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Model A1312 / Mid 2011 / 2.7 & 3.1 GHz Core i5 or 3.4 GHz Core i7 Processor, ID iMac12,2

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New Seagate ST3000DM001 keeps 'ejecting'?

I successfully swapped out the original Seagate 1Tb drive in my 27" iMac for the above 3Tb drive (and a Samsung EVO 250Gb SSD) a week or so ago and everything went very smoothly.

Unfortunately I'm now getting an issue where the internal 3Tb Seagate will randomly 'eject' and I'm not able to mount it again without rebooting the machine from scratch.

It seems to happen if a large 'copy' process is initiated - i was trying to automatically recover my iTunes library by bringing all my files back to the drive from iTunes Match using 'Make Available Offline'...it gets so far and then stops/ejects :(

For info the machine is i7 3.4Ghz, 1Gb ATI G'Fx and 32Gb @ 4*8Gb (upgraded from the original 16Gb @ 4*4Gb)after the drive swap) of Kingston 10600 1333MHz CL9.

I'm not sure if the RAM as I didn't get the error in the intervening week ...but I also didn't try the iTunes download then either ??

I've just updated the Seagate Firmware to the latest but the error recurred just after so this update hasn't cured it..

Update

*Slightly Shameless Bump*

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

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What Seagate firmware?

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Hi Mayer,

The firmware has an ID of CC4H

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I think I've answered my own question... I've temporarily put the original drive back into the machine and that works as it did before so logically that proves the SATA Cable isn't broken or damaged?

Then I've put the new unresponsive 3tb drive into a USB/SATA caddy and although your hear it 'spin up' it doesn't 'mount' to the iMac desktop.

In my mind that means for what ever reason the new drive has prematurely failed...I've checked all connections and fans etc and everything's good so it's not a thermal failure induced by something not cooking it even though the shell was quite hot when it first came out...

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Well thats not good ;-(

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Not good but not catastrophic - new drive had nothing on it that wasn't backed up elsewhere and Amazon are delivering a replacement today.

I've even downgraded slightly and gone from a 3Tb standard drive to a 2Tb SSHD Hybrid.

Hopefully no more issues....thanks for input

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New drive arrived at 17:30 and it's already in the machine, formatted and working properly...just slightly apprehensive it'll eject and start playing up again but so far so good :)

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I had the same problem. Second replacement Seagate 3 TB external drive is ejecting again after only 2 weeks :(

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I would double check the systems firmware. Review this Apple T/N: About EFI and SMC firmware updates for Intel-based Mac computers. Apple enabled SATA III (6.0 Gb/s) in the newer releases. The orginal firmware has SATA II (3.0 Gb/s) enabled which could explain why you are bombing moving a large number of files or a small group of very large files as the interface is mis-matched.

The other possibly would be the SATA cable is bad.

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Thanks Dan,

I've seen that article and on the face of it, it seems my iMac has had the necessary EFI/SMC update to be unlocked?

Here is my system report extract

Model Name: iMac

Model Identifier: iMac12,2

Processor Name: Intel Core i7

Processor Speed: 3.4 GHz

Number of Processors: 1

Total Number of Cores: 4

L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

L3 Cache: 8 MB

Memory: 32 GB

Boot ROM Version: IM121.0047.B21

SMC Version (system): 1.72f2

Serial Number (system): DGKxxxxxxxJW

Hardware UUID: 17865325-B27D-5C4D-80C2-F24CF004A03D

I'm beginning to suspect a bad SATA lead as the drive isn't even mounting now after reboot...are they really that fragile because I was very gentle when I did the swap out...looks like I'm opening the machine again this weekend

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...Also is there a specific type of SATA lead I need to avoid 'Fan related issues or are they generic 'all-pins enabled'

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Unlike the older iMac's you often need to use a special cable made by OWC as most HD's don't support the newer SMART set. Here's the needed cable: OWC In-line Digital Thermal Sensor for iMac 2011 Hard Drive Upgrade. You still need the Apple HD Data Cable P/N: 992-9851

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Hi Dan,

That cable looks completely different to the one in my machine?

The 'drive end' of my cable has 2 separate connector - I assume power and data and there's no little fly lead for the thermal sensor as temp info is provided by the drive itself...it's the reason I picked another Seagate drive so there were no incompatibility issues...?

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Yes! its a converter it goes inline of the current power cable.

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rpelec1 will be eternally grateful.
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