Step 4: Click OK to save changes.
Solution 6: Reformat this drive
What! You walk through all the solutions above but the external hard drive won't stop disconnecting? The system still asks you to format this drive before you can use it?
Well, the last solution is to reformat this drive.
Warning: Don't practice reformatting if you have important files on this drive because this operation will delete your data on this external hard drive. On the contrary, you need to make sure you have recovered data from this external hard drive first and if you don't have a copy of data backup.
How to reformat an external hard drive on Windows?
- Open This PC/My Computer on your desktop and find your external hard drive in the right list, and then right-click on it.
- Click on 'Format' in this context menu and fill in the volume label, file system, and allocation unit size as the wizard asked.
- Check the 'Perform a quick format' box and click “OK” to reformat this hard drive.
How to reformat an external hard drive on Mac?
- Go to Launchpad > Utilities > Disk Utility.
- Find your external hard drive in the left sidebar and select it, then click 'Erase' at the top menu of Disk Utility.
- Fill in the name and choose a format for your drive, then click on the 'Format' button to complete.
The external hard drive won't stop disconnecting after all this fixes? Well, since you have successfully recovered data from the external hard drive, you dont need to worry about losing files at least. You can send this drive to a local repair store for help and see if you can fix this issue, just pick up your phone now.
