External USB SSD Drive Won't Unmount

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Level 2

170 points

External USB SSD Drive Won't Unmount

I have multiple external USB drives for backup purposes. Most are conventional spinning disk drives, and two are Samsung 2GB SSD drives.

I have all my design projects on one of these SSD drives - tons of data. The drive works fine and I wouldn't part with it, but it absolutely won't unmount when I try. I end up shutting down and unplugging it. Force Eject doesn't work, either.

Why is this one SSD drive so stubborn? All of my other drives unmount, no problem.

Thanks!

Mac Pro

Posted on Aug 26, 2022 10:15 AM

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Answer 1

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Tom Hanser Author

Level 2

170 points

Aug 27, 2022 8:29 AM in response to a brody

Thanks for your comments, a brody.

I fixed the problematic SSD drive by backing everything up, formatting the drive, and copying the contents back to it.

It now unmounts with no problem.

Something was wonky with that drive and formatting it fixed it.

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Answer 2

a brody

Level 10

83,959 points

Aug 26, 2022 3:59 PM in response to Tom Hanser

Background applications may try to hijack the connection. The Activity Monitor Application in Applications -> Utilities can reveal what else may be running that needs access to data. Automatic anti-virus and backup software will not let go until their automatic settings are turned off.

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External USB SSD Drive Won't Unmount

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