Help!? - Mac Pro internal HDD keeps unmounting

[fii2010]

Hi!

I have a Mac Pro recently purchased that I use for video editing and I have been having a rather serious and very annoying problem.

Using Final Cut Pro, I have been rendering a section of video and after a (variable) period of time, my scratch disk (internal SATA - came with the Mac Pro) just unmounts itself, causing FCP to crash out and I lose my render. I can only get the drive to mount again if I restart (or shutdown and start-up again).

Is there anyone out there who has knowledge of this problem? I want to ask Apple to look at my machine, but I work at a large institution and the paperwork trail is huge, so it would be a last resort.

Many thanks if anyone has any thoughts.

...Joe.

 

[eponym]

Check the disk

How big is disk? Is it partitioned? How much empty space is available when you start the render?

There's also all kinds of FCP-specific settings that can impact this stuff (I'm not a FCP person).

What do you mean by "unmounts"? The startup disk can't really do that. The entire system would crash, not just the app. Or is this NOT the actual startup disk? Did you take the original drive and re-purpose it?

Use the Disk Utility (Appications > Utilities) or something like Onyx (a downloadable app) to check the S.M.A.R.T. status and verify the volume.

 

[fii2010]

Eponym:

I think I said in my post that this is my scratch disk, which is not my startup disk. So yes, it does literally just 'unmount', and I get the usual error about removing a drive incorrectly (as if it were a USb stick I'd just pulled).

Thanks for the tips on disk checking. The drive is a 500GB disk with no partitions... I'll run those diagnostics but right now I have to restart my machine again because the problem has occurred again!

 

[PaulD-UK]

Hi
That's not normal, so work through this checklist:

Check that the hard drive is physically located in its bay securely.
Run DiskWarrior (latest 10.6-compatible version).
Trash FCP's preferences.
Run Apple Hardware Test.
Reinstall the Combo Updater for the version of OS X you are using.
Reinstall the updater to the latest version of FCP.

 

[sash]

Is there anyone out there who has knowledge of this problem?

Joe,

Run the _full_ hardware test to start with. It’ll take some time (1+ hour depending on your setup), but it’s the best — and in some cases the only — way to tell whether your HDD is failing.

Last years Apple has been using consumer WD HDD, which in my view are not that reliable. If the hardware test will show your HDD is failing indeed, just buy a enterprise class HDD.

sash

 

[sash]

Joe, just thought about that: you don't happen to have Paragon NTFS for Mac installed on you MP? it could also cause issues you're expirencing.

 

[eponym]

Last years Apple has been using consumer WD HDD, which in my view are not that reliable.

Agreed. I've had 2 drive failures with stock HDDs in the last couple of years after going probably a decade without a single failure.

 

[Rinox]

Did u find the solution yet? I have the same problem. See below.

https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=12862826&posted=1#post12862826

Thx.

 

[solaris8x86]

I have the exact issue. Finally, I realized that it was a faulty brand new drive. The drive behaves normal when it was idle. And just getting disconnected intermittently when it was under the stress load. The drive was purchased thru TargetPC Inc, USA. I have just shipped it back to USA from South Pacific Asia. The air-shipping cost is very expensive.