Hard Drive randomly ejects itself

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Level 1

4 points

Hard Drive randomly ejects itself

I just got a new hard drive, the Seagate ST1000DM010, and out of nowhere the hard drive would randomly eject itself while writing files to it. When it randomly ejects, it gives me Finder error "100006" after it ejects (picture of error attached). I had tested the hard drive when it was still new on a Windows laptop by writing "zeros" over the entire disk before using it, and concluded no problems. I have other hard drives (different models) which do not have the same problem. It is also very random, I attached a picture below showing the disk's activity (using iStat Menus), and the sudden stops shows the times of the random disconnects. At first, I thought it was a problem with ExFAT so I decided to format it as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) but that didn't change anything. I'm thinking it is a software problem affecting this currently. Also, the reason it's writing at only 70 MB/s or less is because I have a slow source drive.

Posted on Aug 21, 2021 8:41 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

NightWest Author

Level 1

4 points

Aug 21, 2021 11:27 PM in response to Eau Rouge

Yes, the MacBook Air was connected to a charger.

Yes, I used the exact same setup but with a different computer.

I have other drives but can’t replicate the problem with them.

I will try your advice on safe mode and see if it’ll fix it.

My apologies on pressing the solved button. This is still not solved.

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Answer 2

Eau Rouge

Level 8

42,602 points

Aug 21, 2021 11:20 PM in response to NightWest

Is the MBA connected to the mains.

When you connected the drive to the MacBook Pro 2016 were you still using the

SATA to USB 3 adaptor and the USB A to USB C adaptor.

Do you have any other drives that you can replicate the same connection with the same adaptors.

Have you tried booting the mac up in Safe Mode this will run disk repairs

and flush out caches.

How to use safe mode on your Mac – Apple Support (UK)

After running in Safe mode restart the mac normally

reconnect the drive and see if the problem occurs again.

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Answer 3

NightWest Author

Level 1

4 points

Aug 29, 2021 1:29 AM in response to Eau Rouge

Sorry for the late reply. My MBA has around 100GB free on the 256GB SSD. I still don't think it is the internal drive's problem since the problem also occurs when copying from other sources, like another external drive.

Report

Sure thing, I attached the report. My hard drive was not connected while running the test. If you'd like me to run another report with the hard drive attached, just tell me to do so.

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Answer 4

Eau Rouge

Level 8

42,602 points

Aug 22, 2021 12:03 AM in response to NightWest

How much free space does your MBA have.

Download and run this app to check the health of your MBA internal drive,

https://binaryfruit.com/drivedx there is a free trial period.

It may be worthwhile downloading and running this app

https://etrecheck.comjust just download the free version.

This will generate a report on your mac which you can then paste into

a reply here using the Additional Text button third from the right of

the icons in the toolbar at the bottom of a Reply window here.

No personal information is included in the report.

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Answer 5

Eau Rouge

Level 8

42,602 points

Aug 21, 2021 10:46 PM in response to NightWest

Is the drive connected directly to your mac or are you using a hub.

Have you tried different cables between the mac and the drive.

When you set up the drive did you install any manufacturer software,

this often interferes with the macs own management of the drive it is

not recommended to install any manufacturer software.

When you first set up the drive how did you format it?

Open Disk Utility, click View in the menubar and select Show All Devices.

Highlight the Disk (not any indented Volumes) the Disk will be called

Samsung ST1000.......

Click Erase.

Format: Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

Scheme: GUID Partition Map.

Click Erase.

When Done quit Disk Utility.

If your Samsung drive is an SSD, format it as APFS.

If you are going to use this drive between macs and windows machines then

Format: exFAT.

Scheme: Master Boot Record.

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Answer 6

NightWest Author

Level 1

4 points

Aug 21, 2021 10:58 PM in response to Eau Rouge

The drive is connected using a SATA to USB 3 adapter which goes through an Apple USB A to USB C adaptor.

No, have not tried different cables since I only have one of either adapters.

I did not use any third party software to setup the drive. I used disk utility.

I formatted the drive the way you specified by showing all devices and erasing it from the “drive’s” level.

I have tried the drive on a different Mac, the MacBook Pro 2016 to be specific. I did the same file transfer using that Mac and it DID NOT have the same problem that I am having on my MacBook Air 2020 (Intel). It worked like usual and did not disconnect at all. This means that it is not the drive’s problem, and might not be a hardware problem either. I also searched around about this and some people say that reinstalling macOS would help, which I can’t do right now.