2015 MBP MacOS BigSur Disk not ejected properly error while backing up.

[1 SX]

Hi, I have a 2015 MBP 13" 3.1GHz i7/16GB RAM/512GB SSD/BigSur 11.5.1/85watt power adapter and am having a problem backing up using time machine. I connect the 1TB External spinning HDD, but can never backup because the disk keeps ejecting.... I was able to back up months ago, and it seems like the more info is on the HDD more often this message appears..

Is this because the HDD requires more power than the USB3 port can provide? Is my cable faulty maybe? It does the same thing on all 3 of them that i have.... I know everything is on the cloud, but i kinda like having a physical copy in case i upgrade to a new MPB, its as easy as connecting the external drive and copying everything over faster then downloading 100's of GB over the net.

Part of me wants to just forget backing up all together, and let iCloud handle everything. I do have a upgraded storage plan.....

Any one have ideas?

Thanks!

 

[bunnspecial]

It sounds like either a cable or drive issue.

Is this a bus powered drive? Typically 2.5" drives CAN be bus powered, but some will come with a "pigtail" cable to give an extra boost of power since 5W can be pushing it. I don't know if any 3rd parties have figured out how to unlock Apple's "high power" 10W USB mode. I've never seen a USB A bus-powered 3.5" drive(Firewire, Thunderbolt, and USB-C can all supply enough power to run one, but not USB-A).

If you can, though, try a different cable and see if that works. Also, it bears a listen to the drive as it's plugged in and spinning up.

 

[1 SX]

It sounds like either a cable or drive issue.

Is this a bus powered drive? Typically 2.5" drives CAN be bus powered, but some will come with a "pigtail" cable to give an extra boost of power since 5W can be pushing it. I don't know if any 3rd parties have figured out how to unlock Apple's "high power" 10W USB mode. I've never seen a USB A bus-powered 3.5" drive(Firewire, Thunderbolt, and USB-C can all supply enough power to run one, but not USB-A).

If you can, though, try a different cable and see if that works. Also, it bears a listen to the drive as it's plugged in and spinning up.

thanks for the suggestions, I can hear the drive spinning, and even while receiving these disconnect errors, the drive is not powering down.

maybe i need a high quality cable, as these are amazon specials.

 

[1 SX]

Update on this:

Tried a name brand cable, and it works!. Cheap amazon cables are going in the garbage. Here i was thinking thay are "all the same" How wrong i was.

Thanks!

 

[bunnspecial]

Update on this:

Tried a name brand cable, and it works!. Cheap amazon cables are going in the garbage. Here i was thinking thay are "all the same" How wrong i was.

Thanks!

So happy it worked!

Bear in mind that even good cables have a finite life, and I've seen this behavior in ones that have been used a lot. The micro-USB-3.0 cables seem especially bad about it.

The random mounting/unmounting cycling behavior to me almost always points to a bad cable, though. It could have been a dodgy connection, or it could have been that the cable just wasn't up to passing the power needed. It may have had enough to spin up the drive(which actually doesn't take that much power to keep going once it's up to speed) but kicked out once the drive started seeking-moving the arm takes a decent bit of power, and it can cause a power overload if it does it while the drive is still spinning up(since spinning it up does take a fair bit, especially in 7200rpm+ drives).

5W isn't a lot of power to play with, and anything that chokes it can cause funny things to happen. I've found that on older drives, many drives will mount and work fine using just a simple USB cable, but others will spin up and not seek, or will only stay mounted reliably, if I use the pigtail cable. I'm talking in the case of drive enclosures that I put all kinds of different drives in...

 

[1 SX]

So happy it worked!

Bear in mind that even good cables have a finite life, and I've seen this behavior in ones that have been used a lot. The micro-USB-3.0 cables seem especially bad about it.

The random mounting/unmounting cycling behavior to me almost always points to a bad cable, though. It could have been a dodgy connection, or it could have been that the cable just wasn't up to passing the power needed. It may have had enough to spin up the drive(which actually doesn't take that much power to keep going once it's up to speed) but kicked out once the drive started seeking-moving the arm takes a decent bit of power, and it can cause a power overload if it does it while the drive is still spinning up(since spinning it up does take a fair bit, especially in 7200rpm+ drives).

5W isn't a lot of power to play with, and anything that chokes it can cause funny things to happen. I've found that on older drives, many drives will mount and work fine using just a simple USB cable, but others will spin up and not seek, or will only stay mounted reliably, if I use the pigtail cable. I'm talking in the case of drive enclosures that I put all kinds of different drives in...

Thank you for the very detailed response much appreciated.