Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

problem with externa hard drive - won't mount or erase

Dec 10, 2011 11:09PM PST

Mac Mini
Intel Core 2 Duo
OSX 10.6.8

Iomega Mini Max
750GB

I have been using the hard drive for Time Machine and to store some additional files. Lately it has not been working correctly and will unmount by itself and give me the error "the disk was not ejected properly..."

I have tried Disk Utillty to erase the disk and it fails with the following two error messages. "The disk was not ejected properly..." and "Disk erase failed...the operation couldn't be completed. No such file or directory".

I have tried Disk Warrior and it usually quits after getting the error message "The disk was not ejected properly..." when the drive unmounts itself.

I do not need to recover any files on the disk, I just want to be able to reformat it and hopefully be able to use it again.

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Answer
If there is any warranty left on this drive,
Dec 10, 2011 11:19PM PST

use it.

- Collapse -
one more question
Dec 11, 2011 7:44AM PST

Thanks for your help. I would like to keep the enclosure since it matches my mini and just replace the drive if possible. I have opened the enclosure and removed the drive. It is a Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 - is the USB/IDE/SATA interface in the circuit board attached to the drive? I think I could just mount a new drive and format it.

- Collapse -
Probably
Dec 11, 2011 10:20AM PST

Probably. If you're reusing someone else's enclosure there's no guarantees, but it SHOULD work.

- Collapse -
Answer
Every time
Dec 11, 2011 1:48AM PST

Every time I've run into an issue like this, it's a sign that the drive is going out. External drives are great for portability, but that same portability makes their lives quite a bit shorter on the average. So like suggested, if there's any kind of warranty left on the drive, now's the time to make a claim, otherwise I'd run, not walk, to the nearest electronics store. The channel supply of HDDs is starting to thin out, and prices are almost certain to start skyrocketing very soon. It will probably be a minimum of 6 months before this situation changes, with a very good possibility of it being longer. So get something while the getting is still reasonably good.