new annoyance with iMac + WD My Book essential re: "device removal" warning

[xpipe]

I have three external HDs:

1) FW 800 1TB WD My Book Studio HFS+ for the Mac side
2) FW 400 500GB WD My Book Home for Time Machine
3) USB 1TB WB My Book Essential NTFS for the Windows side

I don't have the included "drive manager" software installed on any of them. I've never used that on any external HD. I don't know if that makes a difference here.


The problem is with drive #3. For the past couple days, the computer's been throwing the attached message up at me (maybe 3-4 times). When I look down down at the drive, it's in its "Cylon" mode, where the blue light is moving up and down (if you have the drive, you know what I'm talking about!). It might be missing from the desktop briefly but it comes right back; it happens quickly, so it's hard to tell.

I'm not sure if the drive goes into that up and down light mode (I think it means it's in use), and that mode triggers the message *or* if something on the iMac disconnects the drive, triggering the message, and then the drive goes into that mode. Or something else entirely.

The problem started after I installed the recent security update 2008-005 the other day. I don't know if that's just coincidence.

Has anyone else had this happen or have any ideas? I'm going to try another USB cable or try using the other USB port on the back of the iMac. I don't know what else to do. The problem is intermittent, so it may be hard to figure out if it worked or not.

This whole "data might have been lost" thing makes me nervous


Thanks!



PS: I'm calling it an "annoyance" at this point because I'm not sure if it's a "problem" yet...

 

[Apple Ink]

Yes.... happened to me with my Freeagent USB! (Which also is NTFS)

But then the problem suddenly vanished!

Try two things: reinsert the USB connector and use a different power socket!

If this doesnt help, try changing the connector chord! But I believe its more of a FS problem!

P.S.: I was and am as confounded as you are and could never solve the mystery!

Anyone else have details on this?!?!?

 

[joelgs23]

Same Here!!!

I have the same 1TB USB Western Digital drive. I installed Apple's security update and now I can't access the drive. It shows up in the System Profiler and in the Disk Utilities, but it will not mount on the desktop. Disk Utility allows you to "eject" it, which only results in an error. The blue light on mine goes up and down also, but I get nothing!! I just bought this drive 2 weeks ago also. . . I'm lost and really upset.

 

[chrisprobert]

In terminal, try typing:

sudo Diskutil MontDisk /dev/disk2

(assuming your disk is disk2)
This should force mount the disk. I had a similar problem with a thumb drive a while ago, I wrote a small bash script which I occasionally had to use to mount the drive.