Ejections of the time maschine

[denetoet]

Hello Helpers,

I coupled my Time machine (a disk I use already a since long ago) to my newly bought MacBook Air .
Normally it works fine, but when I leave my laptop for some time it shows al 10 to 12 alerts saying 'Disk not ejected properly'. I have the impression it happens when the MBAir goes to the 'sleep state' What could I do?

Dirk

 

[TonyAguila]

Hello Helpers,

I coupled my Time machine (a disk I use already a since long ago) to my newly bought MacBook Air .
Normally it works fine, but when I leave my laptop for some time it shows al 10 to 12 alerts saying 'Disk not ejected properly'. I have the impression it happens when the MBAir goes to the 'sleep state' What could I do?

Dirk

Very interesting. I myself experienced this twice, maybe three times, since I changed over to a Mac Studio. This has not happened to me in years, but now it seems to be persistent.

I assume your new MBA has the M1 and running Monterey. Is your Time Machine device a hard drive or SSD? Do you have data on it that you cannot afford to lose? I ask because I would suggest reformatting the drive as APFS and starting a new backup.

I have two Time Machine 8-TB hard drives in tandem, so I can afford to erase one while repairing the second one. It’s also interesting that the ejected drive was always the second one, never the first. I am planning to reformat it when I have the time.

My hard drives are in a powered Thunderbolt 3 enclosure, and connected to a UPS, so it’s hard to imagine that the ejection was random, or from a power interruption or surge. If I were you, I would consider reformatting the Time Machine drive, but only if you have an alternate unit to do a second backup first.

Who knows? Maybe it’s a bug in macOS Monterey. If this happens again, I recommend sending a report to Apple using the Feedback Assistant app.

 

[Nurgle2024]

it is an externally powered time machine disk... if so swap over to a different power adapter. I hav Thi song my external time machine disk, the it would give me "not properly ejected" warnings. changed ofer to a new power adapter and all is now OK.

regards, Sandy

 

[denetoet]

Hello Tony and Nurgle2024

Thanks for your messages. To answer your questions:
Yes, my new MBA has the M1 and is running Monterey.
My Time Machine device is a hard drive, a Seagate 1TB, I am using it already for years. It behaved well, and continues to make Backups regularly. I moreover initially used the TM to set up my new MBA. In fact I use 2 TM's, the 2nd one I connect only once a week.

The 'Disk Not Ejected Properly'-problem might be caused by a speed issue, is the disk too slow for this MBA M1?
But then powering may also be a point like Nurgle2024 remarks. My TM is connecred to a Sitecom hub which is connected to the MBA via an USB-C. Maybe this setup does not deliver enough power to the TM?

cheers, Dirk

 

[Nurgle2024]

I speed I doubt would not be an issue, even if the computer is faster than the disk. with cache's and buffering, is would just mean slower write time. yes a faster computer can lead to slower write time, but should not be much of an issue, these days.

is the hub powered or getting its power from the computer..?. (I have noticed my usbC to usb3.1 Hubs, drawing power form the computer are getting hot when I used Usb 2 thumb drive to same tube videos too)

are the cables top notch or cheapies. ?. some cables ill limit the speed of the data being transferred, irrespective of the hub or disk..)

try connecting the disk directly to the computer.. I have not had time to set up my time machine used with my old iMac on my new iMac, on my old iMac it was a few problems problem of intermittent egection, but that I finally traced to a faulty power adapter, and going through various combinations. Do Segate have a support section.? as a few drive makers have downloadable Mac diagnostic programs

But I will soon have to connect my old time machine, set up under High Sierra, to run with the new iMac M1, under Monterey, and I have already found problems... Time Machine is not perfecto edit is very basic, but I don't know of any better more complex system other than a weekly Carbon Copy disk write.. anyone one with knowledge of such please add their thoughts here.. one could spend a life of downloading such things fro the App Store, only to find their are a load of @#$%^&... searching for pearls these days I becoming very very hard.

so the saga for me will continue soon. (I have over 24 Hard drives because half of them a copys of the other half. Latest main poster files drive is 10TB, and it is April and almost retouched 5Tb of files so far this year alone. Poster Retoucher, hobby business)

what format is the hard drive, and have you run the first aid in Disk utility.??.. again basic questions...

also I don't know of the latest Monterey disk rescue utilities that also check disks etc... if anyone has experience with these, then please chime in.

regards, Sandy

(we all have a vested interest to help other members, and soon or later someone will find a solution to a problem that can help other, and occasionally some members with find work arounds for problems that have shown up under other OS's or programs.)

 

[TonyAguila]

This is what I consider to be the best source for Time Machine troubleshooting and knowledge issues:

Search Results for “time machine” – The Eclectic Light Company

Macs, painting, and more

eclecticlight.co

The web site is my primary go-to source of Mac-related information. He also has free utilities for monitoring and maintaining your Mac. The articles on art and paintings is a nice bonus.

 

[TonyAguila]

This “Disk not ejected properly” issue has come to a head for me today, and it’s all happening to one hard drive. After the same drive was ejected for the third time this morning, I decided it was time to look deeper. I ran DriveDx and sure enough, it showed the health and performance of one drive, my second Time Machine 8TB drive, is down to 50%. Fortunately I have two Time Machine drives at any time so I went ahead and reformatted the bad drive and then reassigned it to its previous place. DriveDx shows it now at 100% health and performance, and the first backup should be completed in a couple more hours.

The moral of the story is to pay heed to errors like this one. I was fortunate that it was not anything more serious. I did lose the backup history on this drive, but my alternate TM drive still has about a year’s worth of backups. That’s another thing to keep in mind.